1 / 10

Ten Must For a Forage Program

Ten Must For a Forage Program. Know Animal Nutritional Needs and Forage Options Stage of Pregnancy Stage of Lactation Body Weight of Livestock Animal Age Soil Type Growing Conditions. Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County. Ten Must For a Forage Program. Establish it Right

sierra
Download Presentation

Ten Must For a Forage Program

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Ten Must For a Forage Program • Know Animal Nutritional Needs and Forage Options • Stage of Pregnancy • Stage of Lactation • Body Weight of Livestock • Animal Age • Soil Type • Growing Conditions Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

  2. Ten Must For a Forage Program • Establish it Right • Use High Quality Seed • Do Timely Planting-April/May or Aug for Legumes • June seeding for Warm Season Annuals • Get the planting depth Right • Seed at the Right Number of seeds/sq foot • Make sure seed is in solid seed bed Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

  3. Ten Must For a Forage Program • Soil Test and Follow Recommendations • Add lime-cheapest nutrient to add • Add Phosphorus and Potassium as needed • Test the field by soil type if possible • Add nutrients to the same rate as you remove them • Benefits are increase yield and longer stand survival Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

  4. Ten Must For a Forage Program • Use Legume if Possible • Improve forage quality • Add Nitrogen • Increase Stand Diversity • Manage pastures to support legume retention • Increase total forage yield Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

  5. Ten Must For a Forage Program • Place Greater Emphasis on Forage Quality • Rotational Graze at optimum times • Match forage quality to nutritional needs of animals • Manage the grazing unit-graze some too early and some too late to get maximum returns • Select forages that mature at different times and have different responses to drought Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

  6. Ten Must For a Forage Program • Minimize Pest and plant related disorders • Grasshoppers can be an issue • Rust can affect grasses • Weeds reduce forage yield and quality • Diseases can reduce plant populations Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

  7. Ten Must For a Forage Program • Improve Pasture Utilization • Rotational Grazing • Adjust Stocking Rates • Vary forage types • Adjust rest periods based on plant recovery periods and less on calendar days • Fertilize grass pastures with Nitrogen Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

  8. Ten Must For a Forage Program • Reduce Your Stored Feed Requirements • Greatest area to reduce production costs in a cow-calf operation • Use extended grazing programs • Stockpiling forages • Crop Residue (corn stalks, hay fields) • CRP Acreage Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

  9. Ten Must For a Forage Program Reduce Storage and Feed Losses • Store Hay Under Cover • Store Hay Off the Ground • Prevents Wicking of Moisture • Feed in feeders or bunks • Reduce waste by 30% • Round Bale feeders cost effective-6% loss • Make sure adequate space available Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

  10. Ten Must For a Forage Program Plan Ahead to Get Maximum Returns • Have a written action plan on production practices you need to be successful • Make sure you have adequate capital to implement you plans • Think Ahead • Continue to look for Ways to Improve Keith Vander Velde, Marquette County

More Related