Content tagged with forage

Winter annuals don’t make sense for every operation, but there is a large percentage of us who should be utilizing them to reduce our hay feeding bill and to increase the quality of forage our animals are grazing during the winter.

Helpful info sheet on 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.

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…

Between frigid winter weather and the dry fall, winter annual forages have taken a hit this year. If you have evaluated your fields and confirmed that the majority of the plants are dead or have decayed, your best chance at a ready-to-harvest forage in 45-55 days is a spring oat. These wide-leafed winter annuals have prolific growth, are highly…

A great challenge in cattle operations is needing forage…fast. In Bermudagrass based systems, the lack of growth between when Bermuda growth slows and cereal rye or ryegrass growth begins is an incredible challenge. A similar issue is found in fescue based systems- fall growth of fescue slows or nearly stops once the day length shortens and…

Mixtures bring yield stability to a forage field as each species and variety has its own strengths and weaknesses.  These factors include: soil adaption, climate adaptation, disease resistance, harvest timing, yield distribution over the seasons, nutrient needs and contributions to soil health, and of course nutrition and fiber for the…

Adaptation to climate and soil type are not the only considerations when it comes to selecting a cool-season perennial. Farm constraints, management style, and long term goals should all be part of the decision. Take a minute to evaluate where your forage system is now and where you want it to be. From there, you can work towards selecting the…

“Corn” “Diversity” and even “innovative cropping systems” usually don’t go together in the same sentence. When used in a stockpiled winter grazing system, it turns out they occasionally can.

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…