PERENNIALS AND ANNUALS FOR WINTER FODDER PRODUCTION IN THE DRIER PORTIONS OF THE CANADIAN PRAIRIES

Abstract

Small grain cereals such as oats or wheat, when grown on fallowed land, provided fodder yields as high as or higher than those obtained from perennial forage containing alfalfa. However, on a land base comparison, yields of perennial crops were about double those of cereal grains. A 3-yr rotation using annuals in a crop–crop–fallow sequence improved the yield relationship over a crop–fallow rotation only marginally in this semiarid region. Yields of corn or sunflower row crops in rotations with fallow, or with cereals and fallow, were highly variable. Crude protein yields of the perennial forage crops on a given land base were about threefold those from annual crops.