Assessing Alternative Forage Production Systems for Organic Dairies in New England
2008
Jemison, John M.
Organic dairy farmers need high yielding, quality forages with low weed pressure. A four-year study was conducted in Maine to evaluate yield, quality and weed biomass of spring and winter small grains double cropped with brown midrib sorghum-sudan grass (SS). Double crops included spring barley/SS, winter barley/SS (WB/SS), winter triticale/SS (WT/SS), and winter wheat/SS (WW/SS). These were generally compared to organic open-pollinated corn silage grown adjacent to the study. Forage quality measures included crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), total digestible nutrients (TDN), and non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC). Corn was cultivated four times (two tine and two row cultivations); double crops received essentially no cultivation. Yield of WT/SS and WW/SS (10,710 and 9,695 lb/acre) was significantly higher than WB/SS or SB/SS (8590 and 7372 lb/acre) and were similar to corn silage (10,505 lb/acre). Double crop weed biomass was four times less (1 to 4% of DM yield) than corn (11.8% DM yield). Low manure N efficiency likely affected forage quality particularly CP, TDN, and NFC values. Significant nutrient yield differences (> 1200 lb/acre) were found between double crops, but corn NFC yield was almost twice that of any double crop. Supplementing high energy feeds can help balance double crop rations.
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