Forage seeding made easier with new interactive CD

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

Matching the right forage species to your land and your needs is the task taken on by a project of the Saskatchewan Forage Council. The result is an interactive CD which guides the producer through the process.

“It’s a tool for producers to take a look at different forage species, and make selections based upon their specific characteristics,” Saskatchewan Forage Council Executive Director Janice Bruynooghe said.

“It looks at their land and soil characteristics, and also if they need something for pasture or if they want something for haying. They can basically define all the criteria for their specific circumstances.”

Bruynooghe says the CD was made as user-friendly as possible in order to allow a series of choices that will lead to options.

“There is a whole database of information that will sort through all of the different species that we have adapted to Saskatchewan, and pull out a list for them that says what is suggested based on past research and recommendations from agrologists,” Bruynooghe said.

“It’s a nice way for producers to try to sort through a ream of information. We’ve put it all into a very user-friendly tool.”

Most of the information on the CD originated with the Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food (SAF) Forage Crop Production Guide, which is updated annually by a Provincial Forage Crop Specialist. That base was combined with other scientific research compiled from across western Canada.

The CD allows the user to make their choices based on a long list of selectable criteria.

“There are up to 10 criteria that a producer could input. They could select all 10, or they might only use one,” Bruynooghe said.

“They input their considerations and it will provide them with all the different species, whether it’s for pasture or not.”

In addition, the CD also provides a seeding rate calculator. Once the user has selected the forage species they want to seed, it will indicate the pounds per acre required of each species in the mix, and calculate a projected cost per acre.

Bruynooghe says the CD is not the “be-all-and-end-all” of forage crop planning, but it is one more tool to add to producers’ other contacts, research and personal experiences.

Funding for the compilation of the CD came under Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s “Greencover Canada” Program. However, a long list of partner groups participated in the technical committee, which advised the forage council on content, including SAF, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA), Saskatchewan Crop Insurance and Ducks Unlimited.

“We’ve been at it for almost two years now,” Bruynooghe said. “Those technical review committee members have been very important. We’ve filtered through the information a number of times, ground-proofing it and testing it so that the information is as accurate as we could possibly make it.”

The CD will be available free of charge by mid-March, and can be obtained simply by calling the Saskatchewan Forage Council at (306) 966-2148. A downloadable version will also be offered on their website at www.saskforage.ca.

An additional feature is the Forage Establishment Fact Sheet, a guide to the establishment of forage crops, which will be offered in a PDF format on the site.

For more information, contact:
Janice Bruynooghe, Executive Director
Saskatchewan Forage Council
Phone: (306) 966-2148