LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Adding peas to a cow’s diet may be a cheaper way to give her added protein during pregnancy.
“We’ve got a home-grown crop that’s going to replace one of our imports,” said Dennis Cash, of Montana State University extension service.
Montana farmers bring in corn or soybean meal to supplement cows over winter, but they could easily add peas to the ration. An added benefit is that the legumes would be a welcome rotation crop in Montana where continuous cropping of cereals is common.
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Good for hogs
Researchers in Canada have known the benefits of peas for hogs since the 1970s and Cash has followed through on giving them to cattle.
Peas provide a cow with as much protein as she would derive from corn or barley. Energy is slightly less than corn. Soybean meal is 50 percent protein but peas are 26 percent, which is probably sufficient, said Cash.
A 1,000 pound cow in her last trimester of pregnancy experiences her most critical nutritional requirements.
She needs to gain a pound per day to maintain condition and her dry matter intake should be about two percent of her body weight. She can eat only 15 pounds of hay a day which meets only about half her nutritional needs.
She needs grain, and peas may be one way to go.
Another advantage is that peas cause less of a bloat hazard than alfalfa because there is less foaming in the rumen.
Another approach to include these legumes in the forage is seeding oats or barley with peas. They are harvested as hay when oats are at the milk dough stage. These combinations provide more protein per acre and achieve acceptable yields.
Ideally, the mix should be half and half, however no research data exists for many possible seeding mixtures, said Cash.
Seeding is tricky because seed size and weight are different.
Seeders have to be calibrated to deliver the number of seeds required to produce about seven pea plants per square foot. The peas are larger and could split in the seeder and the cereal may slip through too fast.
Cash said farmers might have to seed in two passes. Cereals go in first, then peas are seeded at an angle to the grain rows. They are sown slightly deeper than the oats or barley.
