Winter Annuals Sustain Weight Gain in Cattle
It may come as a surprise that winter annuals have the quality and energy to sustain high weight gains in cattle in the winter months. However, when properly managed, a winter annual is capable of producing up to three times more forage than a cool-season perennial in the winter and twice the amount of perennials in general.
Despite these facts, it is important to keep in mind that not every winter annual will work everywhere as winterkill will occur in extremely cold temperatures. The key, then, is to select the species that fit the particular climate. When choosing the proper species, it is important to consider the following:
- Hardiness in low temperatures
- Winter growth yields
- Growth distribution
- Length of vegetative period
- Tolerance for pest
- Efficiency of water use
When not irrigating, a barren period to collect moisture before planting will be necessary for your winter annuals. It also is important to plant winter annuals as early as possible. Doing so allows for a stockpiling of grass before winter arrives. Since winter annuals have varying periods of maturity and a particular tolerance for cold, it is always best to plant a sequence of annuals separately as opposed to planting them all together or choosing just one variety. An example would be to plant oats and ryegrass in the late summer and rye and wheat in the early fall.
Oats will be ready for the first grazing about 40 days after being planted. Cereal rye will then be ready, followed by wheat. About two months later, the annual ryegrass will be ready. While annual ryegrass grows at relatively slower rate, it packs more of a nutritional punch and doesn’t move into the reproductive state until much later in the spring than other winter annuals. For this reason, it is considered to be the highest quality winter annual and offers the most flexibility for use in the winter months.
It is important to remember when feeding winter annuals that rotational grazing should be used. In the middle of winter, after about a month or so of regrowth, a subsequent grazing can take place. Oats should be grazed first in this grazing. Next comes cereal rye, wheat and ryegrass.
Cereal rye will make the most forage during regrowth while oats will make the least. This is due to the fact that oats have less of a tolerance for cold temperatures. It is best that annual ryegrass not be used in the mid-winter but rather stored and used at a later date. On the other hand, storing small grains is not recommended since frost will kill off the top of the leaves.
Studies have shown that stored forages are rarely higher in terms of quality than winter annuals. Therefore, in order to prevent a decrease in the average daily gain of cattle, stored forages used as supplements to winter annuals need to be the highest quality possible.