At a forage workshop hosted by the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association at the University of Manitoba in March, Manitoba Agriculture entomologist John Gavloski highlighted several key insect pests that can affect forage production and shared strategies for managing them.

Grasshoppers

Grasshoppers are a common pest in Prairie fields. Canada is home to 129 species of grasshoppers, but very few of those cause crop damage. There are only four or five grasshopper species that are considered to be pests, and of those, three are responsible for most of the damage.

“The top three grasshoppers in our survey this year are two-striped, which has been our dominant species in recent years, followed by either clear-winged or migratory,” Gavloski says.

All three have a similar life cycle. They all overwinter as eggs, laid in clusters of 20 to 30. The individual eggs resemble grains of brown rice.

“If you can dig those up easily, then you know you’ve got a decent grasshopper egg population,” Gavloski warns.

—> MORE ON FORAGES: Managing diseases in alfalfa

The ideal time for control is when the grasshoppers’ wing buds become visible. At this stage, the hatch is likely complete.

“Try to figure out what those newly hatched populations are like,” he says. “That will help you with your decision-making later on.”

Farmers can also lean on provincial grasshopper risk maps. Each of the Prairie provinces puts out a risk map in the fall based on samples taken, usually in August. The maps can help estimate the next season’s egg-laying potential.

While these maps can help, Gavloski warns they’re estimates and don’t guarantee outcomes for the following season. Weather conditions after the surveys have been done can affect populations. A warm fall with a late frost can mean there is more development within the egg, and the hatch could come sooner. And while the eggs are waterproof, heavy rains after the hatch, when the young grasshoppers are small, lack fat reserves and need to feed, can lower survival rates.

“They’re more vulnerable when they’re really tiny,” Gavloski says. “They get disease, they get bloated and they can drown.”

—> MORE ON GRASSHOPPERS: Reduced-area pest spraying can still hit moving targets

Economic thresholds: Estimating whether grasshopper numbers have reached the economic threshold can be challenging.

Gavloski estimates grasshopper populations by walking 50 metres along a field edge or ditch, selecting five random one-metre square areas and counting the grasshoppers that jump as he approaches. He then disturbs the plants to check for remaining insects.

These counts provide an estimate of the grasshopper population. The process doesn’t give very accurate results, but can probably let you know if you’re near the threshold.

“Usually, you can get a ballpark range,” Gavloski says. “If you think it was somewhere around 12 to 15, that is good. You don’t have to know that it was actually 13.”

For forage crops, the economic threshold for grasshopper control is generally considered to be eight to 12 grasshoppers per square metre.

Control methods: Gavloski recommends using what is called the Reduced Area and Agent Treatments (RAATS), which involve treating alternating swaths of land. This method works because grasshoppers move from untreated areas to treated areas. Research done in Wisconsin has shown RAATS can provide very good control while using half the insecticide.

—> MORE ON FORAGES: Grow forages, starve weeds

“The results of the research showed they were getting 94 per cent control when they sprayed the whole rangeland, but they were able to get 81 per cent control by only doing half of the rangeland,” Gavloski says.

Insecticides such as Coragen (chlorantraniliprole) are commonly used to control grasshoppers. Coragen is effective, with relatively low toxicity to pollinators. Generic insecticide versions have made treatments more affordable.

Cutworms

Cutworms are a diverse group of pests in Canada. Gavloski spoke about three different categories of cutworms: climbing, surface-feeding and subterranean.

Climbing cutworms climb plants at night to feed, then retreat underground or under debris during the day. Unlike other cutworms, they don’t cut plants but leave feeding damage on leaves, which can be misleading when scouting. The dingy cutworm is the most common climber in Manitoba. It can be identified by small leaf-like markings on its body. To find them, dig around damaged plants.

Surface-feeding cutworms crawl along the ground and cut plant stems, leaving severed plants behind. If you see cut plants, dig around to find the caterpillars nearby. The redbacked cutworm is a common surface-feeding species. It is recognizable by two red lines running down its back.

Subterranean cutworms live and feed underground, making them difficult to detect and control. The glassy cutworm is an example of a subterranean feeder. It prefers grasses over broadleaf crops and is commonly found in forage and cereal crops.

Gavloski also pointed out that some infestations can appear in patches. The patchiness can depend on egg-laying patterns the previous season, but it can also depend on topography. In more rolling landscapes, the warmer, southern side of the slopes tends to attract the bugs.

Economic thresholds: Gavloski didn’t speak to economic thresholds in his presentation. Manitoba Agriculture’s website says economic thresholds haven’t been well researched for cutworms, but included some anecdotal thresholds for various crops.

For alfalfa (the only forage crop listed), the website suggests four to five larvae per square foot (30 cm) as a threshold. Otherwise, farmers can just make a judgement based on the level of plant injury. Visible, widespread damage that threatens plant stands would obviously signal the need for control.

Control methods: Management strategies depend on the species. Coragen Max is the only insecticide registered for cutworms in forages — and while Gavloski says more options are needed, the pesticide is effective.

“It is a very good product for cutworms, at least the ones that surface feed; it’s got residual, and it is basically harmless to bees and many beneficial insects.”

Since cutworms are most active at night, insecticides should be applied late in the afternoon or evening.

Unfortunately, the effectiveness of insecticides to control subterranean species is “hit-and-miss,” Gavloski says. “Because they’re not coming above the ground to feed, they can be a real nuisance to manage with insecticides.”

Targeted spraying of affected areas can be used in situations where an infestation is not widespread.

“If the problem is small — say, 10 or 20 acres have a lot and the rest of the fields aren’t bad — you can patch-spray for cutworms.”

Cereal armyworm

The pest Gavloski refers to here shouldn’t be confused with the better-known bertha armyworm, which is mostly a concern for canola growers. As the name suggests, cereal armyworms are more likely to be found in forage grasses than alfalfa stands. It is also known as true armyworm or simply as “armyworm.”

Adults don’t overwinter in Canada but migrate from southern areas, often carried by wind currents in spring and summer, and while they have a particular affinity for timothy, most forage grasses are excellent hosts for armyworms.

“When the adults arrive, they’re looking for a lush, dense grassy stand to lay their eggs into,” Gavloski says. “So a perennial grass is just ideal … that’s where the eggs often end up.”

However, if they defoliate enough in an area, they will start moving into other areas (these movements are why they’re called armyworms), and, while their preference is to feed on grasses, they may feed on broadleaf plants in lieu of a grass crop if that’s what’s available.

Armyworm larvae have distinct stripes, with a V-shaped marking on their heads. The colours can vary, but those striped patterns are usually visible. The adult moths are light brown with white dots on their wings. Armyworm larvae feed primarily on grasses and are often found in forage stands, especially in early spring.

When scouting for armyworm larvae, check multiple areas of the field, as populations can vary within a single field. Shake plants and inspect the soil for larvae, paying close attention to plant debris, soil clumps and cracks.

“During the day, they’re trying to hide, so they’re underneath the debris and may go into the cracks in the soil,” Gavloski says. “So you have to look in the cracks, peel away the debris and do your counts.”

