Grasses & Legumes
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Regenerating worn and chemically damaged land

May 29, 2015

Melissa Miller

For nearly 30 years, Living Web Florida farm near Crescent City, Florida, was a nursery for potted plants.

Producer’s view: Converting row-crop rotations to grazing

May 29, 2015

Jim Isermann

One of the biggest advantages of raising cattle today is the diversity of potential feeds available.

It's not that simple: Choosing summer annual forage grasses

May 14, 2015

Bruce Anderson

This should be easy. “Just tell me what to plant for summer forage.” Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Each type of summer annual grass has characteristics that make it most suitable for various uses – pasture, hay or silage.

Weed or feed? How to turn pasture weed into feed

April 17, 2015

Bruce Anderson

April showers bring May flowers. What do May flowers bring? If you’re a fan of riddles, you already know the answer – Pilgrims. For graziers throughout North America, however, this riddle may have a different answer – weed seeds. If grass is your crop, May flowers usually mean a bumper crop of weeds waiting to go to seed, unless you have lots of legumes in your pasture.

Make pasture fertilizing pay by using grazing management

March 16, 2015

Bruce Anderson

Spring is approaching, and cool-season grass pastures are starting to green up. It’s time to think about fertilizing.

Native warm-season grass species and cultivars

January 29, 2015

Recent studies indicate that native grasses can be a useful “tool” for forage producers, providing a good complement to tall fescue or orchardgrass and a low-input alternative to bermudagrass. There are five species typically considered for forage production:

Grazing investigation: Have we robbed the grass bank?

January 2, 2015

Laura Hooper and Glenn Shewmaker

As Steve Fransen, forage specialist and pasture guru from Washington State University, states, “That lower several inches does not belong to the livestock or a hay producer; it belongs to the grass plant.”

Rotational grazing: A tool for pasture management

January 2, 2015

Jenna Hurty-Person

Rotational grazing, or the practice of rotating livestock through several smaller pastures instead of housing them in one large pasture, is nothing new; however, it has been gaining more momentum recently.

Trees in silvopasture are not created equal

January 1, 2015

John Fike

For many producers, the thought of planting trees in pastures is anathema. A common first utterance from skeptics generally goes something like, “My family’s been fighting trees on this land since we came here, and now you say we should plant trees?”

Integrating crops and grazing

November 12, 2014

Heather Smith Thomas

Cover crops have traditionally been used to help hold the soil when transitioning between different types of cash crops and are often plowed under before planting the next crop to add organic material and fertility to the soil.