Research Coordinator: Dr. Akim Omokanye
Location: Fairview Research Farm, RR#35 MD of Fairview
From: Peace Country Beef & Forage Association 2014 Annual Report
Mixing pulse (such as field peas) with a cereal for forage is being commonly done by some producers to improve forage quality, with a possible boost in yield. Peas and oats, barley or triticale are some of the common types of intercropping. Pea/cereal mixtures can produce better quality silage than cereals alone. Pea silage could be 13-18% protein so theoretically a pea/cereal mix should have higher protein than a cereal silage alone which is usually about 10% protein. The success of these mixtures is highly dependent on the seeding rates for both crops and making sure that there are enough peas in the mixture to influence feed quality. Legumes don’t need nitrogen (N) fertilizer and have higher forage protein content than cereals. Seeding mixtures of peas and cereals may reduce land, inputs and labour costs per unit of forage production, which will improve beef production efficiency and contribution margin. The trial is part of the Regional Silage Variety Trials.
Objectives
To compare the mixtures of forage peas with barley, oat and triticale for forage yield and quality
To communicate findings to beef cattle producers in the Peace region and to other parts of Alberta through the RSVTs.
The results across the province will be reported in the Alberta Seed Guide (www.seed.ab.ca).
Methods
The trial was conducted at Fairview Research Farm (NW5-82-3W6) on RR #35,