Forage potential of corn intercrops for beef cattle diets in northwestern Alberta
2020
Omokanye, Akim | Al‐Maqtari, Buthaina | Lardner, Herbert A. | Hernández, Guillermo | Gill, Kabal S. | Sreekumar, Lekshmi | Lee, Alan
Intercropping systems involving cereals with legumes provide several advantages such as elevated forage yield and improved forage nutritive value. This study was designed to assess viability of corn (Zea mays L.) intercrops to improve the forage crude protein (CP) of corn forage for beef cattle production. A corn monocrop (C‐M) was compared with seven corn intercrops (five annual legumes, a non‐legume crop (radish (Raphanus sativus L.), C‐RA) and an annual crop mixture (ACM)). The corn forage dry matter (DM) yield was significantly improved (P < .05) for C‐M than all intercrops. Of the seven intercrops, only corn‐radish intercrop (C‐RA) produced significantly lower total forage DM yield (corn + companion) than C‐M. Of the seven corn intercrops, only corn‐hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) (C‐HV) and corn–annual crop mixture (C‐ACM) had significantly (P < .05) improved forage CP and digestible CP than C‐M. Both C‐HV and C‐ACM exceeded the CP recommendations for mature beef cattle and also had adequate CP for young (growing and finishing calves) beef cattle, thereby eliminating the need for protein supplementation during the feeding of either C‐HV or C‐ACM beef cattle. Forage minerals were not significantly affected (P > .05) by corn intercrops. Forage total digestible nutrients (TDN) was significantly (P < .05) influenced by intercrops and varied from 65.9‐71.2%. Results indicate that selected corn intercrops can improve nutritive value of forage for beef cattle production.
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