In cereal and grass crops, begin scouting in late June and examine at least five areas, focusing on patches of lodged plants and grassy weed infestations. Fields or sections with significant bird activity should also be monitored, as birds often feed on armyworms. Additionally, check the backs of larvae for parasite eggs, which can indicate natural control.

Economic thresholds: The threshold for control varies by crop. For forage grasses, it’s generally five larvae per square foot (929 cm²). However, as mentioned, they love timothy. Instead of feeding on the leaves before moving on to the heads like they do with other grasses, with timothy, they attack the heads first. As a result, they may require intervention even if the threshold isn’t met.

“Sometimes, it will pay to control them at levels below a threshold, depending on where they’re feeding and how much damage they’re doing,” Gavloski says.

Control methods: Insecticide applications should be timed for the evening or late afternoon, as armyworms primarily feed at night.

As with cutworms, chlorantraniliprole is the only active ingredient registered for armyworms. The products Coragen Max, Coragen (the pre-Max version) and a new generic version called Shenzi are available for farmers to use.

Alfalfa weevil

As the name suggests, the alfalfa weevil is a major economic pest for alfalfa crops, but will also feed on other legumes such as clover, making it a major concern for many farmers growing forages.

Adults overwinter under plant debris and soil in and around alfalfa fields and emerge in spring, feeding on alfalfa leaves. Round, elongated holes in the leaves are an indication of adult alfalfa weevils feeding.

When females are ready to lay eggs, they chew a hole in the stem and deposit from one to 40 eggs. When they hatch, the larvae will feed upon the stem before moving to fresh buds and leaves. After the larval stage, they make silky cocoons that, if the infestation is widespread, can be visible as a white haze over the field.

“People often first notice this driving by their field and see the crop is looking kind of frosted,” Gavloski says. “If you see this, you’ve probably got lots of feeding, and you probably should have been in there earlier.”

As a general guideline, he recommends scouting for the bugs in early June and continuing weekly checks.

“They should be hatching out by then,” Gavloski says. “You should be on top of things before it gets too bad.”

Economic thresholds: Alfalfa weevils cause significant damage, particularly to young alfalfa crops. The general action threshold for larvae varies based on crop height. For hay crops under 30 cm, the threshold is one larva per stem. For crops between 30 and 40 cm, it’s two larvae per stem. If three larvae per stem are found, control measures are generally needed.

Control methods: For hay crops, cutting the plants early is the main strategy used to control the insects because the larvae will starve or desiccate after cutting. Several insecticides are available for use, but many only provide partial suppression.

“Our insecticides don’t always work well for alfalfa weevil,” Gavloski says.

Natural predators, such as parasitoid wasps (bathyplectes and oomyzus), can help control alfalfa weevil populations. These predators can sometimes reduce the need for chemical control.

Lygus bugs

Gavloski also touched on lygus bugs. They are primarily a concern for alfalfa seed producers rather than forage growers. Lygus bugs are sap-feeding insects that use their beaks, like mosquitoes, to inject enzymes into plant tissues and suck up the sap. They target nitrogen-rich growth, damaging buds, seeds and flowers.

While there are suggested economic thresholds for control of the bugs in seed alfalfa, and insecticides are available, control is not recommended for alfalfa grown for hay.

The post What insect pests are bugging your forage crops? appeared first on Grainews.

However, as with any farming practice, the results can vary based on location, weather and management strategies.

The practice of using polycrops — also known as cover crops, forage mixtures or cocktail crops — is intended to increase the diversity of plant species in a pasture. Increased plant diversity can enhance soil health, increase water infiltration, reduce fertilizer needs and provide higher quality forages for cattle.

One of the objectives of the Living Lab Central Prairies has been growing polycrops on producer operations and evaluating both the long- and short-term impacts.

The Living Labs program allows producers such as Erika Stewart, John Griffin and Carmen Jackson to use polycrops on their operations, and they have encountered both successes and challenges with the practice. Their experiences, combined with insights from agricultural research, highlight the complexity of adopting polycrops and offer valuable lessons for others considering this practice.

Choosing the right crop to meet your goals

Carmen Jackson, who operates a farm southeast of Regina, takes a measured approach to polycrops. “You can’t just jump in without understanding the risks,” she advises. Carmen and her family manage 3,500 acres, including 900 acres of rented land, most of which is native grass, with a small portion (about 400 acres) seeded to forages for winter feeding.

When it comes to polycrops, Carmen emphasizes the importance of making small, deliberate steps when implementing new practices. “Even if things don’t go perfectly, you have to keep moving forward,” she says.

Carmen and her family have been using polycrops for the last five years. They started after attending a workshop in Manitoba and have been experimenting with them since. “The most important thing I have learned, and that we did wrong the first year, is you need to understand the context that you are using polycrops for,” she says. She has seeded polycrops in multiple locations on her farm but points out that there are different goals, and each goal requires different grazing strategies.

For example, on one pasture the goal was to increase pasture biomass. Carmen notes it was a saline, low-yielding piece of ground they were trying to improve. For that pasture they seeded a polycrop blend and then did some late fall grazing, turning a group of cows out to allow them to both trample and graze the forage. The residual forage left behind was targeting added organic matter with the long-term goal of improving soil conditions.

In another pasture, the goal was a high-quality feed on which to background their bulls. This piece was cross-fenced, and bulls were moved through paddocks in late summer. This year Carmen hopes to be able to graze in both summer and regrowth in the fall.

Carmen works with a professional agrologist to build forage blends that meet the needs of operation, and chooses different blends based on the goals for the pasture and if they intend to graze or make silage.

“It’s probably more advantageous to come up with something that you think will work on the soil you have.”

Carmen notes she is more comfortable using a premade blend on good land, but on land that requires soil improvements, she finds value in choosing crops tailored to their specific goals.

When choosing forage blends for silage Carmen points out,“first and foremost, we have to feed our cows, so tonnage is my No. 1 priority. I try to add in something to help with soil health, but it can’t take too much away from the total volume – it’s a bit of a dance, and you just need to adjust as you go.”

Economics, and knowing how her land performs, also play a role in what Carmen chooses for a forage blend. In some of the poorer soil areas, yield is limited, and she needs to be conscious of what she spends on a mixture to make economic sense. With this mindset she points out that even in the saline or other problem areas they may be able to spend a bit more on polycrops than a monoculture, as they don’t use any fertilizer and there may be long-term benefits.

Carmen acknowledges polycrops may not always deliver immediate or dramatic results. However, oil health benefits accumulate over time. “Sometimes, you just have to adjust it as you go,” she notes, indicating experimentation is part of the learning process.

Adaptation and pivoting

Erika Stewart and her family farm near Morse, Sask., about 60 km east of Swift Current, and have recently started integrating polycrops as co-operators in the Living Lab Central Prairies. Their farm consists of primarily native grass with some cultivated land they use to put up winter feed for cattle.

She notes the challenges that come with unpredictable weather, especially when drought conditions persist. “If moisture doesn’t come, it’s really hard to make cover crops work,” Erika says, noting the trial-and-error nature of polycrops management.

