educate me on winter barley or wheat

Fordfarmer

Well-known Member
North-west WI, heavy clay/loam soils. Have a small, low field on rented land that was planted to oats and underseeded with a clover/alfalfa mix last spring. Lots of it drowned out, and then foxtail choked out most of what was left. A big mess. Plan was to start over this spring, rotate back to RR corn. Very wet here again this year, didn't happen. So... thinking about plowing it this fall (not right now... it's raining AGAIN!) and planting winter wheat or winter barley. Would be ground and mixed with corn for dairy cow feed. Don't know how well wheat works for that... have used barley with good results before. Questions are 1) Is winter wheat suitable for dairy feed? Seed is readily available. Winter barley is harder to find, but I think I know where I can get some. 2) Can I seed clover or a clover mix at the same time? Or would that be wasting seed, too late in the year?
 
Plant the winter wheat and chop it for forage next spring. If it's cut at the right time it makes decent feed.
 
I would think seeding clover would be fine. Here, late summer (ie, before Sept 15) seeding of alfalfa works very well. I would say that barley would be a better choice for cow feed- it has 92% of the feed value of corn, and very adaptable to cow rations.
 
If the foxtail goes to seed you will have more foxtail to deal with next year. Plant your seed extra heavy to compete with the foxtail.
 
Found a guy with a beef herd who is short on hay, so the grass has been taken off... thankfully, won't go to seed this year... but I'm sure there's plenty of seed from previous years.
 
Ground up wheat will tend to go rancid in warm weather...better check with a nutrionist to see what ratio of blend Will work. Ben
 
Unless your winters are drier than your spring and summer... you better forget winter wheat. It doesn't like wet feet. Rye might survive that, then bale/chop it early...

Rod
 
Didn't know that about wheat. Thanks.
Had thought about rye, but it can be hard to get it off at the right time - soft ground, and trying to get spring planting done. Don't have a use for rye as grain, but the straw is nice. Have raised it specifically for the straw before. But planting clover with it isn't an option, which is partly why I'm asking about wheat and barley.
 
A couple of things... First, I don't think you will find a winter barley that will over winter with any kind of repeatability in NW WI. I haven't seen one work in SE WI. Maybe there is something out there...

2nd, most cereals don't like wet feet, so it may be a challenge no matter what you pick.

3rd, I've fed both winter wheat and barley (and of course corn) to high producing dairy cows, and either will work. I grind wheat 1000 bu at a crack and store it ground for a month, and have never had issues with rancidity- it kept great. Both wheat and barley have faster digesting starch than corn- more like high moisture corn or faster, depending on the grind. The finer, the hotter it is. I've prefer wheat over barley... just as good of feed, and probably 50% more feed per acre. (Barley is, I think, 44 or so lb per bu, wheat is 60). The only warning with wheat is don't go over 5-6 lb per day, as the wheat flour can form a sticky rising mess in the rumen, just like rising bread. FYI, I see a protein test jjump feeding wheat over corn.

If you have a grass issue, the wheat would be better as it would try to crowd it out in the spring. Barley (at least the spring kind) is not nearly as thick. Conversely, trying to put seeding under wheat is difficult for the same reason- it can choke it out.

Why not burn the field off with roundup now, and seed it now to clover? No till seeding is very successful. I think you would have ample time for establishment yet. Here we can seed alfalfa successfully until Labor day, and clover later.
 
If it stays wet and you can't get to it, consider growing foxtail. Sounds stupid but its good feed. had an oat field in a wet year. Grew up to fox tail and watergrass , very little oats ion it. Terrible mess. Cut it and rounded it. put some bales out for cattle to lay on and play with and they ate it better than the decent hay I was feeding. Had another field in another year same thing. Started green chopping it for the cows. They loved it and came up on milk. Was only about a 2 week window and then it got too old and they didn't like as well and dropped in milk. but hey the seed was cheap and you didn't have to spray it.Over the years I have had very poor luck with any small grain on wet ground.
 
Had a eight acre piece I was going to sow to oats. Started raining never got it sowed. Foxtail took over like crazy. Swathed and baled it to get it off of there. Cows just loved it. I had planned on hauling it to the ditch.
 
Thanks for all the input.
After another 2 1/2" of rain Wednesday night and Thursday, on ground that was already wet, it's now a waiting game...
 

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