Irrigated Timothy Trials at CSIDC

Introduction

Agronomic trials of timothy have been conducted at SIDC since 1990. Timothy varieties were evaluated by the Saskatchewan Forage Council as part of a larger irrigated forage production program. Work conducted by R.B. Irvine, of SIDC, and P. Jefferson, A. Kielly and B. Coulman of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, include variety evaluations, crop establishment, and fertilizer response. An additional establishment trial was conducted by R.B. Irvine at CSIDC.

Variety Trials

Basho, Richmond, and Champ had consistently high yields (Tables 1 and 2).

Timothy yields were similar to those of the common forage grasses. Comparative forage yields of crested wheatgrass, smooth bromegrass, and Kentucky bluegrass are shown in Table 2.

Yields and head lengths of several varieties for the first year after establishment are shown in Table 3. Bottnia and Drummond had superior head length, but tended to be lower yielding in 1995.

Recommendations

• Wheat or flax are suitable companion crops for timothy
• Well managed timothy can produce yields in excess of 12 t/ha under two cut harvest management
• There are varietal differences in timothy for head length and yield.

Timothy Establishment

Timothy is small seeded and the seedlings grow slowly. Companion crops are favored by producers because they provide an economic return during the establishment year. A comparison of wheat, barley, and annual ryegrass as companion crops was made by Irvine, Jefferson, Kielly, and Coulman in 1994 and 1995.

Wheat, barley, and flax are suitable companion crops for timothy. A choice can be made based on cereal and flax markets for the year of establishment, to provide the greatest economic return in the year of establishment.

The average barley companion crop yield was 3300 kg/ha (60 bu/ac) as compared to an average of 1700 kg/ha (25 bu/ac) for hard red spring wheat. There was no significant effect of the seeding rate of the companion crop on its yield, although the higher seeding rate tended to result in a higher grain yield (Table 4).

Annual ryegrass is a fast growing annual forage that is suited to the long hay export market. Forage yield of annual ryegrass undersown to timothy averaged 3900 kg/ha (1.75 t/ac)(Table 4).

Timothy yields in the year after establishment were not reduced where wheat or barley was used as the companion crop. Yields were significantly lower where annual ryegrass was used (Table 5).

The use of flax as a companion crop was evaluated in 1994. Flax is the least competitive crop grown in western Canada and is tolerant of several herbicides which can be used on timothy.

Line GR397, a short, early maturing flax line, was compared with Linola^TM 947. The flax was sown at 25 kg/ha in 20, 40, or 60 cm rows. The timothy was cross seeded at 8 kg/ha in 20 cm rows.

No significant effects of row spacing on the yield of the flax were found, although the yield tended to be lower at the wider row spacings.

Linola^TM 947 outyielded GR 397 by 35%, averaging 1900 kg/ha (30 bu/ac). The yield of timothy the year after establishment was not significantly affected by the flax companion crop or by its row spacing (Table 6).