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CROP ECOLOGY, PRODUCTION & MANAGEMENT

Yield and Quality of Wheat, Triticale, and Elytricum Forage in the Southern Plains

^a USDA-ARS, Grazinglands Research Laboratory, 7207 W. Cheyenne St., El Reno, OK 73036 USA
^b USDA-ARS, STARS, 22271 Chinsegut Rd. Brookeville, FL 34601-4672 USA
^c Univ. of Nebraska, West Central Research and Extension Center, Rt. 4 Box 46, North Platte, NE 69101 USA

srao{at}grl.ars.usda.gov

Hard red winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a major cool-season forage that couples with warm-season perennials to provide livestock feed in the Southern Plains. Productivity and quality of wheat forage declines in April, creating a forage deficit period until warm-season perennial grasses are available. Other cool-season annual grasses with different growth patterns may provide growth during this period to fill this forage deficit. A field experiment was conducted on Brewer silty clay (fine, mixed, superactive, thermic Udertic Argiustoll) from 1994 to1997 to compare seasonal forage production patterns and yield and quality of winter wheat, triticale (x Triticosecale rimpaui Wittm.) and x Elytricum spp. (Triticum aestivum x Elytrigia spp. `OK-906'). Aboveground whole-plant biomass during late fall and early spring were greater for wheat than elytricum, but this trend was reversed in late spring and early summer. Average growing degree days to reach physiological maturity were 2500, 2670, and 3100 for wheat, triticale, and elytricum, respectively. Averaged across years, triticale and elytricum reached maturity 8.5 and 28 d after wheat, respectively. At physiological maturity, differences in biomass accumulation between wheat and triticale were minimal, but elytricum at physiological maturity produced 22% more total biomass, 3.5% less grain, and 28% greater straw yield as compared with wheat. Differences in straw in vitro dry matter disappearance (IVDMD) among species were minimal. Because of its prolonged vegetative-growth phase compared with wheat or triticale, elytricum has the potential to fill the late spring forage deficit period and reduce supplemental feed cost for livestock.

Abbreviations: IVDMD, in vitro dry matter disappearance • N, urea N

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