Evaluation of Cool-Season Forages That Maximize Forage Production and Quality to Enhance Milk Production for Southeastern Dairies.

Over the past several years, collaboration among producers, researchers and extension agents has led to a series of on-farm testing of cool-season forages. This research has been primarily funded through the Georgia and Florida Dairy Research and Education Project through milk check-off dollars. Our goal has been to examine forage management practices for both confinement and grazing dairy systems. Seasonal distribution of forage production differs among cultivars and among forage types. Soluble sugars, in general, are higher for oat cultivars. Triticale (a rye-wheat cross) is also well suited for dairy silage operations, particularly in central and south Florida where diseases, warmer climate, and drier, sandy soils are problematic. Oat, ryegrass and triticale vary in their time of maximum forage production and distribution over the growing season. Blending of cool-season forages (rye-ryegrass and triticale-ryegrass) maximized forage yields, particularly under grazing. By maximizing cool-season forage production we simultaneously maximize nutrient removal. Monocultures of ryegrass or triticale, or blends of these forages, tend to take up more P than other forages. On-farm testing of advanced forage breeding lines has lead to the release and co-release of two new forage oat varieties, “Horizon 201” and “RAM LA 99016”. In 2011 a new, early and high yielding, hulless forage oat, “FL02011”, was released by UF-IFAS. A tetraploid ryegrass, “Earlyploid” was also recently released by UF-IFAS that was developed specifically for dairies in GA and FL. Earlyploid’s production period peaks in time for harvest prior to the season’s first corn planting in early March. It also has excellent disease resistance since it was developed and tested at dairies, under spray effluent fertigation. Two triticale varieties, “Trical 342” and “Monarch” fit well in cool-season silage crop production systems for our southern dairies. New experimental triticale lines are being considered for release for the southeastern U.S. within the next year. The strategy is to develop new cool-season forages and combinations of those forages to better enhance forage production and the quality of those forages for southern dairies.