2014-212 Validating the Stage of Maturity At Harvest for Oat and Barley for Swath Grazing
Researcher: Bart Lardner
Funded: $9,000
Project Description:
Number of years: 3
The goal of this research was to undertake field-scale studies to evaluate the effects of delaying barley, oat and triticale maturity-at-harvest on digestible nutrient yield, forage utilization and subsequent animal performance over multiple years
Results:
Three 16 hectare fields were seeded to either barley, oat, or triticale. Each forage was cut at an early stage and a late stage. Forage yield, crude protein, and total digestible nutrients were measured for each of the harvested crops.
One hundred and twenty Angus cows were separated into one of 6 replicated treatments to measure their growth and the related feed cost.
The cost ranged from $1.16/cow/d for late harvest triticale to $2.43/cow/d for early harvest oat. There was a 14% increase in Dry Matter Intake (DMI) on barley hard dough. Grazing triticale hard dough forage resulted in a 54% increase in animal grazing days compared to grazing barley soft dough paddocks. ows managed in hard dough triticale (second lowest cost) system paddocks had two-fold lower (P = 0.05) system costs ($1.50 vs $4.55/cow/d), compared to cows grazing the barley hard dough crop (highest cost).
Research Courtney O'Keefe noted that "The results of this study suggest that harvesting whole crop annuals at a later harvest maturity may improve yield and reduce costs without negative effects on animal performance."
For more information, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4a-_YxrFcE