Watch a YouTube video about summer annuals and their importance on livestock farms.

At some point, there will be a lapse in the rain and we can all get in the fields and get to the farm work that has been stacking up. Of this long list, there are a few items that are critical for summer annual forage management.

If you have ever been in the row crop or bermudagrass hay business, the name “crabgrass” makes you cringe. This prolific summer annual grass has been rampant across the Southeast for years, showing itself in corn and soybean fields and filling in between fescue and bermudagrass plants in pastures. Its capacity to reseed, “crawl”, survive through…

Horses have different digestive systems and nutritional needs than high-producing ruminants like sheep or cattle, which gives them some unique sensitivities to various forage issues. Horses and other livestock tend to avoid plants that don’t agree with them because they find them unpalatable, unless they lack other feed options (such as in an…