Case Study: Nutrient Values of Spring and Summer Annual Forages in a Single Cut Harvest
The Central High Plains of the United States (western Nebraska and Kansas and eastern Wyoming and Colorado) is a major beef cattle production area, but it is subject to periodic droughts. Annual forages are an essential feed source for maintaining beef cattle herds during periods of drought and wint...
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Veröffentlicht in: | The Professional animal scientist 2008-12, Vol.24 (6), p.668-674 |
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Zusammenfassung: | The Central High Plains of the United States (western Nebraska and Kansas and eastern Wyoming and Colorado) is a major beef
cattle production area, but it is subject to periodic droughts. Annual forages are an essential feed source for maintaining
beef cattle herds during periods of drought and winter months. The objective of this study was to determine nutrient concentrations
in annual forages, including barley, oats, triticale, forage sorghums, sudangrass, pearl millet, foxtail millet, field peas,
soybeans, and vetch grown for hay in this region. The summer annualsâforage sorghums, sudangrass, pearl millet, and foxtail
milletâwere grown in replicated rain-fed and irrigated trials whereas the other forage species were grown in only rain-fed
trials. Currently available cultivars of these forages species were included in the trials that were located primarily at
Sidney and Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Results demonstrate that the harvested forage of many of these species approached or exceeded
10, 60, 0.4 and 0.2% of CP, TDN, Ca, and P, respectively, exceeding diet composition requirements for growing beef cattle
and gestating beef cow classes listed by the NRC. Nitrate-N values exceeded safe feeding levels in pearl millet and irrigated
foxtail millet forage, probably due to high soil N fertility levels. Feed testing of warm-season, summer annual forages grown
in this region for nitrate-N would be a prudent management practice.
annual forage
nutrient
cereal
legume
grass |
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ISSN: | 1080-7446 1525-318X |