Forage versus grain
Don Surminsky, a farm management agrologist with Saskatchewan Agriculture in Yorkton, Sask., said he believes forage crops can be much more profitable on marginal land than grain crops. But, he said it’s a hard sell.
“The biggest obstacle to the conversion of marginal lands to forage crops is that many farmers don’t think of grass as a crop,” said Surminsky. “It runs against traditional thinking and the current trend.”
He said a significant amount of the black soil zone is marginal land with large areas of salinity and drainage problems due to either high or low points on the land. With the loss of the Crow Rate transportation subsidy the profitability of these areas has been reduced even more.
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“Under different economic conditions, a lot of potential land would make more money under grass or forage. Farmers could seed the land to grass and thereafter incur very little expense. They would see a new source of profitability, especially compared to the crops needing fertilizer, herbicides and the money that goes into equipment.”
Some farmers agree, but are uncertain how to start the switch to forage crops. Surminsky suggested they begin by learning about the proper selection of grasses, and about new grazing systems such as rotational grazing. The next move would be to invest in fencing for a small area of marginal land, such as a quarter section. A dugout could also be prepared, and the grass established.
“There are some farmers who have already gone right off grain and into forage. Some don’t own any cattle either, and they own very little equipment. They claim they are very pleased with this arrangement because of the lower capital investment and reduced risk,” said Surminsky.
“It’s a strategic move that farmers with marginal land should be thinking about right now. They have to realize that the grain bubble will burst – as it always does – and the economics of marginal land will be the first to disappear. But, when grain prices go down and cattle prices go up, even those farmers who don’t want to own cattle can always lease the land to those who do. You have to plan for the future.
“When the grain prices drop and the cattle prices rise, I think we’ll see hardcore grain people starting to convert, not necessarily to cattle but to growing forage crops,” said Surminsky.
– Saskatchewan Agriculture
Wet cereal bales
Farmers commonly feed cereal straw to pregnant beef cows during the winter. These bales are often exposed to some moisture in the fall. A study supported by Saskatchewan Agriculture has found that wet cereal bales fed to pregnant stock expose these animals to the risk of congenital progressive posterior paralysis.
Carl Ribble and Eugene Janzen, professors in the department of herd medicine and theriogenology, Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, conducted the study, after extensive losses of new-born calves due to CPPP in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
These calves were dwarfed and most had difficulty standing and walking. None of the affected calves recovered. A large number of cows from the same herds lost hair and condition. One-quarter of the cows in one affected herd died.
“We suspected the cause of these losses was the presence of a mycotoxin in mouldy cereal straw, so we bought bales of the mouldy wheat and barley straw left over from the feed of an affected herd. The following year we bought a similar amount of cereal straw from the same fields but harvested under much more favorable conditions,” said Ribble.
Two groups of crossbred pregnant cows were placed on feed in November. One group of five received the mouldy wheat straw, the second (control) group of five received dry wheat straw. Both also received barley and a free choice mineral mix.
“By calving time, all cows in the mouldy group had lost condition, and four of the five had lost almost all their hair. All calves born to this group showed clinical and microscopic signs of CPPP. The cows in the control group, on the other hand, maintained their condition and their calves demonstrated no signs of CPPP.
“The production of abnormal calves, as well as the loss of hair and condition in the cows, was clearly associated with exposure to the mouldy wheat straw during the winter. The identification of moulds of the fusarium species in the mouldy straw added support to our hypothesis that CPPP is caused by the presence of mycotoxin in the feed,” concludes Ribble.
– Saskatchewan Agriculture
