Barry Perryman, Ben Bruce, Ken Conley, Lee Schmelzer, and Tumen Wuliji. Animal Biotechnology, University of Nevada Reno, Mail Stop 202, Reno, NV 89557
Basin wildrye (Elymus cinereus Scribn. & Merr.) produces a large amount of forage. Because of the elevated growing points, it is not recommended for spring or early summer grazing but when mechanical harvesters are adjusted such that the cutting bars are mostly above the growing points this problem can be avoided. This project tested windrowed wildrye as a stockpiled feed for nutritional value it had over the season. Great Basin wildrye on the UNR Gund Ranch was sampled for nutritional analysis on the first of June, and then a portion of the basin wildrye was windrowed with a swather having its cutter bar raised. Then the first of each succeeding month, July through October the standing basin wildrye was sampled for nutritional analysis as well as the windrow. Dry matter, differed widely between the windrows and standing, with windrows being much dryer, until October when they were the same. Crude protein remained higher in the windrow throughout the test period, but decreased steadily from 12 percent in June to 4.6 percent in October in the standing crop. The ADF content was consistently lower in the windrow, in the standing crop ADF increased from June to October, representing declining energy values. Phosphorus was lower in the windrow in July, but it maintained that level and was higher in the subsequent months than the standing crop, in which phosphorus steadily decreased from July to October. Both hemicellulose and NDF/ADF remained higher in the windrow, at a consistent content, than in the standing crop, which decreased over time. NDF, nitrate-N, manganese, and sodium showed no difference between standing crop and the windrowed. Magnesium, boron and calcium decreased in the windrow as compared to the standing crop. The remaining minerals were generally higher in the windrow, including potassium, sulfur, zinc, iron and copper.
