A crop developed to help feed hungry people in Africa may soon be feeding hungry cattle in Western Canada.
AC E-1 is a perennial cereal rye cultivar that researchers say can be a cost effective alternative to silage barley.
“(Perennial cereal) rye may reduce feed costs by 15 to 20 percent,” said Surya Acharya, a forage breeder at Agriculture Canada’s research centre in Lethbridge, Alta.
Perennial rye was first developed in the 1960s by German scientists, who saw it as an inexpensive and efficient source of food in dryland areas of Africa.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Because of its long flowering period and large proportion of sterile plants, it turned out to be vulnerable to seed-borne diseases such as ergot, making it unsuitable for human consumption.
However, with yields and nutritional qualities similar to barley, Lethbridge researchers decided to investigate it as a substitute for silage barley in beef production.
As it turns out, said Acharya, AC E-1 has a number of production advantages over barley.
Because it’s a perennial, it is seeded every three or four years rather then every spring, providing significant cost savings to producers.
It can take better advantage of spring moisture than spring-seeded crops, which can’t be planted until the ground is dry enough to allow equipment on the land.
As a perennial, it provides soil and moisture conservation benefits through the winter, while returning carbon to the soil through its extensive root system.
It grows rapidly in the spring and can be harvested in early July, three to four weeks ahead of barley.
That leaves time for a second crop, which can either be cut for silage or used to extend the fall-grazing season.
It can be grown like other cereals, with no specialized equipment required and similar fertilizer needs as fall rye. It appears to be tolerant to most herbicides used on other rye crops and cereals, and is competitive with weeds early in the growing season.
It excels under irrigation, with yields twice those achieved through dryland production.
Perhaps most importantly, cows like to eat it.
“In fact, we have found the cattle prefer this over barley for grazing,” Acharya said. “They go to the perennial cereal rye plot before they would eat barley.”
It contains less crude protein than barley if harvested at the same stage of development that barley is normally harvested for silage.
However, it has the same level of crude protein as barley if it is cut a week or so earlier, in the early flowering stage before it reaches the soft dough stage.
The crop has lasted for four years in the Lethbridge trials, but Acharya said it remains to be seen how many years it will last in other parts of the Prairies.
“Once the variety is out there and people use it all over, I’ll get some idea of its adaptation on a wider scale.”
AC E-1 has been licensed to Kenneth C. Long Seeds Ltd. of Spring Coulee, Alta. Limited supplies will be available next fall, with wide-scale distribution in 2003.
Acharya said the first round of planting will help researchers improve the variety.
“Through the feedback we get from producers, we’ll know what the weaknesses are.”
The biggest drawback is the tendency to produce ergoty seeds. That’s not a problem for silage or grazing purposes, but does limit the crop’s potential for other uses involving human consumption.