Erika is still working out how polycrops fit into the operation. In 2021, they experimented by growing small amounts of two different blends marketed by separate companies. In late May they seeded a combined 230 acres side by side and found that both did well despite drought conditions.

With that success, the next year they seeded 240 acres to a polycrop blend for silage. Once again it performed well. “We had gotten two-and-a-half, maybe three, inches of rain and had enough silage to make it through, so we were thrilled,” Erika says.

Unfortunately, they were not as successful the following year, despite similar rainfall. “We had planned to swath graze it that year, but it wasn’t even worth driving the swather over. Instead, we fenced it into four paddocks, and I think we got about a week’s worth of grazing off it.”

Despite trying a drought-tolerant blend last year, they had similar results, as well as issues with weeds. “Weeds weren’t an issue when things were growing, but now, after two years of crop failure, it is a big problem,” she says.

For Erika, nitrates have also been an issue. “The brassicas that we used to improve soil health were great, but due to drought, when we did our feed test, the nitrates came back super high.” They were still able to salvage the feed by allowing the pasture to rest, then grazing in a small paddock with gates open to a perennial pasture with water.

“That way the cows could go in and graze, but they didn’t stay in there since there was no water, and it forced them to come out and eat something else as well.”

Even with the issues in the past couple of years, Erika thinks polycrops could still play a role in their operation. “We added some winter triticale to last year’s blend, so hopefully we will see that pop up for some early spring grazing to allow us to rest our perennials longer.”

She also wants to try grazing the polycrops earlier in the season and using them as a high-quality forage during the breeding season.

Erika remains committed to experimenting with polycrops, adding that understanding the local conditions and being flexible with the approach is key. “You have to tweak things as you go,” she reflects, acknowledging the learning curve associated with integrating new practices into an operation. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s all part of the journey.”

Context and flexibility

John Griffin and his family have both irrigated and dryland near Central Butte and Bridgeford, Sask., northwest of Moose Jaw. Over the years they have transitioned from a purebred herd calving in winter to a commercial herd that calves in May. With the adjustment of their calving season, they have come to rely on swath grazing for winter feed. John has been experimenting with how to add polycrops into their system and has had both success and learning experiences.

Drought and grasshoppers resulted in complete crop failure the first year they tried polycrops, but being a part of the Living Lab Central Prairies gave John the opportunity to try seeding them again.

John has been experimenting with both a commercially available complex mixture as well as a simple mixture with peas and a cereal. He uses a hoe drill with a two-sided gravity wagon to seed both mixtures.

“The two sides work great,” John says. “I put the peas in one side and the oats or barley in the other side, then just hand dribble in the complex mix on top of the barley for those fields.” He points out that the box drill is nice, as the seed cups can open to allow bigger seeds like the peas to get through.

Last year both grew well, but he noticed in the complex mixture most of the biomass was coming from the peas and oats. Based on that, and the higher cost of the complex mixture, John plans to proceed with a simple cereal-pea mix in the future.

Like Erika, John wants to use polycrops as a high-quality forage during the breeding season to improve his conception rates. “We have very productive spring pastures because we get snowmelt, but then it dries up and turns brown, so we don’t have a high-quality feed when we need it in August when the bulls go out.” This past year he turned the cows and bulls out onto the polycrops to graze during the breeding season.

In addition, John points out, research staff through the living lab are taking measurements on soil health which may have long-term benefits for his pastures. “Maybe over time we will see benefits that I am not noticing yet, but, from a beef production standpoint, if I can get a few more cows bred at that time of year then they would be benefiting us.”

Talking to other producers who have used polycrops has been helpful but John notes taking your own climate into account is important. For example, he knows other farmers who have had a lot of success including turnips and other brassicas in their polycrop blends — but on their place, flea beetles decimate those plants before they can get going.

John has appreciated being a part of the Living Lab Central Prairies as it has given him an opportunity to test out research results on his own farm. While research provides valuable insights, it’s essential to understand the local context and conditions. What works well in one area may not necessarily be successful in another.

Starting small and choosing the right mix

Aklilu Alemu, a researcher with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and research lead for the Living Lab Central Prairies, recommends producers looking to integrate polycrops into their operations should “start small and simple until you’re familiar with the practice.”

Selecting the right mix of polycrops is important, especially when moisture is limited. “If the moisture is not coming, the cereal component of the polycrop mix can still provide some biomass,” Aklilu says. This strategy helps ensure, even in dry conditions, producers can still benefit from the polycrop’s contribution to soil health and grazing.

Aklilu notes “field conditions are highly variable, and what works in one place may not work in another.” This aligns with the experiences shared by producers like John Griffin, who found what works in research trials doesn’t always translate directly to real-world farm conditions.

Aklilu says there are three things producers should think about when implementing polycrops:

• Moisture is the number one factor that will influence success.
• Start simple, and start small.
• Start with at least 40 per cent cereal in your first year, that way if other crops fail you should still have some biomass to salvage.

Trial, error, adaptation

The experiences of producers such as Carmen, Erika and John illustrate the unpredictable nature of integrating polycrops into a beef operation. While some years may yield impressive results, others may bring challenges such as pests, poor weather or suboptimal crop growth. The key to success lies in adaptability, local knowledge and a willingness to experiment.

The post Lessons learned growing forage mixtures for beef production appeared first on Grainews.

That’s the message from Dan Undersander, forage agronomist and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin. He spoke during a three-day intensive forage workshop hosted by the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association at the University of Manitoba in March.

While many growers are aware of winterkill and stand thinning, they might not realize just how many diseases are chipping away at their yields — or when those issues can start.

“If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you won’t see it,” Undersander says. “And you’ll think that everything is just fine when it isn’t.”

Black stem

Black stem is caused by the fungus phoma medicaginis and is one of the most common alfalfa diseases across Canada’s Prairies. It tends to show up in cool, wet conditions and often appears early in the season.

According to the Manitoba Agriculture website, the disease can be identified in early spring by numerous dark spots on the lower leaves, petioles, and stems. These may expand into large black areas. Infected leaves often turn yellow and fall prematurely, and lesions that girdle the stem can cause wilting above the damage.

“If it causes complete girdling of the stem, then the stems will die,” Undersander says. “If you have enough of that, then your plant will die.”

Early cutting can help reduce losses, as can rotating with non-legumes for a few years before reseeding alfalfa.

Crown rot, root rots

A wide range of fungi — including fusarium, rhizoctonia, and phoma — cause crown and root rot, especially in older stands or those affected by winter injury. Symptoms include stunted growth, yellowing, and poor vigour.

“If crown rot is less than 50 per cent of the crown’s diameter, it’s probably worth keeping the stand,” Undersander says. “But if it exceeds 50 per cent, you should think about turning it over, because there’s a good chance it won’t survive.”

Winter crown rot, also known as snow mould, is another threat to alfalfa and other legumes. It’s caused by several soil-borne fungi that are most active during late fall and early spring when plants are dormant and soil temperatures are near freezing. Once the soil warms above 0 C, these fungi become inactive, and alfalfa is no longer at risk for this disease.

