Fall planted cereal rye and turnips are great feed, if we can graze them . . .

I walked across some pastures on the last day of November and shook my head as water splashed up from my gum boots and splattered my pants. I was honestly hoping that this winter wouldn’t be anything like last year, but so far it is. Ugh, I’m afraid that mud is coming.

Fall forage growth was delayed due to dry weather in most of Indiana. That dry spell didn’t last too long, but long enough to reduce fall regrowth and stockpiled forage. So, quite a bit of the area started the fall out with a little less forage than average. I estimate that my six-week dry spell cost me at least one third of my stockpile yield.

Now, with slightly less forage present and grazing of stockpiled forages already in motion, it’s going to be even more important to Continue reading →

– Christine Gelley, Ohio State University Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Educator, Noble County

The benefits of utilizing cover crops in both grazing and agronomic crop production are numerous. However, each cover crop system is unique. There is no blanket “yes” or “no” answer to the question- Do cover crops need fertilizer?

Incorporating Cover Crops

Each farm is different and therefore the way you use cover crops can differ too. Whether you are a row crop farmer, a fruit and vegetable grower, exclusively in the hay business, a livestock manager, or involved in a combination of pursuits, cover crops can be an added benefit to your system.

Although the economic benefit of cover crops is difficult to quantify, the environmental principals associated with their growth are influential. Cover crops are selected for use based on their growing seasons, ability to reduce soil erosion and build soil organic matter, scavenge excess nutrients from the previous crop, relieve soil compaction, and for their nutritional value as feed for animals. The way we incorporate cover crops into our systems should complement our current crops, fit our soil types, and allow for termination of the stand when their useful period ends.

It just so happens that many cover crops are excellent forage crops for livestock and wildlife too. Most are ideal as grazed forage rather than harvested forage, although Continue reading →

– Tim McDermott DVM, OSU Extension Educator, Franklin County (originally published in Farm and Dairy)

Because foxtail awn are shaped similar to a lawn dart, they can become lodged somewhere in a grazing animal and medical or surgical care may be required in order to remove it safely.

It seems like foxtail grass has taken over every pasture and hay field in Ohio in 2019. My good friend and Extension colleague, Clif Martin, wrote an excellent article detailing “How to Fight Foxtail in Forages” in the October 3rd, 2019 All About Grazing column in Farm and Dairy. I highly recommend you review this article to learn strategies to manage this weed. If his article is not enough to get you motivated, then hopefully this article will.

Foxtail is not only a weed competitor and invader of your hay and pasture fields, but it also can cause some significant medical problems for grazing livestock, horses and companion animals. Take a close look at the picture of a foxtail awn. It is very tiny as you can see in comparison to the dime placed for reference. Note that its shape is similar to a lawn dart, which means that it can only travel in one direction, point first. Depending on what species variety of foxtail grass present, this places the seed heads with grass awns very close to the feet, mouth, ears, eyes and nostrils of grazing animals, livestock guard dogs, and horses as they move through fields either walking, running or grazing. That puts these species of animals at risk for Continue reading →

– Clif Martin, OSU Extension Muskingum County (This article first appeared in Farm and Dairy)

Foxtail can easily invade bare spots in pasture and hay fields. Photo: Ohio State

Cool nights and pleasant warm days leave me thinking I can accomplish just about anything.  I may get so overconfident I think I can eliminate foxtail.

There are a handful of weeds out there that are regular offenders in hay and pastures and foxtail is one of them.  In the world of Extension topics, I can count on foxtail questions every fall and through winter into spring as animals begin to reject hay.  It comes in three forms: giant, green and yellow. Foxtails readily grow and are opportunistic colonizers of bare spaces.  They will creep into your pastures, your hayfields, soybean fields, lawns and field edges where there is an opportunity.  They are summer annuals and thrive by the ‘live fast and die hard’ model which means they produce a lot of seed, spread rapidly, die in the fall and return next year.  The foxtails are infamous for seeds that get caught in the gums of livestock which leads to animals rejecting feed and possibly getting infections in the mouth.

As a grass, they are easily overlooked before they enter the reproductive phase and set a seed head.  The vegetation itself is fine, but it is the seed head that causes all the trouble.  In the case of giant foxtail, I learned to easily recognize it as the plant I could walk out into a field and shake hands with.  That sets it apart from most other grasses in shape and form.  The seed head is Continue reading →