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Home of the best forage triticale.

SlickTrit II an awnletted winter triticale with multiple use options that replaced the original SlickTrit. SlickTrit II has better tillering, better standability, and increased forage yield. SlickTrit II also proved to have better nutritional values and has become the dominant variety of triticale planted in the south plains.

A Triticale Success Story

Forage Triticale In The Southern
Great Plains Of The U.S.A.

Triticale has been gaining acreage in the United States, now being grown on approximately 350 thousand hectares, mostly as a forage, and mostly for dairy silage. This is especially true in the Southern Great Plains. Google Spearman, Texas, and zoom out until Garden City, Kansas on the North, and Lubbock, Tx. and Hobbs, NM on the South, show up on the map. About 70% of the dairies in this area are now using triticale. This is a semi-arid area that is irrigated by the Ogallala aquifer. It is a diminishing resource that is now governed by underground water districts that limit the amount of water that can be pumped in a given year. Corn (Maize) acres are decreasing as triticale acres increase. A reasonable crop of triticale silage can be raised with 12 inches of irrigation, while corn requires 20 inches (plus rainfall).

In 2005, I was able to obtain the actual budgets of dairymen in the Hartley, TX area on 3000 acres of triticale, and 900 acres of corn. Their awnletted triticale (SlickTrit) produced 62% of the yield of corn for 42% of the cost. The savings was mostly on fertilizer and water. As the irrigation water decreased, growers tried awnless wheat, but the yields were not satisfactory. The average yield of wheat silage in the Southern Great Plains is about 10 ton per acre. Triticale averages about 15 tons/ac, while corn is at 25 tons/ac. Where water and fertilizer are abundant, the top- end yield for wheat is about 14 tons/ac; triticale – 22 tons; and corn – 32 tons/ac, Dr. Mark Marsalis of New Mexico State University – Clovis, has many years of triticale forage data, showing the pounds of milk produced per acre. One may request a copy of his data at marsalis@nmsu.edu.
-Ron Kershen

Today, SlickTrit II has improved genetics from Slicktrit that offer more flexibility, more tonnage, and more milk per ton.

Forage Triticale In The Southern
Great Plains Of The U.S.A.