Searching for Response to Management in Assessment and Development of Barley and Triticale for Forage Use.

Yield and quality of cereal forage impacts the economics of livestock production.  A study was conducted in Alberta using a set of barley (Hordeum vulgare) and triticale (XTriticosecale) varieties to determine if there were differences in how these two annual cereals developed from boot through grain-filling that would explain their response to, and potential for, different management treatments for forage production. The barley varieties were ‘Gadsby’ and ‘Falcon’ and the triticale varieties were ‘94L043057’ and ‘Taza’. They were planted on three dates from mid-May to mid-June, common seeding times for silage and swath-grazing end-use. The five harvest times were boot (head in the upper leaf sheath), anthesis (flowering), anthesis + 1 week, kernels at soft dough (kernels easily cut with the fingernail), and kernels at hard dough (tough but still able to cut with fingernail).  Detailed observations on forage quality, including starch concentration,  and whole-plant biomass yields were recorded. Barley was more digestible at the boot stage than triticale. However, as it matured, the forage digestibility of barley declined rapidly, so that by the hard dough stage, forage digestibility was similar to the triticale. For the barley varieties, Gadsby yielded more than Falcon, and its quality attributes were similar except for lower protein and starch. For the triticale varieties, 94L042057 and Taza had similar yields, that were higher than those for barley. For swath-grazing, Gadsby barley had higher carrying capacity (CC) than Falcon, and 94L043057 triticale had higher CC than Taza. However, for backgrounding, Gadsby had marginally poorer parameters compared to Falcon, while the triticale varieties were similar. By estimating animal performance and cost, management decisions can be made to minimize animal production costs and optimize animal performance.  Differences in whole plant dry-down and quality between barley and triticale are important for making management decisions on planting and harvest times for different end-uses.