Grazing School

Workshops

Research

Faculty

News

Weather

Contact us

Superintendent
David Davis
21262 Genoa Road
Linneus, MO 64653
Phone: 660 895-5121
FAX: 660 895=5122
Email: DavisDK@missouri.edu

Forage Systems Update
Vol 10, No. 1

Forage Production of 22 Cool-season Grass Varieties

Forage variety evaluation has been an ongoing program at FSRC for a number of years. Our variety evaluations generally looks at total forage yield, seasonal yield distribution , stand persistence, and forage quality. While total forage yield is important, stand persistence may be of even greater economic and environmental significance. Stand establishment is expensive when tillage, fertilization, seed, and chemical inputs are all considered. When a season of lost land use is factored in, lack of persistence or failure to establish becomes very expensive. A failed stand can also lead to significant water and wind erosion before a viable stand is finally established. Pronounced differences exist among species and among varieties within species regarding their ability to persist in particular environments. Distribution of yield through the grazing season is also an important consideration, particularly for pastures. While one or two large volume yields might be desirable characteristics for hay or silage crops, smaller volume yields uniformly distributed throughout the grazing season are more desirable for pasture application. Some forage varieties are distinctly better adapted to more frequent harvesting than others. This issue of FSU reports a three-year grass evaluation study.

Materials and Methods: The forage grass evaluation plots for 22 cool-season grass varieties were established in late August, 1997, on a prepared seed bed with fairly dry conditions. Entries included 8 tall fescue (TF) cultivars, 10 orchardgrass (OG) cultivars, 3 Reed canarygrass (RCG) clutivars, and ‘Cascade BB8'. Individual plots were 5 X 20 ft in a split-plot design with three replications. Harvest frequency was main- plot treatment and forage variety was sub-plot. Harvest frequency was either three (3X) or five (5X) times annually with 240 lb N/A applied in either four or six split applications. The 3X plots received 67 lb N/A April 1 and following the first and second harvest with an additional 40 lb application after the final harvest while 5X plots received 40 lb/A April 1and after each harvest. Harvest dates were planned for approximately 6/1, 7/15, and 9/15 for 3X and 5/15, 6/15, 7/15, 8/15, and 9/15 for 5X. At each harvest, a 3 X 17 ft strip was harvested from the center of each plot leaving a 3 - 4 in. residual. The bulk yield from each plot was weighed and a 100 to 150 g subsample was oven dried to determine dry matter content. In 2000 a visual estimate of stand density and yield contribution of the seeded species was made for each plot at each harvest. The yields reported in table 1 reflect the total plot yield for 1998 and 1999 when the stand density for most varieties was still quite good while the yields shown for 2000 represent only the yield contribution by the seeded species. Most of the contamination of individual variety plots came from Reed canarygrass, bluegrass, and various legumes. The late summer harvests in 2000 did contain significant amounts of summer annual grasses. Only a small amount of the bulk yield came from broadleaf weed contamination. Thus most of the bulk yield was still desirable forage, just not the seeded species.

The fertilization and harvest protocol described above was actually followed only in 2000. In 1998 the first harvest was made on all plots in early June with no yields being recorded due to heavy contamination with winter annual weeds. After the first harvest was discarded, stands were very good for most entries and the remaining two and four harvests were made according to schedule for 3X and 5X, respectively. In 1999, the first two and three harvests were made for 3X and 5X, respectively, but extremely dry conditions persisting from mid-June through the remainder of the growing season precluded any additional harvests that year. Growing conditions were favorable through most of 2000 and all harvests and N-fertilization occurred on schedule. In each year, P and K were applied based on a six-ton annual yield removal.

