Environmental concerns, such as reduced land availability and drought, and the desire for more sustainable agricultural systems are driving many livestock producers to seek ways to implement more effective grazing management strategies on their operations.

The middle of winter may seem like a strange time to talk about bale silage, but now and into the spring, as they are being fed out, we will see the success of the methods used to preserve the feed.

Tile drainage has proven to be an effective way to use farmland that, in past generations, would have been overlooked for production because it was too wet.

With feed often accounting for more than half of a cattle operation’s costs, producing a higher quantity and quality of forage on-farm is increasingly critical to success. The best way to control these costs is by maximizing home-grown forages, and with volatility and tight margins, there is little room for experimentation.

A problem facing many irrigation managers is that they would like to apply less water per irrigation, but can’t.

Year after year, the cost of unsealed or incorrectly sealed silage exceeds a quarter billion dollars. That’s no small change when it comes to a livestock operation’s bottom line.

Click here to read a question submitted by a reader regarding inoculant sources for native species. Legumes play a unique role in the production of high-quality forages and pastures (Figure 1).