Super Spring Silage Mix (SSS) is a blend of 60% Secada maple pea and 40% oats. The blend has been developed to potentially produce, over a 12 - 14 week growing period, large quantities of quality silage from a late winter or spring sowing.
Wrightson Research screened a number of maple peas for silage use and Secada has always yielded the highest and had best quality. It shows outstanding early growth, much faster than traditional field peas.
Whilst the Secada peas could produce bulk feed of high quality, it was felt that a mix with oats would lower the costs of feed production on a cents per megajoule of Metabolisable Energy basis.
Wrightson Research conducted trials with a number of oat varieties and differing ratios to develop the components and ratios for SSS Mix.
Trial results
A trial comparing various silage options was sown on a farm near Gundagai to assess the performance and feed costs of SSS Mix.
All blocks were sown on 9th August 2003 and harvested 14 weeks later on 13 November when the Secada peas were at the flat pod stage. Samples were taken from all blocks and sent to Cornell University US for thorough quality analysis.
Even though the SSS Mix cost more to sow, the results showed that for a late sowing it had similar quality to ryegrass and Persian clover silage but much higher yield.
When this was converted back to cost of feed, the SSS Mix was about 40% of the cost of the rye and clover mix.
The trial showed the value of producing large quantities of quality feed off small areas that can be planted in late winter or spring.
Agronomy and Management notes:
- SSS Mix can be sown from July to November. Control weeds with glyphosate prior to sowing.
- Sow at 150-200 kg/ha with 100-150 kg/ha DAP or MAP Inoculate seed with Group E inoculant.
- Drill at 4-7cm depth into a fine, firm seedbed.
- Roll after sowing to give good seed soil contact and to retain existing soil moisture.
- If sown late, the crop may need to be sprayed for powdery mildew.
- For optimum quality and, bulk, cut crop at flat pod stage of peas (this is when protein is highest in the pea plant).
- SSS Mix takes approximately 12 - 14 weeks from sowing to reach cutting stage. This can enable SSS mix to be followed by a forage brassica such as Pasja, Barkant, Pronto or HiGain.
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