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).
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.
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.
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 |
Sampling |
CP |
aNDF |
aNDFom |
TDN_OARDC |
|
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.
Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Integrated Crop Management News, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required. This article was originally published on March 18, 2022. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed.
- Field Agronomist in EC/SE Iowa