Fall is a wonderful season for agriculture and a time to, hopefully, reap the bounty of the year’s production.

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.

Leaving sufficient residual plant material (leaves, lower stem bases and crowns) is essential to maximize next year’s production for perennial grasses.

Invasive plants have created novel rangeland landscapes, requiring novel responses in vegetation management. We cannot turn back the clock to a time before cheatgrass, medusahead and ventenata – invasive annual grasses that are part of the new normal in the western U.S.

It was a phone call that I didn’t want to receive. On a pleasant evening in June, a neighbor rancher – someone I’ve known for many years – phoned to ask my advice about some baleage.

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

As the summer months progress, the forage quality for grazing cattle begins to change rapidly for much of the western U.S. Cattle performance is dependent on the consumption of digestible nutrients; thus, forage quality and availability are essential for grazing-based systems.

Historically, the objective of supplementation programs for grazing cattle has been to address nutrient deficiencies based on the difference between animal nutrient requirements and the nutrients provided by the forage, with emphasis on improving forage utilization and animal performance.

Sustainable and regenerative principles in cattle ranching are not new, but ranchers may not know how to revolutionize ranching with these practices and make cattle operations more resilient for whatever comes next.

The NRCS, the USDA’s primary private lands conservation agency, supports producers by providing one-on-one, personalized assistance to help them address the specific needs of their operations through financial and free technical assistance.