Last year's relatively dry conditions meant some producers on the Prairies had a low feed supply over the winter.
Forage specialist Lorne Klein says with the new growing season underway, livestock producers are looking to increase their feed supply over the summer, and quite often producers will look to annual crops to do so.
He notes recently, there has been producer interest in "cocktail" cover crops, which consists of a variety of crops in one field.
"It's a combination of plants," Klein says, "regardless of when you get your season moisture, you want something out there growing to take advantage of that. So, you know, in this case, after you've cut it for green feed, you've got crops that are actively growing and stockpiling forage for late fall and early winter grazing."
Klein says there are six kinds of crops in these mixtures, including warm, cool, and winter cereals, as well as annual legumes, oilseeds, and root crops.
"For the producers that I've been talking to about cocktail cover crops, I think their best chance is to seed a combination that has crops in there that, first of all, you're going to seed at early spring, you're going to let it grow during the summer and get three or four feet high, and then you're going to cut it as a green feed and either silage it off or bail it off," he explains.
Source : Portageonline