Funded by the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Government of Canada and Government of Alberta)
The selection of a suitable site and an appropriate choice of crop type for the livestock intended to utilize it is crucial. Intercropping winter cereals with spring cereals may enhance forage quality and provide additional forage that can extend fall grazing. The combination of spring and winter cereals could provide an ideal yield distribution throughout the growing/grazing season. Breeding efforts in winter cereals have led to the improvement of multiple traits to maintain and improve western Canadian winter cereal productivity, enabling extension of the growing season. Understanding the regional adaptability of these new varieties in a mixture is critical for Alberta producers to make the most economic decisions for their feeding operations. This trial evaluated forage yield and quality, winter/spring cereal mixtures and monoculture cereal varieties, selected based on producer and industry input from varieties widely available in Alberta.
What we did
The study was carried out at PCBFA’s Fairview Research Farm located on RR#35, MD of Fairview in 2022. Before seeding, the site was tilled with a plot cultivator followed by harrowing.
Experimental design and treatments: A randomized complete block design was used in four replications in small plots measuring 8 m by 1.14 m. The following 9 spring winter cereal mixtures and 3 spring cereal monocultures were tested in the trial:
Prima fall rye + CDC Austenson barley
Prima fall rye + CDC Baler oats
Prima fall rye + Taza triticale (spring type)
Bobcat triticale + CDC Austenson barley
Bobcat triticale + CDC Baler oats
Bobcat triticale + Taza triticale (spring type)
AAC Wildfire winter wheat + CDC Austenson barley
AAC Wildfire winter wheat + CDC Baler oats
AAC Wildfire winter wheat + Taza Triticale (spring type)
Taza triticale (spring type)
CDC Baler oats
CDC Austenson barley
Seeding
Seed was treated with Vibrance Quattro cereal seed treatment before seeding.
Target seeding rates were 75% for each of the cereal crops in the mixture. The 75% was based on:
300 plants/m2 (28 plants/ft2) for oats
370 plants/m2 (34 plants/ft2) for spring triticale and winter wheat
250 plants/m2 (23 plants/ft2) for fall rye
The target seeding rate calculation for small plots was based on 1,000 kernel weight, germination, plot area and 5% mortality rate.
Seeding was done on May 27, 2022 with a 6-row Fabro plot drill equipped with disc-type openers on 23 cm row spacing. The seeding depth was 0.75". The soil temperature at seeding was 11.7 °C.
Fertility
Soil test results from 0-6" before seeding were used to determine fertilizer rates for N, P, K and S. The desired nutrients applied consisted of 72 lbs/acre N, 35 lbs/acre P, 27 lbs/acre K, and 13 lbs/acre S.
Spraying
A pre-emergent spray application was carried out with StartUp® herbicide.
In-crop spraying was with Prestige XL at 0.81 L/acre as early as when the plants were at 4 to 5-leaf stage.
Harvest
Plots were harvested based on crop development and this was when most of the spring cereals were in the appropriate growth stage for silage:
Late milk stage for oats and oats monocrops
Soft dough stage for mixtures with barley and barley monocrop
Late milk stage for mixtures with spring triticale and spring triticale monocrop
The three middle rows were harvested using a plot-type forage harvester between August 8th and 16th. Forage samples for each treatment were sent to A & L Lab in Ontario for quality analysis.
Results Obtained and Implications
Forage Dry Matter Yield
From Table 6, forage dry matter yield (DMY) between treatments varied between 5,056 to 7,588 lbs/acre. The spring/winter mixtures showed no yield advantage over the monoculture spring cereals and consistently under yielded compared to their respective controls. Amongst the spring/winter cereal mixtures, those with Taza triticale yielded higher than mixtures having CDC Baler oats and CDC Austenson barley. The results from this study showed that spring/winter cereals mixtures would be described as high yielding having all produced more than 5,000 lbs/acre of forage DMY even though they did not provide any forage yield advantage over their respective monocrops.
Crude Protein and Energy
The forage crude protein (CP) ranged between 7.4 to 10.3% with mixtures containing CDC Austenson barley having slightly higher CP compared to the other mixtures. Relatively high energy (TDN) values were obtained with a range of 66 to 73% TDN with higher values for mixtures containing CDC Austenson barley compared to the other spring cereals.
In general, the protein and energy requirements of dry gestating beef cows were met by the tested spring cereal mixtures. The relatively higher protein and energy values obtained for mixtures with CDC Austenson barley make this spring cereal a good candidate to be included in mixtures with winter cereals while higher yields for Taza triticale for mixtures aiming at higher forage CP and TDN yields/acre.
Macro-minerals
For macro minerals, a range of 0.2 to 0.3% (Ca), 0.13 to 0.21% (P), 1.1 to 1.9% (K), 0.16 to 0.25% (Mg) were measured. The relatively low Ca and P ranges measured in spring/wheat mixtures which meet only the requirements for dry gestating cows imply that for growing and finishing cows as well as for lactating cows, mineral supplementation would have to be done.
L: Prima Fall Rye/Taza Triticale mixture
R: Prima fall rye monoculture
Conclusions
Overall, the mixtures did not clearly provide a forage yield advantage over their respective monocrops. But the advantage of mixing winter and spring cereals together would be the potential of winter cereals to re-grow for fall grazing after an initial harvest (greenfeed and silage) in the summer of the main cereal crop in a spring/winter cereal mixture. The re-growth can provide a good amount of forage for extending the grazing season without any extra inputs in carrying the winter cereals from summer through early fall for fall grazing.
Opmerkingen