2021 Forage Variety Trials

The mission of the Forage Variety Evaluation Program at Penn State is to provide unbiased, comprehensive, accurate, and accessible forage variety testing results to industry and producers. Within the program, forage seed is solicited from breeders and companies that market these products in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic region.  The trials themselves are conducted at two locations in Pennsylvania: the Russell Larson Agricultural Research Station in Centre County, and the Southeast Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Lancaster County.

The program consistently trials an array of conventional alfalfa, clover, and cool-season perennial grass forages. You will find the results of these trials in the 2021 Forage Variety Trial Report found at the link below.

In recent years the program has taken on non-traditional forage species, both to gather species performance data as well as generate variety data for these species. The most popular sponsored trial is known as the Short-Lived Cover Crops and Winter Forages Trial. This trial is planted mid to late September and is subject to one of two different harvest management systems the following Spring.  Entries are entered into the single-cut system or a multi-cut system depending on the flexibility of that particular species and variety. Species that have been trialed include triticale, cereal rye, annual/Italian ryegrass, various legumes, and timothy-managed-as-an-annual.

Spring planted cool season annual forage crop variety trials are planted in early April and harvested in the same season, usually late June. These trials typically highlight oats and spring triticale as viable short-term forage solutions.

Warm-season annual grass trials conducted at Penn State include forage sorghum (planted into 30-inch rows), sudangrass and sorghum X sudangrass hybrids. In addition to these better known species, the report includes other lesser known warm-season species, teffgrass, and improved crabgrass for forage.

The results of these trials are currently available on the Forage Variety Trials Reports website.

Finally, in addition to the conventional alfalfa trials previously mentioned, the program has revived the former Potato Leafhopper Resistant Variety Trial (no insecticide) for the seeding year 2021 and we look forward to having production year data available in next year’s report