Perennial Cereals: A Novel Source of Feed for Grazing Livestock

Perennial Cereals: A Novel Source of Feed for Grazing Livestock

Initial deployment of perennial cereal crops will likely be as a dual-purpose crop producing forage for livestock as well as grain. This study evaluated the biomass and grain production of 4 wheat × wheatgrass derivative experimental lines under 4 simulated grazing regimes; nil defoliation (D₀), defoliate once (D₁), defoliate twice (D₂) and defoliate twice followed by a simulated hay cut (D₃), and compared performance to a winter wheat, cv. EGA Wedgetail, and the perennial grass Thinopyrum intermedium. Increasing defoliation intensity significantly (P < 0.001) lengthened the time to flowering for all lines. All experimental lines produced less biomass in the first year than EGA Wedgetail but more than Th. intermedium in the first spring. Grain yield from Wedgetail was significantly higher (P < 0.001) than all other lines except in the D₃ treatment. As defoliation intensity increased, the comparative difference in grain yield between Wedgetail and the experimental entries decreased, with experimental lines OK 7211542 and 11955 exceeding the grain yield of EGA Wedgetail in the D₃ treatment. Cumulative biomass production of the experimental lines exceeded that of Wedgetail (P = 0.005), though the distribution of production, across seasons differed markedly. This paper discusses the opportunities perennial cereals may offer as a novel forage source in a mixed-farming context.