Cool-season annual grasses offer high-value hay, baleage, silage to Arkansas producers
“Producers have increasingly turned to round bale silage, or baleage, to improve the timeliness of harvest operations.” — Jonathan Kubesch
By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Feb. 6, 2025
Fast facts
- Newly revised fact sheet on cool-season annual hay and silage available
- Baleage and silage harvesting helps livestock producers manage harvest, nutrient value
- Farmers might plant annual ryegrass and spring oats between late February and mid-March
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(With art of Kubesch, screenshot of fact sheet, image of baleage)
LITTLE ROCK — Livestock producers who grow their own hay often find themselves playing “beat the clock” when it comes to harvest, knowing that once a seedhead appears, the forage quality declines.
This race to beat the clock is heightened when wet springs keep farmers from making dry hay.
“Producers have increasingly turned to round bale silage, or baleage, to improve the timeliness of harvest operations,” said Jonathan Kubesch, extension forage specialist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
“Silage, traditionally corn, was popular with the state's dairy industry,” he said. “Grass silage is often referred to as ‘baleage’ in the southeast.
“Grass sileage, or ‘baleage,’ is a growing opportunity to produce high-quality forage at a time when it is hard to produce dry hay — think rainy April,” Kubesch said. Baleage involves wilting cut forages to 45 to 65 percent moisture, then rolling them into round bales wrapped in plastic.
Cool-season annual grasses, such as annual ryegrass or the small grains like wheat, oats and cereal rye, are routinely planted to provide forage for livestock. “These plants provide excellent forage quality while in vegetative, but protein and digestibility can quickly decline following emergence of the seed head,” Kubesch said. In the southeastern United States, harvest of small grains for hay in the spring is often delayed by spring rains.
“Maturity at harvest has a large impact on quality,” he said.
Kubesch discusses research on cool-season annual grass opportunities in a newly revised fact sheet available for download from Cooperative Extension Service, Using Cool-Season Annual Grasses for Hay and Silage.
He noted three key takeaways from the new fact sheet:
- Winter annual forages offer a lot of nutritional value in Arkansas forage programs
- Multiple cool-season annual grasses can be used to stagger production in early spring. Harvesting these forages on time at the correct moisture level is crucial to making hay, baleage or grass silage.
- Late winter plantings are a possibility for farmers to make up for missed fall plantings.
Kubesch reported new late winter planting recommendations. Farmers might consider annual ryegrass or spring oats for planting between late February to mid-March for early hay, baleage, or silage.
“We've been having dry falls which preclude the typical planting window of September-October,” he said. “We ran a three-year trial at Jonesboro in collaboration with Arkansas State University to develop these late winter recommendations.”
For more information on baleage, see: Baled Silage for Livestock.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
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Media contact: Mary Hightower
mhightower@uada.edu