Looking for some additional forage this spring? Consider spring-seeded annual forages

March 18, 2022 11:49 AM
Blog Post

Small grains, like oats, seeded in the spring can be another forage source for livestock producers. While using small grains, like oats, as a forage source is not something new, there is very limited data available on potential forage yield or nutritional quality.

To help provide some data, ISU Extension and Outreach partnered with Amana Farms in the spring of 2021 for a spring-seeded annual forage variety trial.

This forage variety trial included ten different spring cereal grains seeded with or without forage peas (Table 1). Species were selected based on their forage production potential.

Table 1. Variety, Vender and Seeding Rate.

Forage Variety

Vendor

Actual seeding Rate/ac

Goliath Oats

Welter Seed & Honey

105

Dual Threat Oats

Millborn Seed

100

Deon Oats

Welter Seed & Honey

117

Everleaf Oats

Millborn Seed

85

Spring Triticale VNS

Welter Seed & Honey

100

Forage Barley (Hays)

Millborn Seed

115

Pea/Triticale

Welter Seed & Honey

100

Pea/Barley (60% pea, 40% barley)

Millborn Seed

105

Pea/Morton Oats (45% pea, 55% oats)

Welter Seed & Honey

118

Pea/Goliath Oats (60% pea , 40% oats)

Millborn Seed

130

Following a tillage pass with a Kinze MachTill high speed disk, the forage variety plots were drilled using a 15’ grain drill into a corn residue field at the Amana Farms on April 2, 2021 All plots were rolled on April 6, and nitrogen was applied on April 14 at a rate of 60 lb N/acre using urea (46-0-0).


Drilling the annual forage variety trial on April 2, 20221. Photo courtesy of Denise Schwab. 

The extremely dry conditions in 2021 meant that the forages were slow to emerge and grow. After a few light showers they did finally take off; however, harvest was pushed back by at least 2-3 weeks compared to what was expected.


Photo taken on May 3, 2021 of the annual forage variety trial with Amana Farms. Photo courtesy of Denise Schwab. 


Photo taken on June 2, 2021 of the annual forage variety trial with Amana Farms. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Vittetoe.

Since the plots were to be chopped for silage, harvest was targeted when the small grains were near the late milk to early dough stage. Plots were mowed and forage quality samples were collected on June 11, 2021. Plots were chopped on June 12, following about a 24-hour wilt. Each treatment was weighed over the truck scale at the Amana feedlot and forage samples were collected to determine dry matter.


Chopping the Amana forage variety trial on June 12, 2021. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Vittetoe.

Dry matter forage yield ranged from 1.2 tons/acre to 2.31 tons/acre. Crude protein ranged from 9.6 to 12.7% on a dry matter basis (Table 2). The addition of peas in the seeding mix appears to have increased the CP level slightly but not as much as anticipated.

Table 2. Yield and Quality Results.

Variety

Harvest DM

Yield
ton/ac

Sampling
DM

CP
%DM

aNDF
% DM

aNDFom
% DM

TDN_OARDC
% DM

Goliath oats

39.3

2.31

16.1

11

55.7

54.6

59.0

Dual threat oats

24.1

1.42

15.9

11.5

54.6

52.7

60.4

Deon oats

29.3

1.51

17.6

11.5

55.7

54.3

58.9

Everleaf oats

35.0

1.79

15.8

12.6

51.3

49.0

59.7

Spring triticale VNS

50.8

2.18

22.7

11.6

58.2

56.7

59.5

Forage barley (Hays)

35.7

2.14

23.1

9.6

57.4

55.3

60.0

Peas/triticale

57.6

1.83

22.2

11.9

53.1

52.1

62.3

Peas/barley

29.9

1.20

20.4

11.2

51.5

50.4

63.1

Peas/ Morton oats

27.3

1.63

20.8

10.0

48.2

46.9

63.2

Peas/Goliath oats

26.7

1.40

17.9

12.7

47.8

46.1

63.4

In summary, spring seeded cereal grains can provide 1.5 to 2 tons of dry matter forage in the spring prior to planting a bean crop when forage is needed. It could also be followed by a summer annual forage crop to produce additional forage feed.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Iowa Beef Center mini-grant and Amana Farms for funding this project and for Amana Farms for their help with this project.

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Authors: 

Rebecca Vittetoe Field Agronomist in EC Iowa

Rebecca Vittetoe is an extension field agronomist in east central Iowa. Educational programs are available for farmers, agribusiness, pesticide applicators, and certified crop advisors.

Areas of expertise include agronomy, field crop production and management of corn, soybeans, and...