Aphanomyces

Aphanomyces is another type of root rot, caused by the oomycete aphanomyces euteiches, and has become a significant disease in alfalfa production, particularly in wet or poorly drained soils.

“If the seedlings are coming up and the cotyledon dies, but the seedling stays erect — that’s probably aphanomyces,” Undersander says.

It often appears on slopes rather than in low-lying areas, and its biggest effect is on root development. Undersander explained that aphanomyces causes root pruning, which weakens the alfalfa’s root system. As a result, the plants become less competitive, creating opportunities for weeds to invade the field.

Verticillium wilt

This cold-weather vascular disease was introduced from Europe and has been causing problems in British Columbia since the 1970s. It was first detected on the Prairies in 1998, in Manitoba, but has since spread to Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Undersander says it can be identified by what he calls a “thumbprint” on the leaf — irregular, pale or yellowish patches that appear on the leaves, which can resemble the shape or impression of a thumb.

“This is a disease that causes dead leaves on a green stem,” he says. “It causes problems because it’s attacking the vascular system.”

Symptoms are worst in spring and fall. Infected stands may die out in a few years, especially under irrigation. Rotating with cereals or grasses — and avoiding potatoes, sunflowers and sweet clover — is recommended.

Common leaf spot

Caused by the fungus pseudopeziza trifolii, this disease shows up as tiny black or brown circular spots on leaflets, with a lighter brown raised disc in the centre. As the infection spreads, leaves will yellow and drop early, reducing yield potential. It thrives in moist weather and overwinters in crop residue.

Manitoba Agriculture recommends cutting before leaves begin to fall, and using resistant varieties such as Rambler.

Downy mildew

This foliar disease shows up as pale blotches on the top of leaves and a violet, downy growth underneath. Plants may appear bunched or twisted at the top. It’s most active in spring and fall under wet, humid conditions but usually doesn’t cause serious damage.

Undersander points out that downy mildew can be a concern in both spring and fall. “Depending on the time of year, different organisms can be a problem,” he says.

According to Manitoba Agriculture, resistant cultivars such as Algonquin can be used for control, and rotating with cereals or grasses can help reduce infection.

Phytophthora

Phytophthora root rot is especially problematic in poorly drained areas and spreads through standing water in warm weather.

Even if phytophthora doesn’t kill the plant right away, Undersander says, it can severely damage the root. The plant may appear healthy for a while, but when dry conditions hit, it often can’t access enough moisture and will die as a result. He advises digging about six inches to check root health.

“You might keep the alfalfa for the current season,” he says, “but if the root is rotted off, you should plan on turning it over.”

Anthracnose

Though it’s often associated with lentils and dry beans, anthracnose can also be a yield thief in alfalfa — and it frequently goes unnoticed, Undersander says. The disease is identifiable by diamond-shaped lesions on the stem and sudden dieback at the top of the plant.

“There has been good resistance to it,” he says. “And we should think about taking advantage of that, because it will cause as much as a 20 or 30 per cent yield loss if you’re not paying attention.”

Timing matters

The appearance and impact of alfalfa diseases often depend on both the age of the stand and the time of year. Diseases such as phytophthora, pythium and black stem typically show up in new seedings, while bacterial wilt, fusarium wilt, crown rot and verticillium wilt are more common in older stands.

“You wouldn’t expect to see them in the first year or two, but you would maybe see them in the third or fourth year,” Undersander says.

Seasonal conditions also influence disease expression. Some pathogens thrive in cool, wet weather: downy mildew and verticillium wilt, for example, are often seen in spring and fall. Others, such as spring black stem and pythium, emerge early in the season, while summer black stem appears later.

Understanding when a disease is likely to appear can help with diagnosis and inform decisions about cutting, rotation and stand management.

Management tips

Undersander offers several general tips for alfalfa growers aiming to manage disease risk.

He recommends starting with good-quality seed and avoiding planting alfalfa after another legume. Where possible, he says, farmers should stick to planting in well-drained fields to help prevent root rot diseases and avoid wet spots that can foster pathogen growth. Maintaining good pH and nutrient levels is important, he adds, because vigorous plants are more disease-resistant. He suggests controlling insects, since they also introduce pathogens to a crop.

READ MORE: Alfalfa aptitude: five things to consider when selecting varieties

Farmers should also mow new seedlings before old stands, and try to mow clean fields before infected ones, to reduce disease spread.

“Wait till the dew is off before mowing,” Undersander advises. “I don’t recommend expecting all the dew to be gone, but at least a high portion of it.”

The post Managing diseases in alfalfa appeared first on Grainews.

Undersander ran 298 alfalfa yield trials between 1985 and 2016, results of which clearly showed penny-pinching doesn’t pay off when it comes to choosing a variety.

“Out of those 298 trials on average, the top variety yielded one-and-a-third tons more than the lowest variety in the seeding year,” he says. “You would have got your seed cost back in the seeding year.”

Yield the main consideration

Undersander led the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association’s intensive three-day forage workshop at the University of Manitoba on March 5-7, where he discussed the main considerations for a grower deciding on an alfalfa variety. Yield topped his list of these considerations for the simple reason that profitability increases with yield.

The reason for this, he says, is that many of the costs remain the same whether a high-yielding or low-yielding variety is chosen. Taxes, land expenses and harvest costs, for examples, are generally consistent. He pointed out there’s only about a five per cent difference in cost between producing one ton of yield versus two tons. Higher yield also enables farmers to produce more forage with fewer acres.

“That’s something that people should be thinking about, particularly as land taxes go up,” Undersander says, but adds that yield data is often difficult to come by, since most provinces and states have eliminated forage yield testing.

Disease resistance

“Another one of the benefits you get from a premium variety is good disease resistance,” Undersander says. “The good varieties have it; the cheaper ones don’t. So look for that.”

When selecting varieties, he says it’s important to understand how disease resistance is measured. In alfalfa breeding, varieties are evaluated based on the percentage of plants that are resistant to specific diseases. If at least 50 per cent of the plants in a variety are resistant, the variety is classified as highly resistant to that disease.

It’s important to recognize, though, that this still means nearly half of the plants may be susceptible, which can lead to disease problems in the field.

Undersander recommends farmers make an effort to figure out which diseases are present on their farms.

“Go out and walk through fields and see what you think you’ll need resistance to,” he says. “You don’t need resistance to every variety, every location. You also don’t need it every year.”

Winter hardiness

Undersander explains that winter hardiness is highly dependent on location — and more of a concern, then, in colder regions such as the Canadian Prairies.

One of the biggest factors in determining winter survival is the amount of snow cover. If there’s good snow cover, many varieties can survive the winter. However, without snow cover, farmers need to pay closer attention to other factors that influence winter hardiness.

“We’ve had California types survive for us in central Wisconsin, where we had good snow cover,” Undersander says.

Soil fertility is another critical factor — particularly the potassium levels, which should be kept high going into the winter to help alfalfa plants survive the cold months. Additionally, the frequency of cutting can affect winter survival.

“Some of the beef cattle producers who cut less frequently have better winter survival than dairy producers because they’re building more root carbohydrates with each cutting,” he says.

