warm-season forages

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10 feet tall with BMR: A new era of grass

Grazing, BMR genes, improved varieties, low-moisture situations – combined with the potential for high summer yields and good nutrition – these plants can be impressive.

May 13, 2024

Woody Lane

Sorghum-sudangrass is a C4 (warm-season) annual. It can easily grow 10 feet tall and yield more than 5 tons of dry matter per acre during the hot summer.

Cover crop confessions: Mistakes we made and lessons we learned

Cover crops can be a challenge to master, but experimenting and making four necessary adjustments can help you achieve all the benefits the crops offer.

April 15, 2024

In the summer of 2021, the first diverse warm-season cover crop Kevin Pierce drilled into what had been a conventionally cropped monoculture of cereal rye on Noble Research Institute’s Red River Ranch was a big success.

Summer grazing considerations for beef cattle

Taking stock of the quantity and quality of forage available on your pasture during early spring greenup will have a lasting impact on your herd’s health and the land’s long-term productivity.

April 8, 2024

Megan Van Emon

As temperatures start to rise and grass begins to green up and grow, considering the availability of forage in each pasture can help livestock producers make management decisions at turnout.

Filling the holes in your forage calendar

Stretching out grazing season with careful forage management strategies, thus shortening the time you have to feed stored forages, is the most direct way to reduce feed costs.

January 22, 2024

Woody Lane

Feed costs comprise 60% to 80% of the typical farm budget. If we can reduce those costs by 20% or even 10%, it will happily lower our break-even price. Read more about some grazing strategies to lessen the need for stored feed.

6 must-know steps for successful winter supplementation programs

A good program requires more thought than simply setting out supplement blocks. Producers can get the most out of their investment by gathering concrete information about their cattle and environment before winter hits.

October 19, 2023

Twig Marston

Your operation may have several important characteristics that make it unique, but if you start with these six elements, a sound and practical winter cow herd supplementation program can become an efficient and effective segment of your business.

Hesitation about NIRS evaluation of grass forages

Not only are NIRSC calibrations accurate for the evaluation of grass-type forages, but they successfully combine warm- and cool-season grasses, eliminating the need for separate calibrations.

September 13, 2023

Rebecca Kern-Lunbery and Bobbi Jo Anderson Husmoen

Recently, producers at the Nebraska Grazing Conference indicated that there is still a lot of apprehension around the use of NIRS in forage evaluation. The most common concern was that NIRS is “fine” for alfalfa but not accurate enough for grass forages.

Southeast: Overseeding – why, when and with what?

August 14, 2023

Kim Mullenix

Overseeding warm-season perennial grasses, such as bahiagrass or bermudagrass, with cool-season annuals can extend the forage production season into the winter months.

Southeast: Warm-season pastures – greenup and growth in late spring

April 12, 2023

Kim Mullenix

While spring brings new life to pastures in the Southeast, as we enter the late-spring time frame, we often encounter drier conditions.

Southeast: Burning warm-season hayfields

December 29, 2022

Kim Mullenix

Although we don’t discuss burning warm-season perennial pastures and hayfields as much anymore as a management tool, fire is one of nature’s ways of preparing for renewal.