Next Year’s Winter Annual Cereal Grain Forage Success Starts Now

Jason Hartschuh, Extension Field Specialist, Dairy Management and Precision Livestock, Ohio State University Extension

Winter annual forages can be a very economical feed for dairy cows and heifers. The four most common winter annuals are rye, triticale, wheat, and barley. Of these four crops, the most challenging is barley, with it having less winter survivability in our research projects. The benefit to barley is a slightly higher crude protein (CP) and smaller stems, allowing this species to dry better than the other three for hay. Barley CP stays higher even as the crop matures with similar CP levels at pollination to the other species' CP just before the head emerges. In a 3-year study conducted at the Ohio State research stations in Jackson, Fremont, and Custer, cereal rye had the highest yield when harvested just before the head emerges, averaging 1.92 ton/acre of dry matter (DM). Harvesting later once the head emerged increased the DM yield of triticale the most with a yield average of 2.81 ton/acre and a top location average for triticale at 5 tons/acre. In this study, 50 lb/acre of spring nitrogen were applied. Yield and quality data from this trial can be found in Table 1. Species that have a 10.0 after them were harvested at Feeks 10.0 or head in the boot, while those with a 10.5 after them were harvested at Feeks 10.5 head fully emerged and in flower.

Table 1: Winter annual cereal grain species yield and quality average over 3 years and 3 locations. Results in the same column with similar superscripts statistically had the same yield or quality.¹ 

¹DM=dry matter, NDF = neutral detergent fiber, and TDN = total digestible nutrients.

Not only did species affect yield, but it also impacted forage quality. Barley and wheat had higher CP and total digestible nutrients than both triticale and wheat at either harvest timing. NDF was also lower for barley and wheat. While barley is a good feed, we lost our stand to winter injury at all locations one year and at one location an additional year. All varieties in this study were variety unstated.

Winter annual cereal forage varieties have very different yields, even within the same species. Within species, yield and quality greatly differed between varieties.  One cereal rye variety in a Penn State variety trial yielded 3.63 ton/acre of DM while another only yielded 2.91 ton/acre. The cereal rye varieties also had a 14-day maturity window between varieties. When planting cereal rye, we often plant a variety unstated as it is cheaper, easy to get, and often used as a cover crop.  

Triticale also has huge differences in yield, but all varieties mature in a much tighter number of days than the cereal rye. The top yielding triticale variety in the Penn State trial was BCT 19004, with a yield of 4.94 ton/acre of DM with 11.62% CP. The lowest yielding variety was BCT 19003, with a yield of 3.29 ton/acre of DM and 11.46% CP. Many of the other varieties you may be planting yield somewhere in the middle like TriCal Thor that yielded 4.17 ton/acre of DM with a CP of 14.17%. There are many more varieties available that will do well in Ohio. When selecting varieties, look for agronomic information on winter survival and disease tolerance.

Nitrogen management is a critical part of winter annual forage production. Over the last 2 years, we conducted a trial in Fremont, Ohio at the North Central Research Station on nitrogen and sulfur management on cereal rye.  Our research showed higher yields of 0.27 ton/acre DM in 2022 and 1.5 ton/acre more DM in 2023 when 20 lb/acre of nitrogen was applied in the fall at planting after soybeans compared to no additional nitrogen. Fall nitrogen had little effect on forage quality. We also compared two spring nitrogen rates of 50 and 70 lb/acre plus 20 lb/acre of spring sulfur. Spring nitrogen rates of 70 lb/acre had no effect on yield compared to 50 lb/acre in 2022, but more spring nitrogen in 2023 increased yields by a ton when sulfur was also applied. Full trial results for 2023 can be found in Table 2. Spring nitrogen had a significant increase in CP. Seventy pounds of spring nitrogen increased CP by 0.5 to 2% over 50 lb/acre of spring nitrogen. Sulfur application in the spring of 20 lb/acre did significantly increase yield in 2023 when 70 lb/acre of nitrogen were applied. Our trials only achieved CP values of 12.3%. Our top-yielding treatment was 6.8 ton/acre of DM and had 90 lb/acre of nitrogen applied. This crop removed 270 lb/acre of nitrogen. From our field trial without historical manure applications, additional consideration is needed if CP would increase from more nitrogen applied; however, we must be careful not to increase CP at the expense of crop lodging.

Table 2: Cereal rye yield and quality in 2023 affected by nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) applications. Results in the same column with similar letters had statistically the same yield and quality.¹  

¹TDN = Total digestible nutrients, CP = crude protein, NDF = neutral detergent fiber, and DM = dry matter.

When trying to maximize forage profitability per acre, consider managing your forage crop more like an agronomic crop. Consider variety selection for your needs looking at both yield and nutritional value. Also, consider nitrogen rate and timing. Your nitrogen may come from commercial fertilizer or manure. Work from New York also showed that unless there was residual nitrogen left over from the previous crop, a fall nitrogen application increased tillering and forage yield. This work also showed that if the field didn’t have fall manure or a history of manure application, a spring nitrogen application increased yield. By increasing your winter cereal grain forage management, you can return even more to your operation’s profitability.