In deciding which kale cultivar to use in a particular situation farmers should consider dry matter yield potential and differences between cultivars nutritional value if the aim is to maximise animal performance and productivity.

In deciding which kale cultivar to use in a particular situation farmers should consider dry matter yield potential and differences between cultivars nutritional value if the aim is to maximise animal performance and productivity.

Driving Productivity Using Kale

To drive productivity, the focus should be on maximising dry matter intake of individual animals (and the quality of that dry matter) and also on stocking rate. Therefore, a cultivar like Gruner offers key benefits, being high yielding whilst maintaining a high proportion of the dry matter as leaf relative to stem, the implications of which are outlined below.

When feeding a kale crop there is always going to be a compromise between high animal performance and crop utilisation. To achieve both, a key focus in the development of cultivars such as Gruner and Kestrel has been maintaining a high leaf to stem ratio. Leaf dry matter has a much higher nutritive value than stem material due to higher crude protein and soluble carbohydrate concentrations and lower fibre concentrations. Furthermore, because leaf is easier to harvest than stem material, dry matter intake will be higher on cultivars with high leaf to stem ratios and this should also lead to improved crop utilisation.