DAIRY FEEDBUNK
by Matt Akins, Kevin Jarek, and Mike Ballweg
Mike Rankin
Cocktail forage mixes may fit in dairy rations S DAIRY farms utilize more spring-harvested winter cereal forages, cocktail forage mixes are often on the list of options of what to plant next. This is due to their fast growth after planting, the option to apply manure in-season, and the potential for high forage quality. These mixes typically contain a warm-season annual, which is often a brown midrib (BMR) sorghum-sudangrass, Italian ryegrass, and a mix of various legumes, including berseem, crimson, or red clover; hairy vetch; and others. Most mixes contain a high percentage of the warm-season annual and Italian ryegrass because of their quick emergence, growth, and regrowth potential after cutting. In one 2019 Wisconsin field project, a cocktail forage mix planted after a cereal rye crop yielded a total of nearly 4 tons of dry matter (DM) per acre across four harvests. This included 0.7 tons DM per acre from the rye forage. As more producers consider these forages, additional data is needed to understand yield, quality, and variability across farms. To address this, we conducted a project that was supported by the UW Dairy
Innovation Hub to gather forage data from four Wisconsin dairy farms.
Systems differed Forage yield data were collected from fields at three dairy farms in northeast Wisconsin and from the Marshfield Agricultural Research Station. On the three commercial farms, the cocktail forage mix was planted after a cereal forage harvest in early June. At three of the locations, the mix was seeded at 35 pounds per acre with 60% BMR sorghum-sudangrass, 25% Italian ryegrass, and 15% from a combination of berseem, red clover, and hairy vetch. Farm 4 used a mix seeded at 50 pounds per acre with 59% cowpeas; 17% Italian ryegrass; 6% each of millet, alfalfa, and red clover; 4% timothy; and 2% radish. The fertilization program varied widely, with Farm 1 applying 9,000 gallons of liquid manure preplant and then 60 pounds of N fertilizer per acre between harvests. Farm 2 applied 66 pounds of N fertilizer per acre preplant and then 6,000 gallons of liquid manure between cuttings. Farm 3 only applied 45 pounds of N fertilizer after each cutting, while Farm 4 applied 20 pounds of N per acre preplant and no subsequent N due to drought.
Farms targeted harvest of high-quality forage, with harvests taken at approximately a 24- to 36-inch canopy height of the sorghum-sudangrass. First harvest occurred about 40 to 50 days after planting, second harvest was 30 to 35 days later, and a third harvest had a longer interval of 45 to 60 days with a harvest in late September to mid-October. Overall, total-season forage yields averaged 4.6 tons of DM per acre with a range from 3.7 to 6.9 tons of DM per acre. The cereal forage yields were consistent across farms at 1 to 1.5 tons of DM per acre. Yields of cocktail mix across harvests were more variable, with the first harvest being the highest yielding (1.4 to 1.9 tons of DM per acre) on three of the four farms (see Figure 1). The second and third harvests were lower for the two farms that used synthetic N fertilizer between harvests (0.7 to 1.1 tons of DM per acre), while the farm that applied liquid manure maintained higher yields (1.7 to 1.9 tons of DM per acre). The photos depict areas in the same field that received or did not receive manure at this farm. It is hard to know exact reasons for MATT AKINS Akins (pictured) is an extension dairy scientist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). Jarek and Ballweg are extension educators with the UW Division of Extension.
26 | Hay & Forage Grower | March 2022
F3 26-27 Mar 2022 Dairy Feedbunk.indd 1
2/17/22 10:06 AM