Results and discussion: Both variety and harvest frequency were significant factors in determining remaining stand density at the end of the third year of the study (Table 1). This study was terminated after the final harvest of 2000 due to declining stand condition for most cultivars and widespread RCG invasion. Among orchardgrass entries, ‘Tekapo' and ‘Mammoth' exhibited superior stand persistence. ‘Cambria' established in the seeding year, but was almost entirely lost during the first winter. Another note on ‘Tekapo' OG. This is one of the very few forage grasses developed in New Zealand that we have actually had persist at an acceptable level in our environment. Reed canarygrass had the densest stands at the end of the third year, particularly in the 3X regime. All three entries behaved very similarly. Meadow bromegrass is a species that is used extensively in the intermountain West but has not been evaluated in the Midwest. Meadow brome persistence was similar to orchardgrass, but less than RCG or most TF cultivars. Meadow brome is a high quality and very palatable grass as demonstrated by the high degree of preference shown for these plots by our resident deer population. Each winter the meadow brome plots were much more severely grazed by deer compared to all other species.

Overall, TF varieties persisted better than OG at both 3X and 5X harvest frequency. Only RCG at 3X maintained denser stands than TF. ‘Dovey' tall fescue never established in the seeding year and its failure can probably be attributed to a poor seedlot or improper storage of seed somewhere along the line, not to any deficiency in the cultivar. Among the other TF entries, there was a clear trend toward greater stand density later in the season with 5X compared to 3X. Summer annual grasses contributed much less to late summer yield when the fescue was harvested more frequently. Extended summer rest resulted in significantly greater invasion by summer annual grasses. This trend was especially pronounced for ‘Barcel' and ‘Fuego' which were selected for grazing traits rather than hay traits.

Table 1. Stand density of seeded cultivars at three harvest dates in
2000 and mean stand density over the season.
Variety         May   May   July   July   Sept   Sept   Mean   Mean
                3X    5X    3X     5X     3X     5X     3X     5X
                ---------------------- (% stand) -------------------
Ambrosia OG     52    52    48     60     5      12     35     41
Baridana OG     60    75    42     57     6      17     36     49
Cambria OG      2     8     8      0      5      7      5      5
Cascade MG8 OG  67    73    50     47     10     13     42     44
Duke OG         48    62    62     68     12     20     41     42
Justus OG       58    35    57     50     12     15     42     33
Mammoth OG      82    80    73     73     20     27     58     60
Pizza OG        78    72    75     63     8      17     53     50
Tekapo OG       80    45    85     75     27     40     63     53
Warrior OG      63    68    53     72     7      18     41     46
Common RCG      93    76    95     93     85     50     91     73
Palaton RCG     93    75    95     91     85     53     91     73
Venture RCG     93    87    95     90     83     50     90     75
Meadow Brome    68    62    68     65     10     22     49     49
Barcel TF       69    63    52     62     15     63     45     63
Dovey TF        33    47    0      0      10     5      14     12
Fuego TF        70    7     38     68     25     58     44     66
Jesup TF        75    80    58     73     30     68     54     64
Martin TF       83    60    83     63     42     68     69     58
Ranchers 
    Brand TF    77    66    72     68     58     72     68     69
Stag TF         77    40    68     75     38     70     61     57
Teton TF        80    85    72     67     40     60     64     71
LSD (.05)1      33.6  33.6  25.7   25.7   14.6   14.6   19.7   19.7
1 LSD is valid within columns and valid between columns within year.

Species, variety, and harvest frequency all were significant determinants of forage yield. Orchardgrass yield was 10% lower for 5X than 3X. Reed canarygrass was the highest yielding species in all three years, with no difference among the three varieties. Harvesting RCG five times rather than three times resulted in 28% lower yield. In contrast, tall fescue harvested five times produced only 5% less forage than the three-harvest regime. The difference is largely due to plant morphology. Tall fescue maintains a high amount of leaf area below the 3 to 4 in. stubble height used in this study while RCG has little leaf area present below that level. Also RCG elevates its terminal growing point even in vegetative tillers, leaving the growing point exposed to removal by grazing or clipping. The result is new growth after each harvest coming from new basal tillers rather than new leaf emergence from existing tillers.

