This has been the season of extremes. First, we had very little rain, then it has not stopped raining. In some areas, it has rained all summer, and the corn is 1 – 4 feet high and very uneven. Interestingly, in the wet areas, especially with heavy soils, driving down the road at 55 mph I could look at a field and know if it was planted into winter forage triticale stubble, or into typical bare soil over winter. The field planted with typical bare all winter and spring tilled was a mess. Rows started 1 foot tall and as we went down the row, they got taller and tasseling, then continued to drop to 1 foot tall and had nothing growing in the wet spots. Directly across the road, the corn no-till planted in triticale stubble was tall, uniformly growing, and tasseling. With winter forage, in addition to providing 3.5 – 4 tons of dry matter with more milk-producing ability than corn silage, the improved soil health and no-till planting into the massive root system of the stubble allowed the corn to survive and grow in marginal weather conditions. You can gain yield in crops if they follow winter triticale forage. Planted in sequence with corn silage the total yield from that acre is boosted 25-35% when you count the triticale.
