Many local producers harvested their cereal rye or other winter small grain crops as baleage or haylage. However, some farmers still are looking forward to harvesting those crops for grain and making some much-needed straw as well. Read more in this article from The Daily Record (Wooster, OH).

Livestock market complications that reduce calf sales can cause unexpected forage demands. Droughts can compound the problem leading to forage deficiencies, while forage shortages can cause poor animal performance, overgrazed and degraded pastures, and increased expenses. Read more in this article from Southeast AgNet.

The university, in partnership, with the University of California at Davis; University of Minnesota; The Organic Center in Washington, D.C.; and the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland, were collectively awarded a nearly $1 million grant to “investigate the benefits of livestock integration through cover-crop grazing on bacterial population dynamics, food safety, and soil and environmental health,” said Dr. Fawzy Hashem, a research associate professor in the university’s Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences. Read more in this article from Lancaster Farming.

In this webinar, learn more about how to make a plan for your cover crops, the pros and cons of various cover crop seeding methods, how to select a cover crop seed species, and more.

As ranchers continue with the struggle to find more grazing land to expand their livestock operations, more are looking into growing cover crops for grazing or renting cover crop land from neighboring farmers. Greg Rasmussen started planting cover crops on a piece of farm ground north of Boelus, Neb., several years ago, in an effort to stop soil erosion and improve soil health. Read more in this article from The Fence Post.

In 2016, Shawn Freeland to make a difficult decision. The 45-year-old Caputa, S.D., rancher attended a Grassland Coalition Grazing School. In addition to reducing his stocking density on rangeland, he no-till drilled a diverse cover crop mix on irrigated hay acres. Read more in this article from Farm Forum (Aberdeen, SD).

There is a lot of interest in haying or grazing a cover crop planted on prevented planting acres. This is mostly the result of projected lower yielding 2020 hay production due to a late freeze and current dry conditions. Read more in this article from AgWeek.

Chris Reynolds, certified crop advisor and resource conservationist from Illinois discusses why species choice is important when analyzing covers, how to determine planting dates for cover crops, when growers should start thinking about covers in the season, and more.

Challenging harvest conditions in the fall of 2019 in combination with excess moisture and cool temperatures this spring have inhibited spring planting, resulting in above normal acres of prevented planting. In addition, many livestock producers in the region are short on forage due to harvest challenges in 2019 and delayed pasture readiness this spring.