Trial Report Summary

Intercropping: Hemp-Cereal Silage

Crop Type(s):
Hemp
Centre(s):
CMCDC, PCDF
Year(s):
2020
Collaborators(s):

PCDF, Manitoba Horticulture Productivity Enhancement Centre (MHPEC)

Objective(s):

To evaluate intercrop mixes with hemp for silage production.

Project Findings:

The results for silage yield differ statistically by treatment. The hemp-only treatment provided
significantly lower silage yields than treatments including barley and oat. Further, the inclusion of hemp
in the silage mixture did not significantly increase yield over barley-only or oat-only. Note that the
reliability of these results is low due to a high percent CV for silage yield.

Background:

Silage plays an important part in the Manitoba livestock industry. Corn silage provides high yields,
relative to barley silage (14 t/ac, over 7.5 t/ac, 2020 Silage Cost of Production, MARD). In the Parkland
area, the yield for corn silage is variable and many producers opt to produce a cereal silage, such as
barley or oat. PCDF and MHPEC have worked together to explore intercropping options for cereals
silage.
Hemp provides an interesting opportunity for silage production, due to its high production potential and
good nutritional qualities. However, Canadian regulations currently prohibit the use of hemp products
as a livestock feed ingredients in Canada. As such, this research is purely exploratory, and is not
intended to provide recommendations to producers. PCDF may use the data to provide information to
regulatory agencies around the use of hemp in livestock feed.

PDF:

Entire findings are available by downloading the report PDF.

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