Lastly, whether you take a late fall cutting can influence survival. Undersander generally recommends taking a late cutting if snow is expected, as it helps the plants enter winter with a better chance of survival.

Fall dormancy

Closely tied to winter survival is fall dormancy, which refers to how much an alfalfa plant continues growing after a fall cutting.

Undersander points out there has been a trend to lean on less dormant varieties because they yield more. They start growth earlier in the spring and recover faster after cutting.

Alfalfa fall dormancy is measured on a scale from 1 to 10, with lower numbers indicating more dormant varieties that shut down earlier in the fall. In colder regions like the Prairies, dormancy ratings of 2 or 3 are typical, while much of the U.S. grows dormancy 4 varieties. Warmer regions, such as Florida or southern California, rely on dormancy 8 or 9.

However, Undersander notes, choosing a variety with too little dormancy for your region can lead to problems.

“A few companies have tried introducing dormancy 5s or 6s in Wisconsin,” he says. “But then you get some 70 F (21 C) days in January, and the buds start to grow. And you know it’s not going to stay 70 F.”

When the cold returns, that premature growth can be damaged, reducing stand longevity. In contrast, 3s or 4s take longer to break dormancy, making them less likely to be triggered by a short warm spell.

“You might have two or three warm days, but you won’t likely have a week that’s enough to trigger a dormancy 3 or 4,” Undersander explains.

Stand persistence

At the workshop Undersander also briefly touched on the concept of stand persistence in alfalfa. In general, persistence refers to the ability of an alfalfa variety to remain productive over multiple growing seasons.

For farmers looking to grow alfalfa for several years before replanting, persistence is important because it ensures a variety can withstand multiple seasons of harvesting and continue to contribute to soil health and forage production.

However, Undersander also notes the benefits of short rotations. He points out that older stands tend to yield less, and weed problems tend become more pronounced.

In such rotations, the key advantage of alfalfa is its ability to fix nitrogen, meaning persistence is a less important trait. And it would largely be determined by disease resistance, winter hardiness and fall dormancy.

“Our mistake with alfalfa is thinking of it only as a forage,” Undersander says. “While that’s a worthwhile thing, alfalfa not only produces enough nitrogen for itself and any grasses you put with it, but it also produces enough for the crop the next year when you plow it down.”

The post Alfalfa aptitude: five things to consider when selecting varieties appeared first on Grainews.

A hidden hazard, mycotoxins can create a variety of problems, including impaired immune response, which can lead to secondary infections, compromised growth rates, reduced reproductive performance, lameness and gangrene.

Illnesses caused by mycotoxins can be difficult to identify, and treatment with antibiotics has little to no effect. Therefore, knowing the threat presented by mycotoxins, and the appropriate prevention measures to implement, are key to reducing the risk to cattle.

What are mycotoxins?

Mycotoxins are produced by certain types of fungi, including mould, and can be present in virtually all of the forages and other feedstuffs that cattle consume. Just because mould or ergot bodies can’t be seen in forage, grain or screenings is no guarantee mycotoxins aren’t present. These toxins are invisible, colourless and odourless. In addition, the presence of multiple mycotoxins within a single feed can have an increased negative impact on the animal.

The most common sources of mycotoxins that Canadian beef producers encounter are fungal diseases such as fusarium and ergot, as well as environmental, handling and storage issues that contribute to mouldy feed. The chance of mycotoxins being present in high concentrations in cattle feed can fluctuate substantially in any given year.

When are mycotoxins the biggest risk?

• If feed is suspected to be contaminated, or if conditions have been favourable for mycotoxin production;
• If mould is visibly present in a feed being fed to cattle and it makes up a large portion of the diet;
• If significant changes in production performance or health are observed in a large percentage of the herd; and/or
• If performance or health declines have no obvious cause.

What are signs of mycotoxin toxicity in beef cattle?

The symptoms of mycotoxin toxicity will vary depending on the toxins present, amount ingested, duration of exposure, animal condition and stage of production. Symptoms can include:

• Reduced feed intake: a feed reduction greater than 30 per cent should be investigated
• A decrease in growth or performance, or a failure to thrive
• Animal seems to be frequently sick, which may indicate immune suppression
• Animal does not respond when treated with antibiotics
• Animal has convulsions, muscle spasms or temporary paralysis
• Gangrene or lameness is present, especially in the animal’s ears, tail and feet, which is a sign of ergot toxicity
• Animal shows signs of heat stress, elevated breathing rate, panting or drooling
• Animal has a fever or intermittent bloody diarrhea
• There are blisters, reddening or ulcers in the mouth
• Abortion and premature births occur, or reduced lactation

How to protect cattle

Reducing the risk of mycotoxins boils down to four factors:

• awareness,
• feed testing,
• additional best practices for feed quality, and
• best practices to keep animals healthy.

Monitor for risk factors, which can fluctuate from season to season and year to year, influenced heavily by moisture conditions during growth, harvest and storage. As an example, the risk of fusarium production is increased with the presence of warm, moist conditions during the flowering stage. In contrast, ergot favours cool, moist conditions during this stage.

When producers are growing their own feed, disease monitoring must include the year before, as risk conditions and pathogen presence can carry over from one year to the next. In the case of ergot, if the fungal bodies are left to mature, they will detach from the plant head and drop to the soil, starting the cycle over again.

If the risks are high, consider diverting the crop to silage or cutting early for greenfeed before ergot bodies have developed. For grasses used for feed which may be infected, it is best to mow them sooner rather than later.

Perform regular feed tests on all feeds suspected to be contaminated. Remember, mycotoxins and mould are not the same thing. Mycotoxins may be present in a feed even if no mould is visible; therefore, it’s difficult to correlate mould or grain damage with the presence of mycotoxins. The only way to know for sure is feed testing for mycotoxin identification.

Ensuring high-quality feed also means following best practices for feed quality at harvest, storage and during feed-out. This includes proper packing to ensure oxygen exclusion for ensiled feeds, managing moisture levels for grains, byproducts and dry forages, and purchasing byproduct feeds from reputable sources, as this type of feed is at an increased risk of contamination.

Healthy animals that are not exposed to stressors are less susceptible to the impact of many mycotoxins. Follow best practices for vaccination, internal and external parasite control, biosecurity, low-stress handling, nutrition and gut health.

Eliminating the threat of mycotoxins is nearly impossible. However, producers can take preventive steps to reduce the possibility of mycotoxin contamination of their feed sources. If mycotoxins are detected in feed, certain strategies can be followed to make the feed source safer for cattle.

The post The hidden hazard of mycotoxins appeared first on Grainews.

Growing up on their respective farms in southwestern Ontario, they both started farm businesses at an early age. DJ grew up on a beef operation and started a custom farming business, while Matt grew up on a dairy farm and started farming on his own at age 23.

“In about 2015 we partnered on DJ’s custom farming business and ran that for about four years,” Matt says. “In 2019 we sold it and used the money to start our own farm, producing and selling hay.”

Over the years, they established Haybury Farms Inc., bought land and expanded the farming operation that today involves about 4,200 acres in two locations: they produce organic crops on farmland near their home territory at Jarvis, known as Claybank Organics, and conventional cash crops on another farm in the Algoma district of northern Ontario.

