Following last year's drought, one of the top priorities for many dairy producers in 2013 will be to quickly restock forage supplies. In some cases, planting spring cereal crops may be a part of that equation.
Forage yield of spring cereals are affected by species planted, variety selection, seeding date and time of harvest. When harvested at the boot to early head stage, small grains such as oats, barley and triticale are capable of providing 1.5 to 2.5 tons of dry matter per acre.
Variety selection within species has a significant impact on overall yield. This is especially true for oats where a wider range of varieties are available. The University of Wisconsin tests oat varieties for yield and quality of forage each year.
A wide variation in yield potential exists between oat varieties with early maturing varieties yielding the least and late maturing varieties yielding the most. Barley reaches the late boot stage about the same time as early maturing oat varieties. Yields are also similar to early oats. Triticale is similar in yield to barley and early maturing oats. It matures about the same time as a mid-maturity oat variety.
ForagePlus is a forage oat variety developed by the University of Wisconsin. From strictly a yield standpoint, it's in a class by itself. Dry matter yield of ForagePlus is about 25 percent higher than that of the highest yielding standard oat varieties. ForagePlus matures about a week later than late maturing grain varieties and has somewhat lower forage quality (1 to 3 percentage units lower crude protein than standard oat varieties). The lower forage quality can be offset by harvesting in the early boot stage, but expect a corresponding decrease in yield.
Differences in forage quality are relatively small between cereal grain species when harvested at a similar stage of maturity. Nitrogen fertility has a significant impact on crude protein content of small grain forages.
As with most forage crops, there is a yield-quality tradeoff as small grains mature from boot to dough maturity stages. Dry matter yields range from 1.5 to 2.5 tons per acre at late-boot stage, to 3.0 to 4.0 tons per acre in the milk and dough stages. During this same time period, protein drops from about 18 percent to 10 percent. Like most grasses, the fiber component of cereal forage is more digestible than that of legumes such as alfalfa. Thus, at similar total fiber concentrations, cereal forages will provide more digestible fiber and energy compared to alfalfa.