The Forage Potential of Semi-Leafless Peas Relative to Standard Peas.

The development of improved pea cultivars with the semi-leaf character has spurred the expansion of field pea acreage across the Northern Great Plains. The more upright canopy structure of the mature semi-leafless pea has provided for increased ease and speed of grain harvest. Concerns about picking up rocks and soil clods with the ripen peas is no longer the paramount concern of pea harvest combine operators. Most growers raising peas for forage and green manure still utilize the standard leaf type peas due to the perception that the leafy nature provides more and higher quality forage. If there was not an advantage in forage yield or quality with standard leaf peas, there may be a planting seed cost advantage for semi-leafless peas for forage and green manure production. Pea cultivar forage yield comparison trials were conducted at Montana’s Central (CARC) and Northern Agricultural Research Centers (NARC) located near Moccasin and Havre, respectively. The CARC location is continuous-crop rainfed, 15” ann. precipitation, environment with the forage peas seeded no-till into the prior year’s barley crop stubble.  The NARC is crop-fallow rainfed, 12.0” ann. precipitation, environment with the peas seeded no-till into chemical fallowed prior year barley stubble. Delta, Majorette, and Montech 4152 semi-leafless peas and Arvika and Granger tandard leaf peas, along with other entries were used in the forage yield and quality evaluation trials. The results varied between location and years. The standard leaf type peas did not provide consistent advantage for yield or quality over the semi-leafless type cultivars.