Table 2. Annual forage dry matter yield and three-year total forage
yield for 22 cool-season grass varieties.
Variety       1998  1998  1999   1999  2000  2000  3-year    3-year
               3X    5X    3X     5X    3X    5X    total 3X  total 5X
               -------------------- (lb / acre) ----------------------
Ambrosia OG    6620  6881  7680   7314  4272  3925  18574     18122
Baridana OG    6121  6807  9910   6680  5369  5330  21401     18819
Cambria OG     1956  3550  2116   867   274   1919  3695      5154
Cascade MG8 OG 6635  6284  8739   7808  4700  5138  20076     19231
Duke OG        7129  6587  9119   6765  4463  3962  20712     17316
Justus OG      6464  6497  8097   7523  4805  3903  19368     17925
Mammoth OG     6511  7787  9394   8364  7949  7217  23856     23369
Pizza OG       6558  6506  9153   7362  5867  4841  21579     18710
Tekapo OG      6356  6734  7756   6033  8340  5038  22454     17807
Warrior OG     6624  7677  8923   7093  5985  4557  21534     19329
Common RCG     10089 7985  11560  8980  14907 7857  36558     24825
Palaton RCG    10093 9103  11903  8741  13322 7254  35319     25100
Venture RCG    9354  9149  12128  8732  13411 8929  34895     26810
Meadow Brome   6157  6884  10145  8068  7011  5719  23314     20672
Barcel TF      7871  8139  7806   7298  5536  6077  21214     21515
Dovey TF       0     81    1885   1515  1863  1569  3749      3085
Fuego TF       8544  7985  9098   7412  5808  6217  23453     21616
Jesup TF       8838  8013  8265   8538  7604  6543  24709     23096
Martin TF      8653  8658  8819   8493  8736  6397  26209     23551
Ranchers 
   Brand TF    8764  8548  8886   9277  8382  8231  26033     26058
Stag TF        8604  7519  8828   9199  8463  6362  25897     23082
Teton TF       8590  8711  8770   8392  7748  7852  25110     24957
LSD (.05)2     1182  1182  1311   1311  2290  2290  3020      3020
2 LSD is valid within columns and valid between columns within year.

Seasonal yield distribution is very important to consider when selecting a forage variety or mixture of forage varieties. Yield distribution was similar for TF and OG during most of the 2000 growing season (Figure 1).Only TF exhibited significant late summer regrowth potential under the 5X harvest regime. Tall fescue yield was significantly higher than OG yield in August and greater than both OG and RCG in September.

Reed canarygrass had higher May and July yield than either TF or OG. In the drought-shortened 1999 season, only RCG had economically harvestable yield when the final harvest was made on July 15.

The yield variance among varieties within species was actually fairly small and in most cases was non-significant. The three RCG varieties were not significantly different from one another in yield at any of the harvest dates.

Tall fescue varieties differed somewhat in yield distribution, primarily early and late in the season (Figure 2). The three varieties shown include ‘Martin', a Missouri developed and well proven variety; ‘Barcel', a finer leafed fescue selected for palatability; and ‘Ranchers' a non-certified endophyte-free variety produced in Oregon. None offer much advantage over the otehrs in the summer months, but ‘Ranchers' exhibited greater early and late season growth compared to the other two. Unfortunately, the composition of ‘Ranchers' is variable and its performance may be unpredictable from one seedlot to the next.

Early season variance was observed among orchardgrass varieties, but none appeared to offer better than average summer and fall performance. There was greater than 350% variance in first harvest yield among OG varieties (1050 to 3681 lb/acre) which may be related to rate of maturity, although some of the early maturing types were not among the highest yielders.

Forage quality was also compared and little difference was found among varieties within species. As would be expected there was significant difference between 3X and 5X treatments for most species and varieties. In most cases, crude protein in the 3X treatment was 14 to 16% while the 5X treatments produced proteins in the 18 to 20% range.

In summary, several aspects of a forage variety need to be considered when making decisions regarding what to sow in a particular pasture. While some yield and yield distribution variance was observed among species and varieties, variety persistence is the parameter that may have the greatest final impact on the value of a particular variety. Cultivars that have less than 50% stand density at the end of three years are not likely to be profitable forages for either pasture or hay.