Annual Forages: General Overview

Oct 13, 2015

By Karla Hernandez

Cool Season Winter & Spring Small Grains

Wheat, triticale, rye, oats, and barley

When to plant: winter annuals are likely to be planted in the fall and grow in the cool season.
Benefits: Excellent fall and early spring pasture.
Grazing: Cereal grains should not be grazed until plants are six to eight inches tall.
Spring and winter small grains: used as hay, silage, and green chop. Haying might be difficult due to long drying time required to reduce moisture content. Nutritional value of small grain forage declines rapidly with increasing maturity. Typically, small grain forage harvested in the pre-boot stage has about 20% CP, 40% NDF, 30% ADF, and in vitro digestibility of 80%.

Warm Season Annual Grasses

Foxtail millets, Pearl millet, Sudangrass, Forage sorghums, Sorghum-sudangrass hybrids, Italian Ryegrass

When to plant: warm summer months with a soil temperature of 65 to 70 degrees F.
Benefits: excellent tonnage and quality. Depends on species selection.

Table 1. Forage Nutritive Value of Annual Forages (values are on percentage of dry weight)

	Crude protein	ADF	NDF	IVDDM
Barley	9-11	43	65	64-69
Oats	8-10	34	65	56-74
Triticale	8-10	36	66	53-70
Rye	7-9	27	49	50-56
Wheat	9-11	32	60	58-64
Sorghum	8-10	30	59	72-78
Foxtail millet	8-13	32	61	53-73
Cereals were harvested at the dough stage. Reference: MFA Forage Focus (2004); and Twidwell et al. 1992

Table 2. Rating of Annual Crops for Best Suitability for Forage (Type Ranking: 1 = best suitability; 4 = poor suitability) in South Dakota

	Pasture	Hay	Silage	Green Chop
Winter Annuals
Wheat	1	2	4	4
Triticale	1	2	4	4
Rye	1	1	4	4
Pea	3	2	1	3
Spring Annuals
Wheat	2	1	4	4
Barley	2	3	4	4
Oats	1	1	2	4
Warm Season Annuals
Foxtail millets	4	1	4	3
Pearl millet	2	1	2	2
Sudangrass	1	1	2	2
Sorghum-sudangrass	1	3	2	1
Reference: Nleya T and Jeranyama P (2005) Utilizing Annual Crops for Forage in Western South Dakota. College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences. South Dakota State University.

Table 3. Suggested Planting Dates, Seeding Rates, and Harvesting Times for Annual Forages

	Planting Date	Seeding Rate	Pasture	Hay	Silage
Winter Annuals
Wheat	Sept-Oct 10	1.0 bu/A	Up to jointing	Boot-Milk	Soft dough
Triticale	Sept 1-10	2.0 bu/A	Up to jointing	Boot stage	Boot stage
Rye	Sept 1-10	1.5 bu/A	Up to jointing	Pre-boot S	oft dough
Pea	Sept-Oct 10	Depends on seed size	n/a	25-50% podding	Blossom stage
Spring Annuals
Wheat	April 1-30		Vegetative	Soft dough	Soft dough
Barley	April 10-30		Vegetative	Soft dough S	oft dough
Oats	April 1-30		n/a	Boot-early heading	Soft dough
Reference: Nleya T and Jeranyama P (2005) Utilizing Annual Crops for Forage in Western South Dakota. College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences. South Dakota State University.