1998 Cereal Forage Trial at Kimberly, ID

Winter forage entries were seeded at Kimberly on October 7, 1997. Seeding rates were set at 1 million seeds per acre (approx. 95 lbs/A- wheat or barley).  Duplicate trials were seeded so harvest could be done on 2 separate dates. This allows an evaluation of dry matter accumulation and forage quality on separate harvest dates. On harvest date 1 (June 2), most entries had just completed heading. Heading dates are given in days from January 1 (June 2 is day 153). Harvest date 2 was on June 18. Dry matter accumulation increased from an average of 5747 pounds/acre to 8958 pounds/acre during this 16 day period. Samples from each entry and date will be analyzed for forage quality. This data will be reported when the data is obtained. Previous research indicated that forage quality decreases as maturity stage advances. Results for the winter forage entries is given in Table 1 for harvest date 1 and in Table 2 for harvest date 2.

The spring forage trial was seeded on April 16, 1998 and harvested on June 30, 1998. Heading date is given in days after January 1, harvest was on day 181. Only 1 date of harvest was done this year. Refer to previous years results for multiple dates of harvest from spring seeded trials. Table 3 contains the spring forage data. Average dry matter accumulation for 20 entries was 6593 pounds/acre.

Contact Larry Robertson at the Aberdeen Research and Extension Center (208) 397-4181 (email: larryr@uidaho.edu) or Bill Hazen at the Gooding County Extension Office (208) 934-4417 (email:  bhazen@uidaho.edu) for additional information.

Table 1. Winter forage harvest date 1 (6/2) at Kimberly, irrigated, 1998.

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Table 2. Winter forage harvest date 2 (6/18) at Kimberly, irrigated, 1998.

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Table 3. Spring forage harvest (6/30) at Kimberly, irrigated, 1998.