Developing High Quality Annual Forage Systems for Organic Dairy Farms in New England.

Organic milk production has allowed many of the farm families to improve their quality of life. However, the upsurge of operating costs has changed the economic prosperity on many organic dairy farms.  There are many ways for farmers to reduce operating costs. The overall goal of this project was to help organic dairy producers reduce their reliance on expensive concentrates through the development of high quality annual forage cropping systems. Specifically in year one of this project we investigated the yield and quality of cereal grains double-cropped with warm season annuals. The experimental design of the trials was a randomized complete block with four replicates.  Spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and oats (Avena sativa L.) were planted on Apr. 17, 2008.  Forage was harvested in the boot stage and analyzed for yield, crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), digestible NDF (dNDF), and non-structural carbohydrates (NSC).  Following the cereal grain harvest, Japanese millet (Echinochloa esculenta (A. Braun) H. Scholz) and sorghum sudangrass (Sorghumbicolor x S. bicolor var. sudanense) were planted on June 12^th, 2009. The warm season annual forages were harvested and analyzed for yield, CP, NDF dNDF, and NSC.  There was no significant difference between the oat and barley forage yield or quality.  The sorghum-sudangrass yielded 15% more biomass than the Japanese millet. The Japanese millet produced a significantly higher protein feed of 222 g kg^-1 as compared to the sorghum-sudangrass at 178 g kg^-1.  The warm season annuals did not differ significantly in NDF or dNDF.  Given the few differences in forage quality, the spring seeded grain double cropped with sorghum sudangrass would produce significantly more biomass and nutrients per hectare than the millet double crop system.