February 2024 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN 23 The Nebraska Lo ery’s MVP Club is always welcoming new members! Join today and get a FREE $5 Nebraska Pick 5 coupon. Just visit nelo ery.com and click on “MVP Club.” JOIN THE CLUB THAT’S EXCLUSIVELY FUN! nelo ery.com Must be 19. Free problem gambling help for Nebraskans at problemgambling.nebraska.gov. is adequate moisture. Field peas are another species that could be included to enhance forage quality and provide some nitrogen fixation. Haying Most generally, spring forages are planted with hay production in mind. Some producers use a combination of grazing/haying, but if a producer has a lot of early pasture, they may be strictly growing forages for hay. Spring annual forages are usually ready for hay harvest around the third week of June, depending on growing conditions and the desired forage quality. Even when forages are planted later, the day length and warm weather drives them to start producing a seed head the same time as earlier planted ones. “We like to go until you can actually see a little bit of liquid in those kernels; they’re starting to form in the late milk or even a soft dough stage,” Volesky says. “At that harvest date, you’re really going to see higher quality.” Early harvests, such as when the crop is in a late-boot stage, will result in forage with a crude protein content of 12 to 14 percent. When harvested at a later growth stage, such as milk to soft-dough, yield will be greater and crude protein content may range from 7 to 10 percent. If producers plan to use spring annuals as haylage or silage, moisture at ensiling is another factor to consider along with grain maturity. Wilting is needed in most cases when ensiling forages as haylage and silage. At harvest, small grains in the boot stage may be at or above 80 percent moisture or 20 percent dry matter. When ensiling, forage should be 40 to 60 percent dry matter prior to ensiling. Generally, small grains harvested from boot stage to soft dough require wilting of 24 hours or more to achieve the targeted range of 40 to 60 percent dry matter. Soil Health Considerations of soil health are important in any crop/ grazing situation. Spring annual forages are productive, yet compared to perennials, their root structure is not as great. They are, nevertheless, still contributing to soil health from their root turnover. “In terms of soil health measures, the root biomass that they provide is added to that overall system, even though they’re going to be short lived, as well as leaving crop residue on the soil surface,” Redfearn states. “They also help hold the soil in place during the high-intensity rainfalls that we sometimes see during the spring.” While spring triticale and barley have a deeper, more robust root system than oats, any combination of spring annual forages will add to the overall soil health and root biomass of a well-managed crop production system. ~NC~
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