In the past couple of years, they found another diversification opportunity: once the cropping season is done, they put farm tractors and other equipment to work in winter clearing snow in local municipalities.

As they each use their strengths to run and manage the farm business — Matt manages and makes most of the crop input decisions, while DJ handles sales and customer relations and is constantly chasing new opportunities — their business success earned them recognition earlier this year as Ontario’s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2024.

“We started out in 2018 with about 500 acres of rented land and have built things from there,” Matt says. Since they owned equipment from their custom farming days, they started out growing and selling hay.

To optimize hay production, they take 10 to 12 cuts off each hay stand — that’s over a period of three to five seasons — then rotate that land into other crops before reseeding forages.

As DJ and Matt looked at ways to best manage and optimize profit per acre, they considered using row crops in rotation with hay, also looking at the potential to produce organically grown row crops. The production practices used on the hayland made it fairly easy to transition the farm into organic crop production.

They started with 25 acres of organic corn as a trial, to see if it worked on their soil type and if they could manage and handle the extra workload. With good success, that was followed by growing identity-preserved organic soybeans, which further improved profit margins. They were soon able to buy their own land and increase production to include organic corn and soybean in their rotation. That led to the creation of Claybank Organics.

In 2021 they expanded into northern Ontario’s Algoma district, purchasing a farm to grow straight timothy hay for overseas customers.

“We bought land in the Algoma district as farmland there is more affordable than in the Jarvis area,” says Matt. “And it also helped with risk management, by being able to produce crops in a different environment.”

Today they farm about 4,200 acres in total, which includes about 2,800 acres of organic corn, soybeans and hay as Claybank Organics. And in the Algoma district they crop 1,400 to 1,500 acres including hay, grain and soybeans in rotation, all produced under conventional cropping practices. As fields get “cleaned up” this fall, for example, they seeded winter wheat and may seed oats and canola in 2025.

Along with farming activities, about three years ago they created Winfield Contracting using farm tractors and other powered equipment to clear snow in several municipalities in the Jarvis area. “It’s been a big help to provide cash flow during the off season,” Matt says.

The farming partners say they are always open to new opportunities but have no immediate plans to crop more acres.

“We’ve had a fair bit of growth in recent years,” Matt says. “So in the near future the focus is just to continue with what we have and look for ways to fine-tune and improve production efficiency.”

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Throughout the growing season, as interesting plants pop up in ditches, fields and pastures, I get texts, tweets and messages with photos of mystery plants from friends requesting identification. “Is this a good plant? Is it a weed? Does it grow here often? Is it toxic?”

My interest in plant identification started young with my mom, a former ag rep and agrologist, who is the original plant ID matriarch of the family.

As a kid, I remember neighbours and even strangers dropping by with puzzling plants for her to look at. I learned from her that the right plants can add beauty and bucks, but the wrong ones can cost you money and a lot of grief.

When I got older, I gravitated toward summer jobs that leveled up my weed, forage and rangeland plant identification. I quickly learned there are a lot of identity-obsessed plant experts, and I’m fortunate to have an inner circle of plant gurus to lean on for more information.

Whether a plant is welcome or not will differ according to region, soil type and goals; what might be a preferred plant on one farm is a weed on another.

Farmers and ranchers spend a lot more time identifying plants than perhaps they realize. Plants provide us with many clues about what is happening on our land. For example, we use weed identification in our annual crops to determine potential problems, including herbicide resistance. Being aware of common weeds helps us decide which crop protection products to use.

The threat of invasive weeds has many farmers vigilant and on the lookout for infestations of leafy spurge, toadflax or scentless chamomile. Risks like the movement of feed, the use of equipment between “contaminated” sites and clean fields, and industrial development and construction can all lead to a productivity-sucking invasion. In this sense, accurate plant identification can be the difference between swift eradication and a costly, multi-generational fight against invasive weeds.

Of course, there are plenty of good plants to take note of, too. For example, some plants only grow in moist habitats and their presence can indicate pockets of sub-irrigation, making them helpful in deciding where to potentially source a new well or dugout. These riparian plants can also filter out sediment and nutrients, helping to improve standing water quality.

Plants are also a part of our culture, and we look to them to signal the beginning or end of seasons. The familiar ritual of seeking out a prairie crocus confirms the arrival of spring; the ripening of saskatoon berries is a summertime staple; and the turning of leaves on a dogwood or Manitoba maple is a beacon of colder weather.

My favourite group of plants are those that are native to our Prairie grasslands. These plants have spent the past 10,000 years (give or take) adapting to be resilient against whatever disturbance is thrown at them.

Range plants each occupy a different, valuable niche on the landscape. In addition to providing benefits such as forage, carbon sequestration and biodiversity, many range plants fix nitrogen, like one of our many native milkvetch species.

Other species, such as creeping juniper, reduce hillside erosion. Shrubs such as buckbrush and silver sagebrush help trap snow and provide habitat for songbirds. Winterfat, a beloved prairie shrub, looks similar to sagebrush but lacks the smell. It’s known as the “ice cream” species because it’s preferred by both livestock and wildlife, and its robust presence can be an indicator of a healthy prairie pasture.

There are several regional plant ID books and you can also find answers to plant questions at your local extension office. There is also a wonderful website that helpfully categorizes wildflowers according to colour.

The next time you see a plant that piques your interest, ask yourself why it might be there. What are our plants telling us about our environment?

The post Plants and their identity crises appeared first on Grainews.

Forage and seed producers heard about the benefits of night spraying for red clover crops during the Saskatchewan Forage Seed Development Commission’s recent annual meeting. The SFSDC had conducted two on-farm experiments of night spraying in the province’s northeast in June 2021.

During the meeting, Graham Parsons, pollinator biosecurity specialist with the Saskatchewan agriculture department, identified the pollinators that benefit from nighttime pesticide application as farmers manage certain pests.

The lesser clover leaf weevil “is more active in the night, in the canopy and stuff, so the spray actually for that pest was more effective during the night time as well,” he told the meeting at White Fox, north of Nipawin.

“So it’s kind of a win-win both ways: better for the pollinators and better for spraying for the pest as well.”

READ MORE: When a crop pest isn’t a crop pest

Producers are seeking ways to control the lesser clover leaf weevil. Management practices range from spring burning to encouraging parasitoids, but chemical application of pesticides has been the most effective.

Northeastern growers are under more pressure from the weevil, which lays eggs from May and into June and July when the crop starts to flower, according to a University of Saskatchewan study.

The commission said day and night spraying was done in June 2021 before clover flowering. Traps were set to identify the beneficial pollinators present in the field 24 hours before and after the spraying applications.

“Success then would be measured as ‘no decrease’ in trap catches for the 24 hours post-spray in relation to pre-spray samples, night spray compared to UTC (unsprayed treatment control)… there is no indication that night spraying was more deleterious to commercial or natural pollinators than day spraying,” the report said.

Parsons identified an abundance of bees in the traps. Bees of any kind are the gold standard of pollinators, he said. As for other pollinators, some moths fly at night but most require light and heat they can only get during the day.

