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Warm-season Annuals May Be Forage Option

Planting summer annual forage crops could be an option where moisture is adequate for emergence or rain still may come.
Much of North Dakota remains dry, and forage for livestock still is a huge concern.

“Spotty showers and storms have given some localities some needed moisture, while much of western and north-central North Dakota remains critically dry,” says John Dhuyvetter, North Dakota State University Extension livestock systems specialist at the North Central Research Extension Center near Minot. “Options remain for planting some summer annual forage crops where moisture is adequate for emergence or rain may still come.”

Good choices for warm-season plantings include hay millets, forage sorghum and sudangrass hybrids, he notes.

Fine-seeded hay millets are economical to plant at about 15 pounds of seed per acre, but they must be seeded shallowly, at 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep, and likely will require precipitation for germination and emergence.

The millets are finer-stemmed than forage sorghums, allowing for faster dry-down and easier haying. If cut at early heading, forage quality and palatability generally are good, with crude protein at 8-plus percent and total digestible nutrients at about 58 percent.

A planting risk is that weeds, including foxtails, will emerge simultaneously, resulting in competition and stunted stands of millet.

While not a choice for horses, sorghum and sudangrass hybrids have the advantages of a larger seed, greater competitiveness and deeper rooting, Dhuyvetter says. These hybrids may be sown up to 1.25 inches deep.

Recommended seeding rates when drilled in solid stands are 20 to 30 pounds per acre. With moisture, fertility and warm temperatures, they have robust growth and high yield potential.

Haying should be timed at head emergence or when the plants are 4 to 5 feet tall. As a coarse-stemmed, leafy plant, these hybrids are difficult to cure to acceptable haying moisture without low humidity and intense sun. Cut these crops with a mower conditioner that crushes and crimps the stalks.

Dhuyvetter suggests that considering the potential for continued drought, plant stress and possible nitrate accumulation, producers should apply modest rates of nitrogen unless soil tests indicate adequate fertility. He recommends 50 to 60 pounds of nitrogen and 15 pounds of phosphorous.

 

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Wheat Yields in USA and China Threatened by Heat Waves Breaking Enzymes

Video: Wheat Yields in USA and China Threatened by Heat Waves Breaking Enzymes

A new peer reviewed study looks at the generally unrecognized risk of heat waves surpassing the threshold for enzyme damage in wheat.

Most studies that look at crop failure in the main food growing regions (breadbaskets of the planet) look at temperatures and droughts in the historical records to assess present day risk. Since the climate system has changed, these historical based risk analysis studies underestimate the present-day risks.

What this new research study does is generate an ensemble of plausible scenarios for the present climate in terms of temperatures and precipitation, and looks at how many of these plausible scenarios exceed the enzyme-breaking temperature of 32.8 C for wheat, and exceed the high stress yield reducing temperature of 27.8 C for wheat. Also, the study considers the possibility of a compounded failure with heat waves in both regions simultaneously, this greatly reducing global wheat supply and causing severe shortages.

Results show that the likelihood (risk) of wheat crop failure with a one-in-hundred likelihood in 1981 has in today’s climate become increased by 16x in the USA winter wheat crop (to one-in-six) and by 6x in northeast China (to one-in-sixteen).

The risks determined in this new paper are much greater than that obtained in previous work that determines risk by analyzing historical climate patterns.

Clearly, since the climate system is rapidly changing, we cannot assume stationarity and calculate risk probabilities like we did traditionally before.

We are essentially on a new planet, with a new climate regime, and have to understand that everything is different now.