More from the Land, Rather Than More Land!

With the renewed optimism in corn, soybeans, wheat and other cash crops, there is more pressure on each acre of land to produce. The additional acres of corn, soybeans and wheat mean there is less hay and pasture ground. Double cropping after a cereal crop using a cover crop such as oats is an opportunity to grow additional forage for your livestock. Research has shown that oats seeded after winter wheat harvest can yield 1 to 3.5 tonne per acre where manure was applied. Even in fields without manure, oats can yield 0.5 to 1.5 tonne per acre for forage. At hay prices of $85.00 plus per tonne, cover crops can give a good return in addition to the cereal crop harvested.

Using Cover Crops As Forage

Farmers have used a variety of species, including barley, mixed grain, oats, rye and turnip-cereal mix, peas & triticale. Figure 1 summarizes the result of a study which compared oats, oilseed radish, peas, red clover, annual ryegrass and sudangrass as cover crops. Only red clover with no manure and annual ryegrass with manure produced more forage than oats. Volunteer winter cereals yield only 50 to 75% of the oat forage yield. In another study where cover crops followed spring wheat, the volunteer spring wheat yielded about the same as many of the cover crops. In this study, cover crop yields were 0.5 to 1 tonne per acre. In both studies, the highest forage yields where from annual ryegrass with an application of manure. 

Figure 1: 2005 Cover Crop Study Which Compared Oats, Oilseed Radish, Peas, Red Clover, Annual Ryegrass And Sudan Grass

Link to data equivalent table of above chart

Establishing A Cover Crop

It may seem early to be talking about August seeding, but now is the time to start planning. Establishing a cover crop can be done using a no-till drill, or by broadcasting the seed followed by a light tillage pass (such as a cultivator or rotary harrow) to incorporate the seed. Ideally seed should be planted at 35 mm (1.5 inches) depth. Some tillage can reduce disease pressure from the preceding cereal crop. Under dry conditions, following with a packer will firm the seed to soil and help retain moisture for better emergence. Manure can be applied before planting. Incorporation will capture more of the readily available nitrogen in the manure.

Grazing

Harvesting the cover crop using strip grazing with cattle or sheep is more efficient than cutting and baling. Cereal crops are usually ready to begin grazing about 45 to 60 days after planting. They should be grazed before the head-stage of the cereals as forage quality will then begin to decline rapidly.

Does late fall/winter grazing compact the soil? Research from Nebraska with beef cattle showed that winter grazing crop residues had no significant effect on the following year grain crop yield and additional tillage was not required. However, spring grazing increased the bulk density of the soil, and decreased water infiltration rate. Therefore cattle should not graze crop residues after the soil has thawed in the spring.

Photo 1 - Cattle strip grazing triticale / forage peas and forage turnips.

Benefits

There are several benefits to using cover crops following a cereal crop:

• provides soil protection from wind and heavy rains in the fall months before freeze up,
• builds soil organic matter,
• the livestock improves nutrient cycling,
• with legumes such as red clover, nitrogen can be fixed for the following crop, and
• it provides the livestock farmer a place to spread manure in the late summer and reduces the nitrogen that could be lost to the environment.

The direct benefit to the livestock farmer is the extra feed produced as he gets more from the land, rather than using more land!