牧草

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 牧草 combines 牧, raising livestock, with 草, grass, and is read ぼくそう.
• Basic usage: It denotes grass grown, cut, or used as feed for cattle and other livestock.
  • In 刈り取った牧草を納屋で乾かします。, cut forage is dried; in 牛たちは広い畑で牧草を食べていました。, cattle eat the pasture grass.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Stage of processing
  • 刈り取った牧草 is grass that has already been cut, and 納屋で乾かす describes the next step of drying it in a barn.
• 牧草 and 草
  • 草(くさ) means grass broadly, while 牧草 focuses on grass intended for feeding livestock.
• 牧草 and 飼料
  • 飼料(しりょう) covers animal feed generally. 牧草 is the grass or forage portion of that broader category, so their ranges are not identical.