FALUN, Alta. – Triticale silage is a valuable part of a cattle feeding
operation once producers learn how to handle it, says a central Alberta
feedlot operator.
“I can’t see why more people don’t use it. It’s got great potential,”
said Kevin Schmidt, who feeds almost half triticale silage in his
4,000-head background feedlot.
Triticale can yield up to 30 percent more than barley, doesn’t collapse
into a flat mat in the field and isn’t as susceptible to yield-limiting
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diseases.
“It’s a great crop to fit into a rotation,” said Schmidt during a tour
of his feedlot.
It’s taken Kevin and his brother Mike almost three years to figure out
how to grow and harvest triticale. Timing at harvest is critical. Cut
it too early and the silage becomes a soggy mess. Cut it too late and
the straw is like wire.
When conditions are ideal and it’s in the pit, triticale is a good
alternative to barley or oats that the cattle willingly eat.
“They’ve never shied away from it,” said Schmidt, who aims for 21/4
pounds of gain a day but often gets 21/2 lb. using a silage-grain
ration.
The brothers were looking for an alternative crop to break the disease
cycle created in the field from continuous years of growing barley for
silage. They also wanted a crop with strong straw that wouldn’t fall
over in the field, especially in fields with high amounts of manure
from the feedlot.
They planted only 25 acres the first year. This year they plan to seed
about 500 acres of barley, 500 acres of triticale and 300 acres of
oats, all for silage in their feedlot.
“A lot of guys shy away from it,” Schmidt said. “It’s an old crop, but
it’s something new that guys are just getting into.”
Alberta Agriculture crop specialist Ron Hockridge said triticale acres
have slowly increased. Almost 100,000 acres of triticale are seeded
each year on the Prairies.
It was developed in the 1930s by crossing wheat and rye, and has been
promoted as a grain crop. Now it is gaining favour as a cattle feed.
“It’s catching on slowly,” Hockridge said.
“Those who learn to use it really like it, but those who’ve had bad
experiences don’t use it again.”
Unlike barley and wheat, there has been relatively little research on
the use of triticale as a feed.
“There’s so much there we don’t know.”
Stephen Pain, general manager of commodity trading with Western
Feedlots in High River, Alta., said his company had good luck growing
triticale silage three years in a row, but had a “disaster” with the
crop in last year’s drought.
Despite last year’s poor-yielding crop, the feedlot still plans to keep
triticale at about 10 to 15 percent of its rotation.
“It’s a great rotation crop as far as leaf disease,” Pain said.
“Once it’s established, it’s pretty competitive and very productive as
long as you get moisture.”
Bernie Kotelko of Highland Feeders in Hairy Hill, Alta., said triticale
makes up about 25 percent of the crops he seeds each year for silage.
For Kotelko, triticale offers flexibility at harvest time and a crop
with good disease resistance. The late-maturing triticale allows him to
harvest his barley silage first before swinging into the triticale
fields.
“It’s provided us with a few options and flexibility.”
In previous years he’s also seeded winter triticale in the fall to help
smooth out the summer silage season.
Kotelko also said timing is critical at harvest. The general rule he
uses is to begin harvest 10 days after flowering.
