In addition to the cost of buying breeding animals, the biggest expense is feed. In recent years, many farmers have begun to use idle land to grow their own pasture in order to save money, and many of them have chosen a kind of pasture called giant fungus grass to grow.
Because this grass species can be harvested for up to 15 years at a time, the yield per mu can reach 25 to 30 tons. Even if you don't plant livestock and sell the harvested pasture, the annual income per mu can be about 5,000 yuan.
Farmers harvest giant fungus grass
What is Giant Fungus? Why is the yield so high, and can it really make money to grow giant fungus grass?
The fungal grassland is produced in Africa and introduced to China in 1983, but the climatic conditions in Africa are very different from those in China, but because of the considerable yield, researchers decided to cultivate a fungal grass suitable for Chinese cultivation. After more than 20 years of research, Academician Lin Zhanxi, chief scientist of the National Engineering Research Center for Fungi and Grass, and his research team have finally cultivated grass species suitable for China's climatic and soil environment.
After the successful improvement and cultivation of giant fungus grass, it was tried in a large area in China and was successful. It has become a high-yielding high-quality fungus suitable for tropical, subtropical, temperate and artificial cultivation.
Academician Lin Zhanxi
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="23" > how productive is giant fungus grass? </h1>
After planting the budding giant fungus grass, the plant can soon grow the plant, plant for about 60 days, the plant can grow to 80 to 100 cm, then you can start the first harvest. After the first harvest, the stubble is left 10 to 15 cm, and then it can be harvested every 30 days, and it can be harvested 6 to 10 times a year. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the annual yield of giant fungus grass per mu can reach more than 25 tons. Experienced growers will add some livestock manure, or urea, to the field after each harvest, and water it, which can promote regeneration and play a yield increase effect, so the production capacity of giant fungus grassland with sufficient water and fertilizer reaches 30 tons per acre.
Moreover, the plants of giant fungus grass are very tall, and can exceed the height of an ordinary adult at any time, and can grow to more than 7 meters at the highest. The single stem of giant fungus grass is up to 3.5 cm thick, almost as thick as a small sugar cane. The stem is thick, its ability to resist strong winds is very strong, and the plant is not prone to lodging.
Giant fungus grass super tall plant
This grass grows branching below or near the ground, a condition called niè. In good condition, giant fungus can be tillered 3 to 4 times to form 15 effective tillers. After about 8 months of planting, a single plant can grow 35 leaves, which has a strong reproductive ability.
On top of that, giant fungus is a four-carbon plant that absorbs carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and synthesizes the four-carbon compounds malic acid or aspartic acid. Crops such as corn, sorghum, and sugarcane are all four-carbon plants. The photosynthesis efficiency of four-carbon plants is high, the growth rate is very fast in summer, drought-tolerant and poor-tolerant, and can be planted on barren slopes, sandy lands, and saline-alkali lands. It rarely exhibits pests and diseases during its growth process, and even weeds are difficult to grow.
Giant fungus meadows
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > where is the quality of giant fungus grass? </h1>
Many farmers believe that giant fungus grass is the best quality forage feed.
First of all, giant fungus grass has the characteristics of nutrient-rich, green and juicy, the crude protein content of giant fungus grass is better than that of straw and corn stalk, the crude protein content of straw is only 3.5%, the crude protein content of corn stalk is only 4%, and the crude protein content of giant fungus grass is as high as 18.46%, the crude fiber content is 17.78%, and the crude fat content is 1.74%.
Secondly, giant fungus grass is rich in nutrients, good palatability, giant fungus grass contains sugar, sweet and delicious, digestion and absorption rate is extremely high, is a high-quality feed for herbivores.
Pigs, cattle, horses, sheep, geese, chickens, rabbits, fish and other herbivorous animals and herbivorous fish all prefer giant fungus grass. For example, an acre of giant fungus grass can raise 3 to 8 cattle, or 25 sheep, if used for pigs, the high protein of giant fungus grass can make pigs grow faster, which can reduce the cost of raising pigs by half.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="19" can > giant fungus grass really be planted for 15 years at a time? Can it be grown in the north? </h1>
One of the biggest characteristics of giant fungus grass is that it has a long service life, if properly managed, the temperature is not affected, and it can be continuously used for about 10 years in temperate areas, but if the soil fertilizer, temperature is appropriate, and the management is good, it can be harvested for 15 years. Giant fungus grass environmental adaptability is strong, although more suitable for high temperature and humid environment, more suitable for planting in the southern region of China, but giant fungus grass can also be planted in the north, and the yield is not low.
