As a means of improving soil quality and reducing soilerosion, farmers have begun utilizing cover crops like triticale. Triticale isan option farmers could use as a forage in the diets of their lactating dairycows. Triticale has proven to be a suitable option for foragein lactating diets and has a very similar composition to another widely usedforage; corn silage (Brown et al, 2018). Dry Matter (DM) is only slightlyhigher with triticale silage (28.
1%) than corn silage (27.8%) (Brown et al.,2018). Crude Protein nonetheless was found to be significantly higher in thetriticale silage than corn silage (Vatandoost et al., 2007). However, triticaleis less digestible than corn silage since it contains a higher Acid DetergentFiber (ADF) content and therefore a higher Total Digestible Nutrient (TDN)content (Harper et al.
, 2017). Data found on Dry Matter Intake (DMI) dropped slightlyfrom corn silage (Vatandoost et al., 2007).
Although, DMI is slightly lower with triticale silage,milk production was not affected when given triticale diet (Vatandoost et al.,2007). Milk yield was 32.2kg/day in diets containing corn silage and triticalesilage (Vatandoost et al., 2007). Though, in astudy to determine the results of a presence of legumes with triticale silage,the results showed a higher intake levels and milk production with the legumespresent than without (Emile et al., N.
d). In addition, triticale is a hardy crop that can growunder many diverse conditions with limited inputs yet is still able to producea large yield while helping to prevent soil erosion (Hunter et al., 2014).Moreover, since it does not have a negative impact on milk production and hasshown to be an effective replacement to corn silage, I would recommend that afarmer could use triticale as a forage source in their lactating cows.
