Forage Soybeans Show Promise For Beef Producers

www.agrinews-pubs.com
Nat Williams
2010-07-21

INA, Ill. — Beef producers in Illinois looking to extend the grazing season may be able to utilize a familiar crop: soybeans.

Participants in a small-scale research project are taking a look at growing soybeans as a forage, and early results have been encouraging.

Rebecca Atkinson of Southern Illinois University discussed the project at the Southern Illinois Beef Conference. While the idea may seem radical, it is not a new one.

“In the 1920s, when soybeans were introduced in the United States, they were grown for forage,” Atkinson said. “It was not until after World War II that we decided we needed a domestic source of oil and meat for protein and started producing grain from it.”

Forage soybeans could fill a need in southern Illinois, where beef producers often face what is called the “summer slump” when hot temperatures take a toll of the fescue-dominated pastures.

An alternative forage could also combat fescue toxicosis, a common problem facing producers. Derived from the endophyte fungus, it can cause a number of serious problems in affected cows.

“The nice thing about forage soybeans, you’re still getting a forage source, you’re able to utilize it like alfalfa but you’re not committing your fields for four to six years of being out of a corn replication,” Atkinson said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1997 launched a breeding program for forage soybeans. The plants are bred for leaf area rather than the bean.

“These soybeans still make a pod,” Atkinson said. “But the leaves are as big or bigger than my hand, and (the plants) could potentially get up to six feet tall if you let them grow to maturity.”

Much of the forage soybean varieties grown today are for deer plots in wildlife areas. Atkinson decided to see how they might fit into a cow-calf operation.

“Deer are ruminants and cows are ruminants,” she said. “If deer are going to eat it, cows are going to it. So I said, ‘Let’s test this out and see if cows will graze it.’ A lot of people told me I was crazy, but I did it anyway.”

Atkinson, working with a beef producer in Franklin County, first had to decide on a variety from the seven produced in the USDA breeding program.

She looked at planting date, yield and quality and decided on two varieties: Big Fellow and Large Lad. The trial began in 2007 with three replicated plots, each 10 feet square.

While the recommended planting date is early to mid May, wet weather delayed planting that first year until June 3. On July 7, the researchers also no-tilled the soybeans into wheat stubble.

The plants were sampled at 10 weeks and at harvest for quality. Some of the plants were saved and chopped into 1-inch pieces to simulate silage.

The first test came as the cattle were offered up a pile of harvested soybean plants.

“We put the piles out in pasture and they looked at us like we had three heads, because they had no clue what it was,” Atkinson said. “It took them five minutes before they actually took the first bite. Once they started, they ate it until it was all gone.”

Feed value of the plants proved similar to that of alfalfa.

“If you’re a dairy person, though, I have to warn you: It’s a soybean, so it has phytoestrogen in it, and we do not know what would happen if they consumed a large amount of that milk protein,” Atkinson said.

“Hopefully, that’s future research we can do. But, for beef cattle, it doesn’t matter because they animals are going to go to slaughter anyway — we’re not concerned about milk production.”

Beginning last year, the cows were allowed to graze on the soybean pasture, and got two grazings from it.

“We probably could have gotten four grazings before it froze but we didn’t spray for weeds because he had two acres of Big Fellow and one acre of pearl millet,” Atkinson said.

“We then planted one acre for hay. We double cropped it. It grew from July to September, about 12 weeks. Hay is tricky. We don’t have the kinks worked out.”

The plants cut for haylage took a long time to dry. The researchers planted the soybeans 15 inches apart in an attempt to minimize the thickness of the stems, but it still took several days to become dry enough to bale.

“So we still have some things to work out if you’re going to make hay with it,” Atkinson said. “It didn’t clog up the baler. But we still have things to figure out how long to dry.”

This year, the producer planted three acres in one of the varieties. Atkinson is using the current trial to determine how many times it can be grazed in a summer, how many animals can be put on an acre and whether there is any effect on birth weight.

“We’re pretty excited about soybeans,” she said.


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