Forage & Wildlife Peas
Latest Updates
New Article: Two Peas in a PlotNew Profile: Flex Forage, Bio Cover Crop and Wildlife Pea
Interesting Read: Gardener's Nighmare: Hunter's Dream
ProGene Plant Research greatly increased its efforts for this market starting in 2005. We want to breed varieties specifically for this purpose rather than breeding for the dry edible pea market and accidently finding something that might work.
When we consider the Forage and Wildlife market needs, we have clear breeding objectives:
- Strong early seedling vigor
- Smaller seed size to save on seed cost
- Good tonnage produced at the right time for the use
- Higher nutrition, better digestibility and better palatability
- Durability
Our newest efforts are designing blends for:
1. Summer and fall seeded wildlife plots using Whistler, Nutrigreen and Journey wildlife peas
2. Spring forage blends using Pro 7121 and Oat varieties
Nutrigreen Winter Forage Pea and Winter Wildlife Pea (Profile) is a versatile winter pea similar to Austrian Winter Pea in forage production and winter hardiness. That is where the similarities stop. Nutrigreen does not contain anthacyanin, the mild anti-nutritional chemical in Austrian Winter Peas that makes the flowers purple. As a result, the white flowered Nutrigreen has better palatability and offers better digestibility than AWP. The result can be better intake and nutrition for livestock and stronger attraction for deer, turkeys and other wildlife. Another added benefit for wildlife and forage alike is that Nutrigreen has stronger early seedling growth.
Whistler Winter Forage Pea and Winter Wildlife Pea (Profile) is a variety that has proven to be very beneficial in wildlife plots, especially for deer. It is a semi leafless variety that allows it to stand up better than Austrian Winter Pea. This can be a benefit when snow comes and Whistler is more apt to continue poking through the snow rather than being weighted down by the snow. Just like Nutrigreen, Whistler is white flowered and therefore offers better taste and better digestibility than AWP. This leads to attracting more deer with Whistler.
By itself, Whistler is not a preferred winter forage pea. But a very unique value can be gained when planting a blend of Whistler and Nutrigreen. You get the standing ability of the Whistler and the normal leaf type productivity of Nutrigreen’s prolific leaves. Studies have shown the blend can out yield either variety by themselves.
Journey Spring Forage Pea and Spring Wildlife Pea (Profile) has exceptionally strong early seedling vigor as its key attribute. This gives Journey the quick start. It has been used as a fall seeded forage and cover crop pea in California with good success. It is also used extensively as a spring seeded forage pea by itself and in blends with spring oats and other spring small grain forages.
Flex Spring Forage Pea / Flex Fall & Spring Wildlife Pea is a newly released variety to be available in spring 2012 for the first time. The multiple uses of Flex brings unique flexibility to the market. It has significantly out yielded all other forage peas, is faster starting than other wildlife peas and has the improved taste and digestibility of a white flowered pea. In a spring forage blend with oats or triticale, the maturity of Flex matches up better with the maturity of the small grains to improve the blend and bring better forage to your livestock.
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