Once again, the popular tall, late-season ThunderTall Il triticale won an important irrigated hay-silage trial, this time in the Texas Panhandle in trials conducted by Texas A&M.
Jourdan Bell, TAMU agronomist, said the Ehmke Seed Co., ThunderTall II variety won the Bushland TX trials with a dry matter yield of 7330 pounds per acre when harvested at boot on May 16, 2023. At 38.5 inches tall, it was the tallest variety in the trials. Another Ehmke Seed variety, ThunderTall was the second tallest with an at-boot height of 37.5 inches. Also placing well up in the trials, ThunderTall had dry matter yield of 6146 pounds/acre. It also reached boot on May 16.
Ehmke Seed of Healy KS had another variety, ThunderCale V which produced a dry matter yield of 5563 pounds with a harvest date of May 9. Owing to its quicker maturity and shorter height, varieties like ThunderCale V frequently have greater moisture use efficiency than taller, later varieties. Tonnage is generally less but when looked at from the standpoint of forage produced per inch of irrigation water applied, such varieties as ThunderCale V likey will become more and more important as irrigation water supplies continue to decline or in double crop rotations when it is important to get the triticale crop off in a timely fashion for quicker planting of the second crop. In addition, based on trials at New Mexico State University, the shorter season triticale varieties generally run higher in crude protein and TDN when harvested at the same stage of growth.
It is notable that both ThunderTall II and ThunderTall have won the NMSU trials on a number of occasions with silage yields of 20 to 23 tons per acre when adjusted to 65% moisture.
Incidentally, of the top 14 varieties in the TAMU trials, 12 were triticale and two were rye varieties. Wheat varieties did not appear until mid-way in the trials with the top wheat variety having a yield of 4764 pounds of dry matter/acre or 2566 pounds less than the top triticale.
For more information, contact Ehmke Seed, Healy KS at 620 397-2350 or visit their web site: ehmkeseed.com.