Grazing cereal bonus

Press, 9 December 1988, Page 30

Grazing cereal bonus

Grazing autumn-sown cereals should be considered a “bonus,” visitors to the Crops ’BB field days were told. Dr Warwick Scott, of the Plant Science Department of Lincoln College, said any autumn-sown cereal should” be able to be used as winter feed, provided a high yielding crop of grain was not being sought. Although grain yield from the trial plots at the field days had yet to be measured, it appeared winter grazing had only slightly reduced the number of ears per square metre.

Triticale and Illia barley were used in the trial. Normal sowing at 3cm and deep sowing at 6cm was used to see whether the growing points of the plants would remain protected from grazing for longer. The plots were sown on April 28 and half were grazed on August 26 and 27. The barley yielded 1430 kg of dry matter per hectare on August 24 while the Triticale yielded 1070 kg. Dr Scott said the yields were about half what had been achieved in other years. The need to delay sowing by two or three weeks because of the dry autumn, probably caused the drop.

Deep sowing delayed emergence about five days but had no effect on herbage yield in August. All growing points were below soil level at the time of grazing which should mean a good tiller survival rate for grain production.

The sheep preferred the winter barley to the Triticale. About 130 kg of dry matter per hectare of barley was left after grazing but 500 kg of Triticale remained.

New cultivars of oats, barley and peas were combined in demon-

stration plots of fodder crops.

Dr Don Wright and Mary-Ann Robson, of the Crop Research Division of the D.S.LR., said Awapuni oats, which had an improved foliar disease resistance, and an unnamed forage barley with dramatic early growth, had been combined with a new semileafless pea cultivar, Triffid. The pea cultivar had a large number of tendrils at the top of plants which helped bind the crop together. The forage mixes produced high bulk, high

quality feed in 80 to 90 days. They could be used for silage, hay, or lamb fattening. For silage, the mix could be ensiled in 80 to 90 days with low cost and low risk. The peas would add extra protein and nutrient value to traditional oaten hay. The mix produced quick bulk for lamb fattening and could be used from December to February. Split sowings could provide a continuous supply of feed during that period. The demonstration plots

were sown on September 2. The oats were sown at 90kg per hectare, peas at 140 kg and barley at 112 kg. Based on last year’s experimental results, an expected yield after 85 to 90 days for the barley and peas would be 5.2 tonnes of dry matter per hectare, and 4 tonnes for the pea and oat mixture, without irrigation. The greatest advantage of the system was its flexibility. The mixes could be used for all classes of livestock and on irrigated and dryland farms, he said.