With an increasing number of farms incorporating winter triticale in their rotations, there is a need for a highly digestible summer energy source that can fit in the slightly narrower season between spring harvest and fall planting of the superior quality winter forage. Unfortunately, corn falls short on two fronts. Except for a few specialty breeders, most of the shorter than 90 day corn is out of flint type germplasm (think popcorn type kernel) that produces a hard kernel that does not digest as well even after steeping in the silo for a number of months. The second reason is that the bmr corns that are available are all longer season and so have the potential in much of the northern portions of the northeast to significantly reduce the yield of the higher milk/ton winter forage because the longer corn forces later triticale planting. (note: sorghums do not get corn diseases and vice versa).
As an alternative, we have been researching shorter season BMR sorghum in upper New York for best management practices…
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