Harvest giant fungus grass
Giant fungus grass can be harvested normally in the southern winter, produced all year round, and will stop growing when the temperature is below 5 °C, and die below 0 °C. If you want to plant in the north, you need to cultivate grass seeds in the greenhouse in advance before the temperature drops to 5 ° C, and then transplant it outside when the winter has passed and the temperature is suitable, so as to ensure that the giant fungus grass can successfully overwinter in the north. Therefore, the giant fungus grass planted in the north needs to repeat the same steps every year to ensure that there is a pasture harvest in the warm season.
However, if it is planted in greenhouses all year round, it can give full play to the advantages of perennial and high yield of giant fungus grass, so that livestock can also eat fresh grass in winter, but the cost is higher.
Giant fungus grass overwinters in greenhouses
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" > has other roles besides being a forage grass</h1>
Improve the ecological environment
Giant fungus grass has a well-developed root system and can cover about 3 meters below the surface, so it is an excellent grass species for improving water and soil, and its ecological benefits are remarkable.
For example, in the Kashgar region of Xinjiang, 5,000 mu of giant fungus grass was introduced in 2019, and after planting the grass in September of the first year, it generally grew to about 2.5 meters in July of the following year, and reached a height of about 4 meters in early September. The natural environment in the southern Xinjiang region where Kashgar is located is harsh, the Dogobi, the desert, the degree of salinization is high, the water resources are scarce, and the cost and difficulty of planting large-scale artificial grasslands are high, which seriously restricts the development of animal husbandry. However, after planting giant fungus grass, it can not only obtain high-yield and high-quality pasture grass, support the development of animal husbandry, but also play a role in accelerating the restoration of the ecological environment and realizing the ecological virtuous cycle.
Giant fungus grass is grown in the desert
Do biofuel power generation
The power generation principle of giant fungus grass is basically the same as that of coal-fired power generation, and the heat generated after the combustion of giant fungus grass turns water into water vapor and uses water vapor to generate electricity. The calorific value of giant fungus grass is 3580 kcal/kg, which is particularly suitable for biomass boiler combustion. Moreover, the sulfur content of giant fungus grass is low, and it can also achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions, which is more environmentally friendly. One mu of giant fungus grass generates electricity equivalent to 4 tons of coal, making it the most economical and easily available material in biofuels.
Edible mushroom medium
Traditional mushroom production uses broad-leaved trees as raw materials, which consume a large amount of forest trees every year, and Fujian consumes 1 million cubic meters of wood to cultivate shiitake mushrooms every year. If giant fungus grass is used as a culture medium for edible mushrooms, and the cultivation of edible mushrooms is replaced by wood chips, the "contradiction between the fungal forest" can be alleviated. The conversion rate of fungal grass to the sun is 4 to 21 times that of broad-leaved trees, and 500 grams of grass can collect at least 300 grams of mushrooms. Giant fungus culture medium can cultivate 49 kinds of edible mushrooms and medicinal mushrooms, including shiitake mushrooms, mushrooms, reishi mushrooms, red pine mushrooms and so on.
Giant fungus grass base instead of wood chips base to cultivate edible mushrooms
Replace wood chips to make panels
Adult giant fungus grass has a high degree of lignification, long fibers, large tensile force, used to make plates, and the quality is higher than that of similar products. In 2021, China's demand for wood resources can reach about 800 million cubic meters, and replacing wood with fungal grass can solve the crisis of lack of wood resources.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5" >Exerder reading: What is the difference between giant fungus grass and elephant grass and imperial bamboo grass? </h1>
Elephant grass, imperial bamboo grass and giant fungus grass are very similar in appearance, and can also be used as forage grass. In fact, the three grasses belong to the same genus of angiosperm phylum single-leaf plants in the family Phylloscopus, and all belong to the genus Wolftail in the family Poaceae, all of which belong to the large herbaceous plants that are erect overgrown. These three kinds of grasses are introduced from abroad, elephant grassland is produced in Africa, in Jiangxi, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places widely introduced and cultivated; Huangzhu grassland is produced in Colombia, in 1993 by Sichuan Province introduced planting, promoted to more than 10 provinces and regions across the country.
The biggest difference between giant fungus and these two grasses is that it is a high-quality variety that has been improved by plants introduced from Africa.
Imperial bamboo grass
Elephant grass
In general, giant fungus grass is widely used, high yield and good quality, which can help farmers save costs, and also allow wasteland in many areas to be reused, driving the local forage planting industry and bringing an additional income to many farmers.
However, although the cultivation of giant fungus grass is good, it also needs to be systematically learned and planted knowledge, and it is well managed to make money by relying on this, and some projects on the market that invest in giant fungus grass to make money need to be vigilant. If you want to plant and sell, you also need to combine your own actual situation to consider comprehensively, find good seedlings, open up sales channels, if you do not do breeding, once no one buys grass, it is also a waste of time.