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Demonstration of the yield and quality potential of energy dense annual forages

Approach

This project explored chicory, plantain, and Italian ryegrass as potential cattle forage. Each species was seeded by itself with an oat nurse crop. The oats were removed as greenfeed and the energy-dense forages allowed to regrow before fall grazing. Forage yield and quality as well as animal grazing days were evaluated.

Key Findings

Nurse crop: Competition with the oat nurse crop inhibited growth of the energy-dense forages.

Yield: Regrowth of chicory, plantain, and Italian ryegrass was similar. All three produced less biomass than regrowth on an alfalfa hay field.

Forage Quality: Forage quality results showed higher quality for Italian ryegrass/oats regrowth than for alfalfa regrowth. No quality tests were conducted on chicory or plantain because the small stature of the plants meant that very little of these plants were being consumed by the steers.

Grazing Days: Italian ryegrass provided more grazing days per acre than the chicory or plantain. However, alfalfa regrowth provided the most grazing days.