Before feeding small grain forages, match the feed to the need, say California researchers exploring harvest-stage effects on winter forage yield and quality. In other words, feed cereal forage at the highly digestible boot stage to high-producing dairy cows. Lower-energy, soft-dough stage forage better meets the nutritional needs of dry cows and growing heifers, the researchers found. In 2001, they
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Before feeding small grain forages, match “the feed to the need,” say California researchers exploring harvest-stage effects on winter forage yield and quality.
In other words, feed cereal forage at the highly digestible boot stage to high-producing dairy cows. Lower-energy, soft-dough stage forage better meets the nutritional needs of dry cows and growing heifers, the researchers found.
In 2001, they sampled four small grain forages — oats, wheat and two varieties of triticale — in five-day intervals from preboot to hard dough stage of maturity. They found that all should be harvested by soft dough stage if they'll be fed to dairy cattle.