Tom

For many, this was the year they would like to forget.  Every time you turned around, the weather was against you.  But you still need forage for the animals.   This month, we turn to the earliest quality forage you can make.

Our winter triticale forage research and development started 30 years ago when it was a mediocre after-thought forage of 1.5 – 2.0 tons of dry matter.  Since then, our research has produced a forage of higher digestibility than early, first-cut alfalfa.  This can mean 9.5 lbs. more milk from the same dry matter.  Farmers report that the high digestibility eliminates the “summer slump” in hot weather.

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As mentioned in the June newsletter, at this point, a one cut of BMR sorghum-Sudan, or Sudan grass, or Pearl Millet, can give you highly digestible forage at the end of September. In my tests, we have harvested 2 to 3 tons of very decent forage, even though it was planted in mid-July with a warm fall.  An overlooked crop is BMR pearl millet. Other researchers and I have found that pearl millets have very high feed quality. In our replicated study, the grazing corn was 12.9% crude protein, the sorghum-Sudan was 14.2%; and the BMR pearl millet was 20% crude protein. The energy was similar (very high) between the BMR grazing corn, BMR sorghum-Sudan, and BMR pearl millet. All three had very high plant sugars. The pearl millet does not have prussic acid management issues. It yields very well in late summer. Pearl millet has thinner stems that may be easier to round bale for wrapping. If you are looking at grazing, be careful, as it is so rich that it can cause bloat.

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“A drought will scare a man to death; a flood will starve him”: old farmer quote.

Surviving when weather turns against you means thinking outside the box.  The wet and cool/cold has held on and now has put normal planting/harvesting into the far edges of the bell shaped curve of normal results.  The key to remember is YOU STILL HAVE OPTIONS if you think outside the box.   Same old, same old will not cut it this year.

Not all the corn is planted and fields are still too wet.  If there are corn grain growers in the area they are struggling with the wet weather, and the cloudy conditions will significantly decrease projected yields based on previous years like this.  Thus, they may be open for you to buy their standing corn out of the field.  It is not the highly digestible varieties you normally grow but will make more milk than sticks and dirt clods you are facing now.  It is critical to watch the milk line and harvest grain varieties slightly earlier to assure full kernel digestibility and maximize stalk fiber digestion.

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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