As farmers we are always looking toward the future: planning, strategizing, and scheming on how to make our businesses most profitable. As many of us look toward the future, past corn silage and the hustle and bustle of trying to get crop in and effectively store silage for the upcoming year, whilst caring for animals and the day to day of your operation, you may also be considering what to plant for small grains in your fields following your corn harvest.
The best way to consider what to plant for small grains is to work backwards, starting at your cows. Establishing your goals for a small grain crop takes many considerations; key areas of focus would be tonnage, harvest considerations, storage considerations, survivability, and most importantly the quality of the forage as it’s being fed to the cows. For any of the small grains you choose, establish quality goals so that they are effective forage and will yield dividends with the cows. KPI’s for small grain forage should have a 30 hr NDFD around 70, a 30 hr and UNDF under 9.
Achieving good digestibility can be tricky. Field conditions in spring will drive your harvest time; if soil is too wet you may not get out into the field and the crop could get away from you. The trick is to get the crop in its elongation phase, when the plant is building hemicellulose. This is the highest digestibility phase of the crop and past this phase the plant is developing more lignin, resulting in a lower quality forage. The key to catching the plant in its elongation phase is very frequent scissor cuts and laboratory testing.
Let’s dive into the top contenders for small grains. Cereal Rye is perhaps a popular choice amongst farmers for small grain crops to plant this fall. This is likely due to it’s lower seed cost, but there are far more advantages to a cereal rye crop aside from seed cost. For example, Cereal Rye has forgiveness on timing of planting, as it can establish a root system in cooler temperatures, and is much more winter resistant against its counterparts. Along with its winter resistance, it provides excellent survivability and is early maturing. The major drawback of Cereal Rye would be a lower tonnage than some of the other choices for fall small grains. It likely will have good forage quality, decent RFV, NDF, and CP considering it is harvested on time and stored properly.
Our next contender, and my personal favorite, is triticale, likely coming in with your highest tonnage per acre. Ideally, triticale will need to be planted as soon as corn harvest is finished because it takes a bit longer to establish a good root system prior to any cold snaps that may come about. The earlier you plant your triticale the higher survivability it will have, and the highest tonnage. It has a large harvest window compared to Cereal Rye to hold is feed value. It yields well in CP, NDF, and overall RFV.
If small grains are in your future, consider weighing options on different types of seed, field conditions, frequency of scissor cuts to yield the best quality forage for feeding your cows.
