Perennial forages improve soil structure, reduce compaction and help leach salts from the root zone. For producers committed to stewardship, perennials are more than cover – they’re a strategy for resilience.

That green field of alfalfa might look lush from the roadside – but what’s lurking in the mix could be quietly reducing your forage quality, lowering animal intake and even risking nitrate toxicity. Learn which weeds do the most damage, how they impact feed value and what you can do to protect your first cutting and your herd.

We often like to use the easy button on so many things. In some instances, this works for a time, but what can the long-term results be and do we attempt to understand how nature interacts and responds to the practices we do in farming? Controlling weeds is one of those easy buttons that I feel we need to take a deeper look at and understand what the weeds are trying to tell us.

Wild oats (Avena fatua) – they’re fast, sneaky and persistent. If you’re a small-grain producer, you already know this grassy weed can rob you of yield, quality and profits. But here’s the good news: With smart strategies, you can turn the tables.

In 2022, Steven Hines with the University of Idaho wrote an article for Ag Proud – Idaho on interseeding cover crops into silage corn. Steven shared lessons learned and research results from trials in Idaho during 2017-22. Concurrent research was being conducted in Utah around the same time frame. This article will revisit interseeding and discuss takeaways from Utah studies.

Greg and Lynn Gardner purchased the ranch in 1990. Today, along with their daughter Brittany and her husband, Wacey Cathey, they manage a cow-calf business on approximately 28,500 acres, which includes their deeded land along with neighboring private, state and tribal leases.

To help answer these questions, we have designed a study and outreach plan that focus on better characterizing the ways in which weed management among PNW farmers and ranchers has changed in recent years and the different approaches that have been taken in response. 

It’s that time of year when poison hemlock, a dangerous noxious weed that can be fatal to humans and all classes of livestock, is once again in full growth around the state, officials with the Idaho Weed Awareness Campaign warn.

Take advantage of this window – a time when there are fewer hooves on the ground – to position your grazing acres for when you decide the time is right to grow your herd.