Seasonal Distribution of Forage Yield and Winter Hardiness of Grasses from Diverse Latitudinal Origins Harvested Four Times Per Year in Southcentral Alaska

Abstract

Relatively short growing seasons at subarctic latitudes require maximum efficiencies in production of forages during the brief growing period. This is necessary to provide adequately for livestock feeding requirements both during the growing season and for preserved forages for use during the relatively longer infeeding period. As elsewhere, forages in Alaska are utilized in several ways; these include (a) usually two harvests per year for preservation as silage, haylage, or hay, (b) more frequent harvests for green-chop feeding, and (c) pasturing rotationally or continuously. Various crop species utilized for forage differ in growth characteristics as well as in their responses to various harvest procedures and schedules; therefore it is understandable that a number of species can be advantageously employed for forage production in Alaska, each to fulfill ideally one of the several ways that forages are utilized. Another limitation affecting forage production in the far north is the modest number of useful perennial legume and grass species and strains adequately winter- hardy to persist dependably under northern climatic constraints (Klebesadel 1970, 1971, 1985; Klebesadel et al. 1964; Wilton et al. 1966).