Grasses & Legumes
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Quotes & Concepts: “Silage and hay take nutrients away”

September 27, 2015

Don Ball

A key to profitable forage livestock production is to provide adequate nutrients for good forage growth. Fertility requirements for a hay or silage crop are vastly different than for grazed forages, even if the pasture and hay crops are the same species.

Competition control in native grass pastures and hayfields

September 27, 2015

Weed control in native grasses is, for the most part, very similar to that for tall fescue, orchardgrass or bermudagrass. The similarities for all of these include two very basic principles.

Pasture quality is value

September 25, 2015

Edward B. Rayburn

Forage quality needs to meet the animal’s nutritional requirement (Table 1) in order to maintain animal performance.

Grazing forage brassicas

August 31, 2015

Kim Cassida

Forage brassicas are a hot topic again. These cool-season forage crops have been used in the U.S. for more than 100 years with waxing and waning degrees of popularity.

3 ways to set your pasture up for failure

August 13, 2015

Cassidy Woolsey

Humans are creatures of habit. We grow up believing and doing one thing without really giving it much thought. Take putting on pants for example: Do you put your right leg in first or your left? In many cases, it is the same with pasture management; it becomes a regular routine, and unfortunately, some practices shouldn’t.

Custom-grazing dairy heifers

July 15, 2015

Tamara Scully

Custom graziers may do well to consider opportunities outside of beef cattle, particularly in areas where dairy farms are plentiful. Raising dairy heifers in confinement is pricey.

When mob grazing is not mob grazing

June 17, 2015

Bruce Anderson

Mob grazing is popular. If you aren’t mob grazing yourself, you know someone who is mob grazing. Or are they?

Stepping up grazing management

May 29, 2015

Edward B. Rayburn

1. Balance forage supply and livestock demand 2. Manage for plant communities adapted to the soil and climate

Triggers for destocking pastures

May 29, 2015

Robert Fears

During the past two to three years, livestock and crop producers in almost every state have had to deal with drought and, unfortunately, long-range precipitation forecasts are not good.

Producers optimize soil health for grazing success

May 29, 2015

Kelli Boylen

Want a better pasture? Try managed grazing and plant diversity, said Dr. Allen Williams and Rod Ofte. Ofte, a fourth-generation farmer who operates Willow Creek Ranch in southwest Wisconsin with his family, and Williams, a sixth-generation beef producer in Mississippi, spoke about managing grazing of grass-fed beef at a Kickapoo Grazing Initiative event held in Gays Mills, Wisconsin.