Tom

The crazy winter has moved into a crazy spring.  Here in Tennessee, we have bounced between 85°F and 25°F in just a couple of days.  Our triticale is well past quality and was harvested a couple of weeks ago. The bursts of warm days really rushed it through.  North of the Mason-Dixon line (Pennsylvania’s southern border), it is quickly moving past the optimum of stage 9 (flag leaf).   Further north in New York, New England, and the upper Midwest ( Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota) and southern Canada, the triticale and rye is still well behind due to the cold weather

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The winter was very different from others (aren’t they all??) with considerable cold and extensive snow in many areas.  For many of the winter days, we were colder here in Tennessee than our friends in New York.  The winter forage on a wide area had to struggle.  Our research at Spring Hill (harvested Thursday) was estimated at 2/3 of the very high yield we had at Knoxville last year. Watch your crop closely as the warm spells and the much above average temperatures forecasted for the next two weeks can rapidly drive it past the optimum quality harvest stage before you realize it.  You need to be ready to harvest BEFORE the crop is ready!  You need to apply an inoculant to preserve that quality

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We are at the same stage of BMR male sterile sorghum as we were in the early stages of winter triticale work 30 years ago.  We can see the huge benefits on farms, but we are trying to develop the best management techniques to optimize the farmer’s success with this crop.  Winter triticale forage was 1.5 – 2.0 tons of dry matter when we started.  It is now 3.5 to 4 tons dm/A in the north and as high as 6.5 t/dm/A in the south. Harvested at peak nutrition, triticale now has higher milk potential than good alfalfa haylage.  Now, we are developing management to bring male sterile BMR sorghum to that level of results and replace corn silage in the dairy diet.

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Winter forage triticale planting date is critical to fall nitrogen uptake and its yield benefit. Planted on time for your region, triticale has been shown to take up and store over 100 lbs. of nitrogen. Our New York research found nitrogen and sulfur as a starter at planting will give a tremendous yield boost at all nitrogen levels next spring. This is a case of either you have it or you don’t. If you are not planting on time (two weeks before the wheat date for your region), you will not get the nitrogen uptake. Even worse you will not get the yield boost the next spring because of the missed earlier planting date and the plant-ing nitrogen. This fall nitrogen has to be spread at planting so the winter forage plants can access it as soon as they emerge.

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In many areas of the US we had extremely dry conditions.  Northern areas and into Canada had the opposite weather.   It would not stop raining.  Not just small showers, but 2-3 inches at a dump.  Even the ducks were carrying umbrellas! As we mentioned in the last newsletter, crops planted on winter forage stubble (see picture page 3) were clearly better than those without the winter crop.  Even with winter forage some farms will struggle with forage supply through next year.

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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.

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No, we are not talking about root crops nor is this some 1960s hippie newsletter (a term from before most of you were born).  It is something I have uncovered over 50 years of studying forage crops and why they grow or don’t grow.  Going out in July (picking a hot, oppressive day makes it more interesting), digging in corn fields, and then continuing digs in alfalfa or grass fieldsClick here for full newsletter

BMR Male Sterile Forage Sorghum:

a Breakthrough Energy Crop

On-going field research data is giving increasing proof to the advantages of BMR male sterile forage sorghum as a replacement for corn silage.  Multiple replicated trials with proper nutrient-enhancing delayed harvest, were conducted in several states.  The data found the crop has the ability to produce at less cost, nearly the same milk as corn silage but with better components. Conventional dairy farms are finding that it is 90% cheaper for the seed to grow sorghum than corn silage and that is before we factor in all the fungicide sprays we have to put on corn but not sorghum.  Corn stops growing at 85F, while sorghum grows to 105F – you get more growth out of the season.  Deer hide in it and come out to eat the neighbors’ corn.  Its natural prussic acid wipes out corn rootworms so corn can be planted the next year after without damage.  It is direct harvested with one cut and with no grain you don’t have to expend extra cost and fuel for processing.

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Maximize Dairy Profit and Output by

Maximizing Digestible Forage Fiber Input

Milk prices are down and putting a squeeze between the dairy and the concentrate purchased to maintain milk production.  One advantage of being around for a long time (when we milked mammoths) is that we have seen this before.   It doesn’t make it any more pleasant. The early 1980’s were very hard times with many farms not making it.  We had a repeat scenario in 2014 when grain prices went through the roof.  We are seeing a version of this again in 2024. Ironically the breakthrough we had in early 2000 is still viable today.

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Optimizing Winter Forage Quality and Quantity

The winter is coming to an end much faster than normal years.  People in New York say they had less winter than we did in Tennessee (8-inch blizzard – we rarely get 1 inch; and 9 below 0 temp-never that cold). In any case, the winter forage and the grasses are greening up and starting to roll.  This is one of those years where you can move early (now) to get a jump on the season.  The enormous amount of spring growth on both crops demands sufficient nitrogen and sulfur to optimize the yield and especially the quality.   There are many ifs, and’s, and buts leading to the best nitrogen rate to apply in the spring.   Recommended rates can be from zero to 250 lbs. of N/a.  You can’t change what happened last fall, but you can use it to determine the optimum N fertilization.

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