Species/Varieties

Chris Teutsch, Carrie Knott, and Roy Burris, University of Kentucky

Once wheat and other small grains adapt to cooler weather in the fall, they are relatively tolerant of cold temperatures and freeze injury.  Frost injury in the spring normally occurs when February and March are unusually warm and small grains initiate growth earlier than normal or from an unusually late frost event.  Freezing temperatures during sensitive growth stages can significantly impact grain yield.  In some cases, the impact on yield can be moderate to severe. 

Ray Smith, Forage Specialist, University of KY

When planning a grazing management plan for your pastures, it’s important to realize that pasture is the most economical and efficient way to feed your animals. When managing pasture, both the animal nutrient needs and pasture requirements should be considered. To start, begin by identifying the forage species in a pasture. Next estimate how much of it is there. During most of the spring and fall in Kentucky, you will find cool-season grasses along with some legumes.

When grass is in short supply during the fall and extra grazing sources are needed, spring oats can be used for grazing cattle during late fall. Oats is a high quality forage comparable to winter wheat and can be used for pasture, hay, or silage.

Alfalfa is one of the most popular forage crops grown in the U.S. This high quality forage can be used for hay, silage, be a useful forage for animals with high nutrient needs. Although alfalfa is a cool-season legume, its deep root system makes it more drought tolerant than other cool-season species.

Corn is one of our most productive forages with the potential to produce more than seven tons of dry matter per acre. Few annual crops can compare to corn in terms of yield (dry matter per acre) and cost (per pound of gain). Grazing fully matured, standing corn during the winter months has proven to be a successful tool to extend the grazing season. It will help reduce feed costs as well as the investment in harvest. Winter grazing of corn typically occurs from mid-November to the end of December or later, depending on the amount of corn available.

During the hot summer months adding warm-season annuals to a grazing system can provide a high quality forage when cool-season grasses and legumes decrease in production and quality. One available warm-season annual that can be used in Kentucky is millet. Adding millets can reduce or end the need for feeding stored feeds, overgrazing of cool-season grasses when they are in the “summer slump”, and can increase field stocking density. Millets are small-seeded, fast-growing summer annual grasses used for hay, pasture, and silage.

Grazing warm-season perennials can be beneficial throughout the hot summer months. These forages have rapid growth rates during June, July and August while fescue and other cool-season forages exhibit limited growth.

When renovating or establishing pastures, an important consideration is the selection of forage species and varieties. Forage species, as well as varieties within a species, vary significantly in yield, quality, and stand persistence, which combine to greatly impact performance and economic return to the operation. In addition to choosing an appropriate variety, proper seeding rates and seedbed preparation are necessary for the successful establishment of the selected variety.

Winter annuals, such as cereal rye and annual ryegrass, can provide a high-quality forage alternative to traditional winter feeding programs that rely heavily on stored forages. These forages can provide valuable grazing time in late fall and early winter, and again in early spring.