Forages Week

This week I wanted to focus on forages, as a large % of our sales are for forage use. They are used in many different ways so I wanted to provide some ideas of how they are bing used. 

Forage Flexibility 
Forages is a broad group and is a large % of our sales. From alfalfa and grasses to fall triticale, polycrop blends and corn.
Blair wrote a nice blog post showing some options in every forage type: https://www.stampseeds.com/blog/cover-crops-and-forages

• Fall rye and winter triticale have drought tolerance and on irrigation can allow you to double crop.
  • Oats have had BYDV problems so grow a resistant variety like AAC Wesley
  • Some customers harvest an early planted fall hybrid fall rye and then seed a short season barley in early June for grain.
• Blending a fall rye or winter trit into a spring cereal or blend is increasing so that they get regrowth in the fall for grazing or for the falling spring for forage (there is some risk to the crop being in the gourd an entire season)
• Awnless triticale and smooth awn barley have gained popularity in our sales as more are trying to bale / swath graze blends. 
• Sorghum seeded in June has provided amazing growth into the fall exceeding oats in longer seasons by almost double the tonnage
• Corn sales on dryland is increasing as it seems to spread the risk of moisture over a longer period vs the tight season of cereals moisture use. (2024 irrigated corn trial win)

Check out our forage trials in corn, fall & spring crops from the past few seasons: https://www.stampseeds.com/trials.html


What is a Polycrop?
Polycrop is a trending name for cover crop forages that have a diverse blend of crop types to allow for diversity of growth and regrowth. We offer custom blends of these

Click for more info on Polycrops from the Beef Cattle Research Council


Spring Triticale for Drought Tolerance
We have 2 newer spring triticale varieties available this season. Triticale has a larger / stronger root system vs other crops so it can tolerate sandy or dry conditions better vs some crops. 
We have an awnless spring triticale called TriCal Surge that is perfect for all types of forage use.
We also have the brand new AB Sunbeam spring trit (awned) and is perfect for silage forage or grain and stands well vs other triticale.