Oats Good Annual Pasture Choice

REGINA - Feb 17/04 - SNS -- Researchers with Saskatchewan Agriculture said results from a project in the province's north east shows oats are a good choice for annual pasture.

The crop out-yields spring-seeded winter cereals early in the growing season, and re-grew better than other spring cereals when precipitation arrived later in the growing season, say Al Foster, a rangeland and forage agrologist with Saskatchewan Agriculture, Food and Rural Revitalization in Tisdale, and Linden McFarlane, a technician with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Melfort.

"Yield is a major consideration when choosing an annual forage crop," says Foster. "But most of the yield data on annual crops comes from silage or greenfeed trials, where the crop is cut only once in the summer, when the crop reaches the soft dough stage. Using this cutting strategy, most trials show oats and barley out-yield the winter cereals and annual ryegrass.

"The strategy of using peak yields works well for silage and green-feed comparisons. Pasture production crops are generally grazed before they reach their peak production in order to maintain quality for an extended period. As well, the crop is often grazed two or three times in a rotation. This use of spring cereals prior to the soft dough stage reduces overall production. Multiple cutting or grazing in a pasture system generally favors plants that can quickly re-grow from intact leaves, such as winter cereals and annual ryegrass."

The subscriber version of the article is available by Clicking here