A new cash crop?

[DerkMR]

https://ph.news.yahoo.com/thai-farmer-makes-big-money-growing-super-napier-171442141.html

Bye,

Derk

[David48]

Just to put some meat on the bones of the OP ... thanks Derk.

In Thailand, one farmer is making big money everyday because he immediately recognized the profit potential in growing a new grass that we now call Super Napier.

The fellow is 58-year-old Norachong Deepraman whom we met during our familiarization trip on dairy farming in Thailand last May 27-31. Would you believe that this farmer is now grossing 30,000 baht everyday from his Super Napier plantation?

For one, the Super Napier is very fast growing. In the plantation of Norachong that we visited, the 59-days old plants were already 10 feet tall. And the yield is amazing. In one rai (that's a common measurement of land in Thailand}, about 20 tons of fresh herbage can be produced in one cutting. That means one rai can produce 80 tons of grass in one year because four harvests can be made within that period.

One rai is a field that measures 40 meters by 40 meters or 1,600 square meters. Which means that one hectare consists of 6.25 rai. It also means that one hectare is capable of producing 500 tons in one year and that is enough to feed 50 dairy cows in one year. And that is the reason why the Super Napier is the talk of the town among dairy farmers in Thailand today.

From the article in the OP.

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[cdmtdm]

would this grass require constant water supply in the dry season ? irrigation ? any ideas on whats required to grow it .?... could this be a feed supply for cattle / pigs etc ?

[Michael Hare]

This is not a new grass. It has been around for several years now. In Thailand it is called Pakchong napier grass. The Department of Livestock Development (DLD) has and is heavily promoting Pakchong napier. It does not set any viable seed and therefore must be planted by stems.

FAO has also promoted this grass in neighbouring countries like Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines.

However, there are many problems with this grass.

1 It always must be planted by cuttings and therefore establishment is costly.

2 It will not tolerate grazing or trampling and therefore must be cut and carried to feed cows.

3 It is susceptible to leaf diseases.

4 It is not drought tolerant and not tolerant of wet soils (waterlogging) for any length of time.

5 With continuous cutting the crown rots and the new stems grow up outside the crown resulting in a sparse stand. Hence, even after only 3-4 years of establishment, new fields must be planted.

6 It is very true that it produces a vast amount of dry matter but if the stems are 10 feet tall, then these stems will be about 50-60 days of age and extremely fibrous. They must be chopped up before the cows can even eat them. The stems are only succulent when young-20-30 days of age. But at that age farmers here do not cut Pakchong napier. They want a huge bulk.

7 It is true that for a tropical grass it has good crude protein levels but again only at a young age.

8 It only grows well on those red soils around Pakchong which extent over to parts of Sisaket and Ubon provinces. On lighter, sandy, acid soils in northeast Thailand it will not grow well at all.

9 Because of the huge amount of forage produced it must be heavily fertilised with nitrogen fertiliser.

Pakchong napier grass is also been promoted by the biofuel industry in Thailand. That being so, you can understand that it is more similar to sugarcane than other succulent and leafy tropical forages in Thailand. And now the biofuel industry is finding it very hard to grow Pakchong napier in many parts of Thailand because of the poor soil conditions.

KIng grass in the USA is also used for biofuel (a similar cultivar to Pakchong napier).

http://www.viaspacegreenenergy.com/giant-king-grass.php

It is not a wonder grass at all but the government agencies would like you to think otherwise.

If I was a dairy farmer in Thailand I would not touch it at all. There are far better species available which are suitable for farmers in Thailand.

[ib1b4]

Thank you Michael; You have saved me a lot of time on research for this grass,

[kickstart]

Michael

Thank you for your post,alot of farmers here in lopburi are talking about Pakchong napier,is it any way related to napier Taiwan?I am growing some,I think, I got it from a local farmer ,who originall got it from a farm in Rachaburi,and he called it

naiper Green Honey,try to find it on googal no luck,which makes me think it is Naipier Taiwan

We use it for silage, on limited acreage it siuts us well,it has to be willlted ,24 hours seems enough, with a low dry matter, would make very wet silage,if not willted

Your comment number 5 is true,we have found after 4 years with our napier, yeild did drop,for the reason you said we had to replant,and a very wet rainy season did not help.

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[Michael Hare]

Michael

Thank you for your post,alot of farmers here in lopburi are talking about Pakchong napier,is it any way related to napier Taiwan?I am growing some,I think, I got it from a local farmer ,who originall got it from a farm in Rachaburi,and he called it

naiper Green Honey,try to find it on googal no luck,which makes me think it is Naipier Taiwan

We use it for silage, on limited acreage it siuts us well,it has to be willlted ,24 hours seems enough, with a low dry matter, would make very wet silage,if not willted

Your comment number 5 is true,we have found after 4 years with our napier, yeild did drop,for the reason you said we had to replant,and a very wet rainy season did not help.

.

It is not Napier Taiwan. Napier Taiwan I believe is a little smaller. These new hybrid napiers are being promoted widely in many countries. In Vietnam, common napier has been used for decades for beef and dairy cows. Farmers cut the stems when they are 60-70 days of age and put the stems through choppers before the cattle can eat them. The poor cows have to munch through this fibrous feed all day before it can be digested. The same goes in the Philippines; it is being promoted in Myanmar; is used in India; in Kenya and more recently being promoted in Ethiopia. Without chopping, the animals just can not digest napier at all except for young leaves. Napier grass has being grown in Queeensland Australia for decades and it has never been taken up for all the reasons I gave in my first post.

Yes, KIckstart it can be made into good silage as long as you put some addtives into the silage before closing the pit.

If you want a better grass than Pakchong napier I would recommend Mombasa guinea grass which is a fairly new grass for Thailand. Grows tall like napier grass but is very succulent, can be grown from seed (seed is available in Thailand) and is disease free. It is a bigger guinea grass than the Si Muang (Purple guinea) which is grown here, producing 20% more dry matter. And if you have a fairly dry area then plant Mulato II hybrid brachiaria, seed of which is also available.

[ooileaneng]

Hi Michael,

I am from Malaysia and I intend to start farming the Super Grass (PakChong1) or the Mombasa guinea grass on my 25 acres land.

Mind sharing some information which type of grass I should cultivate for commercial purposes like better yield and resistance to diseases?

2. Where can I buy the stems or seeds for this grass?

3. I would also like to visit some of the farms for better understanding on the planting and irrigation method used?

I can be contacted at my email: <<<< email removed as per forum rules, use PM function to contact >>>>

Thank you in advance.

Edited August 2, 2015 by metisdead
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