Fodder

Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food given to the animals (including plants cut and carried to them), rather than that which they forage for themselves (called forage). Fodder includes hay, straw, silage, compressed and pelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, and sprouted grains and legumes (such as bean sprouts, fresh malt, or spent malt). Most animal feed is from plants, but some manufacturers add ingredients to processed feeds that are of animal origin.

The worldwide animal feed trade produced 1.245 billion tons of compound feed in 2022 according to an estimate by the International Feed Industry Federation, with an annual growth rate of about 2%. The use of agricultural land to grow feed rather than human food can be controversial (see food vs. feed); some types of feed, such as corn (maize), can also serve as human food; those that cannot, such as grassland grass, may be grown on land that can be used for crops consumed by humans.

Common plants specifically grown for fodder

Alfalfa (lucerne)

Barley

Common duckweed

Birdsfoot trefoil

Brassica spp.

Kale

Rapeseed (canola)

Rutabaga (swede)

Turnip

Clover

Alsike clover

Red clover

Subterranean clover

White clover

Grass

Bermuda grass

Brome

False oat grass

Fescue

Heath grass

Meadow grasses (from naturally mixed grassland swards)

Orchard grass

Ryegrass

Timothy-grass

Corn (maize)

Millet

Oats

Sorghum

Soybeans

Trees (pollard tree shoots for "tree-hay")

Wheat

Types

Biochar for cattle

Bran

Conserved forage plants: hay and silage

Compound feed and premixes, often called pellets, nuts or (cattle) cake

Crop residues: stover, copra, straw, chaff, sugar beet waste

Fish meal

Freshly cut grass and other forage plants

Grass or lawn clipping waste

Green maize

Green sorghum

Horse gram

Leaves from certain species of trees

Meat and bone meal (now illegal in cattle and sheep feeds in many areas due to risk of BSE)

Molasses

Native green grass

Oilseed press cake (cottonseed, safflower, sunflower, soybean, peanut or groundnut)

Oligosaccharides

Processed insects (i.e. processed maggots)

Seaweed (including Asparagopsis taxiformis which is used mainly as a supplement to reduce methane emissions by up to 90%)

Seeds and grains, either whole or prepared by crushing, milling, etc.