Profitability of dual‐purpose rye cover crop as influenced by harvesting date

Abstract

Harvesting annual winter cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) (WCR) as an emergency forage could offset cover crop establishment costs, facilitate WCR adoption, and still provide multiple ecosystem benefits. A five site-year trial was conducted in Colorado (CO) and Illinois (IL) to evaluate the effect of harvest date on WCR forage yield, quality, and its economic performance. From March to April, WCR dry matter (DM) yield increased exponentially in CO and linearly in IL. The DM yield at Julian day (DOY) 112-116 in CO was 6.9, 5.0, and 5.2 Mg ha -1 in 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively, compared with 4.7 and 2.7 Mg ha -1 in IL in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Delayed harvesting increased acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber concentrations and decreased crude, total digestible nutrients, and relative feed quality. Yield-quality trade-off showed that forage yield increased rapidly but forage quality declined after DOY 105-108. Economic analysis, including cost of nutrient removal and 10% cash crop (corn [Zea mays L.]) yield penalty following WCR production revealed harvesting WCR biomass as forage was economically feasible in four out of five site-years at hay price over $132 Mg -1 . Eliminating corn yield penalty indicated profitability in four site-years at hay price of ≥$110 Mg -1 and removing nutrient removal costs made all site-years profitable at hay price of ≥$110 Mg -1 . It was concluded that harvesting WCR biomass can be a profitable and effective strategy for sustainable intensification that can offer environmental stewardship and economic benefit. INTRODUCTIONWinter cereals have shown to be excellent cover crops in various agroclimatic conditions (Kaspar & Bakkar, 2015).

Cool-season cover crop effects on forage productivity and short-term soil health in a semi-arid environment

“…For example, the RFV ranked highest for forage kale overall, and temporal differences were evident for the quality parameters in years 1 and 2 separately. Similar to the results reported by Sadeghpour et al (2021), our experiment revealed that the sampling date had a consistent impact on the forage quality parameters. The early sampling provided greater CP, lower ADF, and NDF concentrations, and greater RFV across all cover crop systems relative to late sampling.…”

“…Similar to the results reported by Sadeghpour et al . (2021), our experiment revealed that the sampling date had a consistent impact on the forage quality parameters. The early sampling provided greater CP, lower ADF, and NDF concentrations, and greater RFV across all cover crop systems relative to late sampling.…”

Mixtures of rye cultivars to improve forage yield, distribution and nutritive value

“…Similar conditions were observed by Meinerz et al (2011), when evaluating small grain genotypes as single crops, among them, cultivars of black oat, rye and dual-purpose wheat, which presented average values of ADF, after three cuts, of 26.7; 27.4 and 28.6%, respectively. Plant maturity influences forage quality, with yield throughout development tending to increase while quality decreases (Zhao et al, 2020), so later cuts increase NDF concentrations and reduce total digestible nutrients (Sadeghpour et al, 2022).…”

Influence of nitrogen rate on yield and profitability of rye grain production

“…Another reason for the relatively low level of rye grain production in the United States is the grower's profit uncertainty (Sadeghpour et al., 2022; Skarżyńska, 2015; Van Sanford et al., 2022). The main factors influencing cereal profitability are yield, cultivar adaptation, crop management and associated costs, grain quality, and grain price.…”