“If you can spray at night or early in the morning, just as the sun comes up, or in the evening as the sun’s going down or after it’s gone down, then all the pollinators, they’re home for the night so they’re not going to be exposed to anything when you’re spraying,” Parsons says.

Protective predators

Hoverflies as pollinators have the added benefit of predatory larvae that attack various in-crop pests. However, hoverflies, wasps and some moths and butterflies are not as effective as bees at pollinating. The high number of hoverflies makes up for their lack of performance individually, he adds.

As a field crop entomologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Tyler Wist has been an ardent supporter of predatory bugs through his Field Heroes program.

Farmers get both good pollinators and pest management with hoverflies, he said.

“When they’re in there pollinating the crop, they say ‘Hey, there’s some aphids here. I’m gonna lay some eggs and then have these little slug-like offspring that go around and stab aphids to death from their mouth parts, and then suck them dry.’ So super cool that they’re both.”

Bee flies and blister beetles are also predatory. Their larvae feast on grasshopper eggs, Wist says, so supporting their growth is beneficial.

Blister beetle adults can potentially eat leaves, so they’re not as beneficial as some other insect helpers. When they do get into the flower canopy, they are good cross pollinators and their damage is minimal compared to other harmful bugs, Wist says.

If farmers want to attract more beneficial insects, including different bee species, supporting their habitat is just as important as proper pesticide management, he says.

“Wild bees will nest in wooded areas and down in the ground too, so undisturbed ground areas are important for some of those ground nesting wild bees.”

Parsons has focused his research on pollinator habitat.

In a canola field without any wetlands, woodlands or edges, there is no habitat for pollinators, no matter how many flowers and forages there are.

“Most of our pollinators are nesting in the ground, about 70 per cent of them,” Parsons says. “So if there’s no (nearby) area that’s uncultivated … there’s no area for those bees to be nesting.”

Without wetland habitat, including willows, wildflowers or weeds, there is no food or places for insects to overwinter. By leaving the natural environment or planting permanent wildflower patches, producers can see benefits for a long time, Parsons says.

Depending on the crop and type of insects farmers are trying to keep in their fields, spray application timing and type can differ from crop to crop, Wist says.

The post Night spraying for forage pest can spare pollinators appeared first on Grainews.

Some people have taken advantage that three-month-old replacement dairy heifers have a fully developed rumen and can truly digest lower quality/cost forages.

There is nothing wrong in feeding this way, but these forages must be well balanced with other more nutritious feedstuffs that together meet animals’ essential nutrient requirements. Plus, we need to avoid the common pitfalls, such as digestive upsets, which are associated with some diets — again, by providing the right overall nutrition.

Regardless, I always keep in mind that good dry matter intake (DMI) comes first in setting up any well-balanced heifer replacement feeding program. It’s synonymous with essential energy/protein/mineral/vitamin intake that drives growth, optimum body condition and good health by the time they are ready to be put on the milk-line.

It has been my experience that many promising replacements don’t make their full-performance potentials and are culled, because their dry matter intakes were ignored or challenged.

Such good DMI is controlled by the natural forces of heifers consuming these forage-based diets and its ensuing fermentation in the rumen. At the same time, the rate of feed passage through a heifer’s digestive systems comes into play in a big way, which not only controls good dry matter intake, but almost every digestive process afterward, including cud-chewing.

That’s especially so when we feed them high-fibre, lower-quality diets, such as proposed by South Dakota State University a few years ago.

The SDSU researchers fed high-fibre shredded corn stalks supplemented with wet distillers grains to help meet the energy and protein requirements of a group of growing dairy heifers. The SDSU results showed heifer gains — although lower than conventional diets formulated with corn silage, haylage and alfalfa — were quite acceptable. A significant cost saving of 40 per cent was recorded because corn stalks and wet corn distillers grains were purchased at much lower cost than other routine feedstuffs.

Along the same dietary lines to save on feed costs I routinely balance a bred-heifer replacement diet (15–22 months) for a 150-lactating dairy. This diet is limited by the quantity of good-quality forages such as alfalfa hay and drought-stricken barley silage. Yet this farmer has a decent supply of low-quality barley straw and slough hay. So his current diet is what you see in the table here:

In review of this diet, I believe we are barely meeting these bred heifers’ dietary energy (64 per cent total digestible nutrients and protein (14 per cent) needs for 1.8 pounds gain per day. Plus, this total mixed ration is simply too dry and a couple of kilos of added water would improve its density. The funny thing is that DMI by these replacement heifers during the last few months has been acceptable (2.8 to three per cent of body weight).

Nevertheless, during our last cold spell of –30 C in January, a few heifers showed signs of anorexia, inadequate manure output and abdominal distention — all encompassing signs of impaction.

Any threat of dietary impaction is serious and that is why I am vigilant of it when feeding low-quality forages to replacement dairy heifers. It can be fatal, and stems from:

• High forage-fibre content: the rate of digestion is slow since it takes a long time to ferment and break down lots of cellulose/hemicellulose fibre.
• Inadequate protein: heifer diets often do not supply enough dietary protein-metabolites to the forage-digesting rumen bacteria. It leads to decreases in the overall rate of forage-fibre digestion and feed passage, including DMI.
• Inadequate water: in feed digestion, water is a primary lubricant. For example, a particular dry heifer diet during an impaction incident is possibly more viscous, which impedes its movement throughout the rumen-gastrointestinal tract.

It is my understanding that this producer drenched each impacted dairy heifer with a gallon of mineral oil. Within a couple of days, animals were up to the water trough and feed-bunk. It was a lesson for me, namely that it is important to meet all essential nutrient requirements for growing and healthy dairy heifers. It can be done utilizing a cost-effective lower-quality forage as part of their whole diet, yet there should be a wide margin of adequate nutrition built into each diet.

The post Balancing low cost with enough nutrition appeared first on Grainews.

Over that time, he’s found certain legumes can bring net benefits to pastures and forage stands — significant enough to outweigh the potential drawbacks.

Eleven years ago, he recalls now, “we started working with a new sainfoin variety, and also asked a number of producers grazing higher-legume pastures to work with (Alberta’s provincial) Agri-Profit$ program and keep their beef and pasture financial records.”

During that time Alberta provincial production economists Dale Kaliel, and later Anatoliy Oginskyy, had been analyzing Alberta cow-calf operations through Agri-Profit$. That analysis involved recording pasture productivity data as benchmarks.

“For three years Dale added these additional higher-legume grazing producers into the total data pool,” Lastiwka says, and the department worked with applied research and forage associations in seeding sainfoin-alfalfa mixtures in small plot trials.

“After three years of data collection from these plots and producer data from regular- and higher-legume mix pastures, we saw that most higher-legume grass pastures were significantly more productive and profitable than grass pastures,” Lastiwka says now.

Several local producers in those associations wanted in on the next step of the research, he says, leading to 12 sites of about 10 acres each in Alberta and one in B.C. with the Peace River Forage Association, seeded with a mixture of sainfoin, alfalfa and grasses.

