Comparing Tame Forages Under Grazing

Since 2013, Canada has not required any testing or merit assessments before allowing a new forage variety to be registered. That has made it easier for breeders to get new varieties on the market but has made it harder for producers to know whether the new varieties are any better than (or as good as) the old ones. Regional variety trials helped to fill this information gap, but these trials only focused on yield and sometimes forage quality. Forage performance under grazing is rarely examined. That’s important because mechanical plot harvesters don’t selectively graze, trample plants or deposit manure the way cattle do. Grazing trials take a long time and are very costly, but they provide very important information. Dr. Bart Lardner and colleagues recently published the results of a forage variety grazing trial conducted at the University of Saskatchewan’s Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence (Evaluation of cool-season perennial forage varieties as monocultures and legume–grass