Are you looking to improve your grazing management system? The first step is to develop a grazing management plan! To better manage your grazing, you have to have goals. Our ultimate goals are to improve our efficiency, reduce pasture waste, conserve surplus forage, improve animal performance, and improve forage quality…
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While bermudagrass and bahiagrass are great warm season perennials, warm season annual grasses work well in a forage system to offer high quality forage throughout the summer months. There are several warm season annuals on the market with sorghum x sudangrass and pearl millet being the most popular. In this…
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Masks, hand washing, social distancing, vaccines, quarantine; words that are excessively familiar this day and time. What do you think of when you hear these words? My first thought is health. You have now began checking your website because you supposedly pulled up UGA Extension’s Forage Team Newsletter, but don’t…
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It seems like every summer I get calls from hay producers and cattlemen worried that a lack of timely rain or over-fertilization will cause their forage to be high in nitrates. Every winter I get calls from producers with dead cattle or late term abortions, that are worried that the…
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In the Piedmont and northern Georgia, UGA Extension recommends planting tall fescue between September 1 and October 15. So, why discuss planting in March? In areas where tall fescue is adapted, conversion of toxic Kentucky-31 pastures and hayfields to a non-toxic, novel endophyte variety represents one of the most financially…
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If you are feeding hay in the winter, eventually you are going to have to deal with mud. Mud increases animal stress and can lead to increased production costs. It is important for producers to know how mud limits livestock production and ways to manage this issue. How does mud…
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To be so tiny, ants can cause lots of turmoil in our hayfields and pastures including equipment damage, employee harm (i.e. loading square bales), and just plain aggravation. Many times we as livestock or hay producers have what we consider more pressing things to attend to: fertilizing, armyworm control, or…
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Forage establishment can be frustrating but can be successful if you have a plan. Forage establishment techniques can vary depending upon forage species, location, soil type, pasture situation and intended use. Good establishment techniques are essential to getting good high yielding forage stands. Let’s look at several reasons why producers can successfully establish forages.
By Charlotte Meeks Houston County CEA While temporary fencing cannot replace permanent fencing, it has its place in a grazing management system. Temporary fencing can be used to divide permanent pasture for rotational grazing or intensive grazing systems, open areas for temporary grazing or to exclude livestock from an area. While permanent fences are intended…
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By Roger Gates Whitfield County CEC “Taking stock” is a phrase that means to “think carefully about a situation… so that you can decide what to do.” Historically, the phrase came from a farmer’s practice of counting the number of animals on the farm. Periodic livestock inventories provide important and…
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