To “feed the grazing system,” so to speak, it’s important to have a legume in a pasture, Lastiwka says. “It improves the animal/plant nutrient cycling, forage quality, animal performance and grazing stability later into the season.”

With that in mind, the specialists began to look at new sainfoin cultivars and those varieties’ ability to regrow, compared with alfalfa.

“Since sainfoin can set seed so easily, it has the ability to create a soil seed bank; there is opportunity for regeneration from seed,” he says. “If a producer lets the plants go to seed now and then, there’s less need to reseed a pasture. This can work with many legumes, though alfalfa is harder to do this with.”

In earlier studies tied to the Year Round Grazing project (2006), Lastiwka and colleagues had found the productivity of Alberta’s perennial pastures to be disappointing. “We decided that the next stage would be looking at improving pastures with legumes.”

‘Made sense’

That said, the practice of rotational managed grazing had already been picking up support and adoption since the early ’80s, starting with advice from Allan Savory’s Holistic Resource Management, Stan Parsons’ Ranching for Profit, and producer-driven forage associations.

Thus, in Alberta, “there was a strong following for rest and recovery,” Lastiwka says.

“My brother (Benny) and I in 1987 divided hayfields (containing a lot of alfalfa) and started grazing them. We saw a 99-pound increase in our calf weights due to the higher legume content of the forage and better management of the forage growth.”

In other words, “it made sense to include more legumes in pastures,” he says.

The sainfoin project, he says, came about because Gordon Hutton, an Alberta Agriculture forage and business specialist at the time, “came to me after he’d been given a directive to do a business project on forages, and wondered what we should focus on.”

Lastiwka said he thought the project should focus on sainfoin — “because we needed to showcase the Canadian forage breeding programs which were not well supported.”

READ MORE: Going beyond grass: The case for forage legumes

Those breeding programs had developed several improved and non-bloating cultivars of legumes, such as Oxley II and AC Veldt cicer milkvetch, AC Bruce birdsfoot trefoil and AAC Mountainview and AAC Glenview sainfoin.

“The biggest reason people don’t include legumes in pastures is fear of bloat. This is something we needed to overcome,” Lastiwka says. Thus, “we jumped on the bandwagon to study sainfoin in our higher-legume pastures project.”

For the project, dubbed ‘Retrofitting Existing Pastures with Canadian-Bred Non-Bloating Legumes,’ the last phase was sod seeding, he recalls.

“If someone asked about putting some alfalfa in there, I told them to go ahead — because management is a key part of whether bloat is a problem or not. If you have a mix of grasses and legumes — some non-bloating legumes along with the bloating legumes — the dilution effect, allowing for more maturity and good management, can prevent bloat,” he says.

Anyone participating in the project could pick what they wanted to plant, he adds. “We were pushing for sainfoin to be included, along with cicer milkvetch, birdsfoot trefoil et cetera, but bloat-potential legumes like red clover, alsike clover, purple or yellow-blossom alfalfa were also encouraged.”

The benefits of sainfoin will always be complicated, however, by its seed size — almost seven times larger than alfalfa seed — which makes it a difficult sell for producers to include in their pasture mixes.

“It has only about 30,000 seeds per pound versus 200,000 seeds per pound with alfalfa. When buying seed and wanting sainfoin to be a large part of a total mix, most producers balk at paying that much money,” Lastiwka says.

Crop producers have been well covered for financial loss, given recent high grain prices and the availability of good crop insurance — but cattle prices have not been high until lately.

As a result, “forage acres have more risk. The total acres of forage in Canada have dropped dramatically and beef cattle numbers are falling.”

Into that context — as well as an ongoing drought — the federal government set up the OFCAF (On-Farm Climate Action Fund), Lastiwka says.

OFCAF is meant to support farmers in adopting beneficial management practices that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases — specifically in areas such as nitrogen management, cover cropping, rotational grazing and higher-legume forage stands — while providing other environmental benefits such as improved biodiversity and soil health.

Last year, along came the federal/provincial Resilient Agriculture Landscape Program, Lastiwka adds.

“Now producers have funding for adding more legumes to pastures — 51 per cent legumes in pastures. The struggle last year, however, was drought, but we are again slowly making progress,” he says.

‘Growing like crazy’

All this amounts to opportunity — namely, the opportunity to get a message across about the benefits of higher levels of legumes in a pasture mix.

“A challenge is still which legumes are best for your own land, grazing plans, and management situation, and cost of seed,” Lastiwka says. “Because of the large size of sainfoin seed, it continues to be used at low rates in legume mixtures and many people don’t try to purchase improved varieties.”

The seed industry puts the percentage of total seed weight of each component of a mix on a bag label. Thus, “if the label says 50 per cent sainfoin, because of large seed size, this translates in sainfoin to only about 20 per cent of a stand in the field,” he says.

“For the highest productivity in moderately dry to moister areas, we can graze pastures quickly in the spring or early summer, taking about a quarter to a third of it, because they are growing like crazy. Then we can come back again for a second or maybe even a third graze in moister climates, after it has had a chance to adequately regrow.

“At our farm, with my second grazing in September or later, most legumes have some seed set. I graze that second pass hard. The grazing activity of cattle, consuming and defecating viable seed, can spread legume seeds (or trample them into the soil) as another planting.”

Seeds of several legumes can also be fed to cattle by mixing the seed into their mineral. “This is a low-cost seeding method for adding legumes to grass pastures. I have used this mix and find that after the manure starts to break down, sainfoin and other legume seedlings emerge from the manure,” Lastiwka says.

Sainfoin can be included in a lot of stands, but many producers don’t yet know enough about it. “Some don’t want to gamble and take the risks, since it is expensive, but with support from these recent programs, I hope more people will be willing to try it, and manage for its success.”

‘Paid to plant’

Lastiwka still has sainfoin in his own older stand, though he acknowledges he didn’t plant the best variety. “I seeded our project a year before some of the newly selected sainfoin varieties were available.”

Given that the uptake of new varieties is based on projections of how much a company can sell, will enough people buy it to cover the cost of producing it?

“Trying to meet those needs, economically and competitively, makes a difference in how many new Canadian forage varieties are available for producers. Now should be a time we could utilize a lot of sainfoin, with the new government programs, because people will be paid to plant high-legume pastures as long as they are over 50 per cent legumes,” Lastiwka says.

Lastiwka’s own pasture, planted in 2011, still has 50 per cent legume — and different kinds, at that. “The low land is bird’s foot trefoil and alsike clover plus grasses. Much of the upper land is yellow-blossom alfalfa, cicer milkvetch and grasses. My less-suitable sainfoin variety is only present in small amounts.”

Sainfoin breeding by Dr. Hari Poudel at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge remains ongoing, Lastiwka notes. Breeding of cicer milkvetch and alfalfas and grasses continues at the University of Saskatchewan, as does work with clovers and birdsfoot trefoil and hardier alfalfas in Nova Scotia and Quebec.

“Since there is still Canadian legume breeding going on, we need to keep making an effort to get newly released varieties into the right hands for producer use.”

The post Pastures, hayland get a leg up with legumes appeared first on Grainews.