Project Site: Mack Erno's Farm - Teepee Creek
Research Program Manager: Dr. Akim Omokanye From: Peace Country Beef & Forage Association 2018 Annual Report
Cereal crops can successfully be used as a source of forage for livestock. In the Peace Country, the most common cereals used for forage are oats and barley, and to some extent, spring triticale. Both barley and oats are used for green feed, silage, or swath grazing in monocultures and mixed stands. Cereal varieties that yield well for grain and straw should also produce acceptable forage yields. Stage of maturity at harvest is the most important determining factor for the yield and quality of a cereal crop when used as forage. For instance, late milk stage has been recommended for oats, and soft dough stage for barley for greenfeed or silage. The present report looks at several varieties of barley and oats in comparison to some potential alternative forage-type crops such as proso millet and soft white wheat.
Methods
The study site was at Mack Erno’s farm in Teepee Creek. The site had canola the year before and it was sprayed with a pre-seed burnoff with Express + Roundup before seeding in 2018. Soil tests from 0-6” showed an organic matter of 5.2%, a pH of 5.5, and an electrical conductivity of 0.37 dS/m. The soil had 73 lbs N/acre, 29 lbs P/ac, 398 lbs K/ac and 25 lbs S/ac.
We used a randomized complete block design with 4 replicates to test the following 12 crops:
1. CDC Maverick barley - seeded at 300 plants/m2 (27.8 plants/ft2)
2. CDC Austenson barley - seeded at 300 plants/m2 (27.8 plants/ft2)
3. CDC Haymaker oats - seeded at 300 plants/m2 (27.8 plants/ft2)
4. Oravena oats (an organic milling oat) - seeded at 300 plants/m2 (27.8 plants/ft2)
5. CDC SO-I oats - seeded at 300 plants/m2 (27.8 plants/ft2)
6. CDC Seabiscuit oats (an organic milling oat) - seeded at 300 plants/m2 (27.8 plants/ft2)
7. Bunker triticale - seeded at 370 plants/m2 (34.3 plants/ft2)
8. White proso millet - seeded at 25 lbs/acre
9. AC Andrew soft white wheat - seeded at 370 plants/m2 (34.3 plants/ft2)
10. AAC Jatharia VB soft white wheat - seeded at 370 plants/m2 (34.3 plants/ft2)
11. Prima fall rye - seeded at 75 lbs/acre