The two-year research project, based at MSU’s Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Coastal Plain Branch in Newton, established row crops and cover crops that encompassed a variety of species suitable for grazing that led to increased livestock weight gain.

Choosing a summer forage can be confusing because there are six different types of major summer annual forage grasses. These include: sudangrass, sorghum-sudan hybrids, forage sorghum (which we often call cane or sorgo), foxtail millet, pearl millet and teff. Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses.

The seed mixture options for full and late-season grazing could include cool-season cereals (oats, barley, triticale), warm-season grasses (sorghum-sudan, sudangrass, pearl millet), brassicas (turnips, radishes, kale), broadleaf plants (sunflowers, buckwheat) and legumes (forage peas, clovers, vetch).

Cover crops are typically used by producers in dryland no-till cropping systems to improve soil health, reduce soil compaction, enhance nutrient cycling, improve soil structure, and improve water infiltration. Producers may be able to realize some income from cover crops by grazing or haying them. But is this a good idea or will it cancel out any benefit the cover crops would otherwise have on soil properties and residue cover?

University of Nebraska educators offer a bevy of tips on how to evaluate alfalfa stands, manage winter injury and navigate through drought conditions.