It was a question for which there was no definitive answer.
Should livestock producers grow annual cereals for feed and graze their cattle throughout the season, or should they grow the cereals to the milk or soft dough stage, cut them and swath graze or bale them?
Saskatchewan Agriculture has an answer.
“There is more dry matter yield per acre in waiting to the soft dough stage before cutting. For years, we didn’t know the answer. We assumed it amounted to more or less the same yield,” said rangeland and forage agrologist Lorne Klein.
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In the summer of 2003, simulated grazing forage yields were collected from Saskatchewan forage trial plots at Redvers and Indian Head.
“Generally, there are two methods of harvesting a spring-seeded spring cereal,” said Klein. “Either the crop can be grazed in the vegetative stage two to four times during the summer, or the crop can be allowed to develop to the milk-soft dough stage and cut once. After cutting, the windrow can be baled, chopped for silage, or left in the field for swath grazing.”
Producers have questioned whether the cumulative dry matter yield of multiple grazing is similar to the single cut dry matter yield at the milk or soft dough stage.
Research from Alberta from 1981-1983 had shown that simulated grazing yields are significantly less than single cut yields.
Research conducted in Saskatchewan in 2003 showed that simulated grazing yield of the cool season crops oats and barley averaged 59 percent of the single cut greenfeed yield.Ê
In warm season crops such as Golden German, Siberian Red, Strain R German and White Wonder, the simulated grazing yield averaged 51 percent of the single cut greenfeed.
Tests done again in 2004 indicated that simulated grazing of cool season crops yielded 50 percent of the single cut at the milk or soft dough stage, while simulated grazing of warm season crops yielded 45 percent of the single cut.
“We found that there was considerably less dry matter yield in the simulated multiple grazing plots, whereas on the plots where we waited an extra 35 days before harvesting the cereals, the yield far outweighed that.”
Klein believed producers are going to think twice about seeding annuals to graze their cattle in the future. Given the magnitude of the differences, producers wishing to graze annuals should consider allowing the crop to reach the greenfeed stage, and then windrow and swath graze.
