At some point, every pasture or hayfield needs to be renovated. Although there are many useful approaches to improving a piece of land for forage production, some cover crops offer distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Nutritional management plays a central role in promoting the health, productivity and reproductive success of beef cattle.

Livestock enterprises can use crop acres seeded to cover crops and crop residue to stretch the grazing season and save on feed costs. Crop operations benefit from the nutrient value added through livestock manure and to help with pest management.

The good news is that despite the downsizing of proprietary and public alfalfa breeding programs, there is still a lot of genetic improvements being made. This is in part due to the technical advances in plant breeding.

 
Everyone knows a livestock producer who’s lost animals to bloat. Because of the risk, some folks flatly refuse to graze their stock on dense stands of clover or alfalfa. Others kind of shrug, saying they’ve rarely lost animals and don’t worry about it much. So … what gives?

When a producer plants an alfalfa field, there is an expectation that the field will remain productive for several years. Alfalfa is a perennial crop but there is a limit to its longevity, since all alfalfa fields naturally thin over time.

Those in the cattle industry have come to understand the term “hybrid vigor” and how it benefits the health, growth and stamina of our livestock. Many of the same things can be said for our pastures.

Alfalfa, often crowned the “queen of forages,” has long reigned supreme in the world of agriculture, commanding respect and admiration from hay producers and dairy farmers alike.

Winter cereals provide green, actively growing plants during the fall and early winter periods and are the first to green up in the spring.