Funded by the Canadian Agricultural Partnership
(Government of Canada and Government of Alberta)
In the Peace Region, the traditional annual forage crops, which are largely utilized as stored feed (greenfeed, silage, baleage, etc.) and for swath grazing are oats and barley. Interest has been growing on cropping options which can considerably reduce the daily feed cost of beef cattle during the fall and winter months. The use of ‘alternative’ or ‘high nutritive value forages’ such as chicory, plantains, forage beet and kale in the rations of beef cattle could procure many environmental, economic and production benefits to Alberta producers. Research carried out on these alternate forage-type crops in other areas have shown these benefits. Continued research efforts are needed to test these alternative forages under Peace Region conditions to determine their adaptability, suitability, and benefits. The objective of this trial was to determine the forage yield and forage quality of different alternative forage species while comparing this to traditionally grown forages such as barley and oats.
Methods
The study was carried out at the Fairview Research Farm (NW-5-82-W6M) in RR #35, MD of Fairview.
Experimental design was a randomized complete block design with 4 replications using warm and cool season grasses, brassicas and forbs as provided below.
Warm season grasses
Japanese Millet 20 lb/ac
White Proso Millet 25 lb/ac
NSB Sorghum Sudan grass 22 lb/ac
Pearl Millet 15 lb/ac
Cool season cereals
AB Tofield Barley 2.7 bu/ac
Bunker Triticale 2.7 bu/ac
CDC Baler Oats 3.7 bu/ac
Brassicas
Finito Rape 10 lbs/ac
Forage brassica Vivant 5 lb/ac
Forage Collards 5 lb/ac
Forage kale- Inka 5 lb/ac
Forage radish- Daikon 5 lb/ac
Hercules Forage Turnip 10 lb/ac
Forbs
Plantain 8 lb/ac
Phacelia 8 lb/ac
Chicory 5 lb/ac
Legume
Chickling vetch 70 lb/ac
What we found out
Forage DM yield ranged from 206 to 5,552 lbs/acre with the traditional cool season forage crops outyielding the other 3 main groups (Table 8). Forbs and brassicas produced generally lower DM forage yields with chicory, plantains, forage collards and forage kale-inka. Among the brassicas, forage radish-Daikon yielded the highest (3,170 lbs/acre). The warm season annual grasses produced moderate yields to that obtained from traditionally grown cool season forage crops. White Proso Millet yielded highest with almost 4,000 lbs/acre of forage DM.
For crude protein content, the brassicas came in first position with relatively high value (>22% CP), while the cool season grasses were the lowest in CP (7.3 to 11.0% CP).
The total digestible nutrient (TDN) values were generally high, averaging > 64% TDN.
Calcium ranged from 0.3 to 3.5% with brassicas having relatively high calcium levels.
Phosphorus ranged from 0.1 to 0.3% with brassicas registering consistently high P values.
Ranges for Potassium: 1.0 to 3.5%.
Magnesium (0.25 to 0.74) were obtained with brassicas again showing consistently high P values.
Copper values were mostly < 10 ppm while manganese ranged from 79 to 398 ppm.
Implications of what we found out
Except for the Forage Radish Daikon which yielded above 3,000 lbs/acre, the brassicas and forbs tested were all low forage yielders having all produced less than 3,000 lbs/acre. White Proso millet and Forage Radish Daikon can be considered as alternatives in terms of yields to oats and barley, the latter being used traditionally as forage crops.
But for CDC Baler oats and Bunker Triticale which can meet protein requirements of mostly gestating cattle in mid-term, most of the other forages tested (such as the brassicas) will meet and even surpass the protein requirements of growing and finishing calves. The brassicas can indeed be considered as protein supplements with very high protein contents. Most of the tested forages here will meet protein requirements of late gestating cattle. The brassicas with their high protein contents can be included as very excellent protein supplements to beef cattle diets.
The relatively high energy values obtained from these tested forages imply that mid-term pregnant cows on these tested forages will not need energy supplementation. Some of the forages could well serve as energy supplements having yielded almost 65% or more in energy.
The forbs and brassicas were on average higher in Ca content compared to the warm and cool season annual grasses which will need some mineral supplementation to meet nutritional requirements of mostly growing/finishing calves. Levels of phosphorus in the forages were borderline to the nutritional requirements for most beef cattle stock while potassium, magnesium and manganese levels were generally adequate. For copper, only the forbs seem to have enough (> 10 ppm) of this nutrient to meet the requirements of beef cattle stock while the other forages fell short of the requirements as is common with most forages grown in the Peace Region.
Conclusions
Results obtained here indicate that brassicas and forbs do not produce high forage DM yields compared to traditional forage barley and oats but together with warm season grasses, could serve as protein supplements to the low protein values of traditional forages. Alternative forages compared well to the traditional forage options in terms of energy. Brassicas are a rich source of calcium. Cattle on most of the forages will need copper supplementation.
Comments