Choice of Crop

The choice of crop will depend on the type of land and its suitability for winter or spring crops.

With any of these crops the higher the grain content the better the quality of the produce. The aim should be to produce high quality feed from wholecrop as generally a good bulk of forage can be obtained from grass silage. The aim in growing wholecrop should be to increase the overall quality of the feed when fed in combination with grass silage.

In order to get the best yield and quality all of these crops should be managed as if they were being grown to produce a grain crop.

Winter Wheat:

This crop has a very high yield potential. It has higher grain yield per acre than any of the other cereal crops. It can be sown from end of September to end of November and also from early January to mid-February. The yield potential from spring sowing is less than from the Autumn but it is still better than any other spring cereal crop. Free draining medium to heavier types of soils suit the crop. Winter wheat is the ideal crop to produce a high yield of high quality forage per acre. High yielding varieties such as Savannah, Tanker, Marshal and Richmond are the ideal varieties to give the highest yield of best quality.

Sprint Wheat:

Can be sown from early February to end of March. It requires land similar to the type needed for winter wheat. Will give good quality but not as high a starch producer as winter wheat. Varieties here are Baldus (which is the earliest ripener), Raffles and Alexandria.

Winter Barley:

Can be sown from mid-September (October in South coast areas) to early November. Medium to lighter free draining soils are best. Lime status needs to be good for the crop. Winter barley is the earliest cereal to be harvested, generally in the latter part of July, which would give a good opportunity for reseeding of grass seed. Siberia is the top yielding variety. Cleopatra has the advantage of having good disease resistance.

Spring Barley:

Can be sown from early March to mid-April. Lime status needs to be good for the crop. Best suited to medium to lighter type soils. Management easier than for winter sown crops but yield potential is less.

Winter Triticale:

Can be sown from early October to end November and from mid-January to early March. Best yield will be obtained from Autumn sowings. Medium to lighter soils best. Crop has reasonable tolerance to take-all disease. Tall straw and the ratio of grain to straw may not be as good as for the other cereals. Varieties such as Tricolor and Lupus have shown to have high yield potential.

Arable Silage:

Arable silage is a mixture of a spring cereal and forage peas grown together to be used as a forage crop.  The cereal used is generally either spring oats or spring barley. It is sown from mid-March to end of April and takes 12-14 weeks to harvest time. It provides an ideal opportunity to undersow grass seed in spring while maintaining a good overall yield for the season. The young grass can provide good grazing from mid-July after the arable silage harvest. The spring oat/forage pea mixture will generally provide a higher yield but care needs to be taken in the management of the crop, if it is undersown, to prevent lodging. The spring barley/forage pea mixture has better standing ability and can be harvested earlier. Arvika forage pea is the leading variety to provide a big bulk of protein rich forage when used in the arable silage mixture.

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