Spring Cover Crops: What should I plant for an extra shot of summer nitrogen?
What if you couldn’t plant a cover crop in the fall but need a quick crop before a heavy summer nitrogen user like sorghum, sorghum-sudan, sudangrass, millet, brassicas or vegetable transplants? Many regions have seen cooler weather with spring arriving later, but you may have time to fit in an extra crop. With a little…
More on Winter Survival: Cover Crops
Cover crops survived the winter somewhat inconsistently this year, as we could see at the cover crop walk at the Steven Stoltzfus farm in Manheim, Lancaster County, PA (sponsored by Penn State Extension and NRCS). With what became almost a six month winter this year, starting with an unseasonably frigid November, we got a taste…
Reminder Tips for Winter Forage Production
David Hunsberger, Central Region Coordinator As the 2015 Summer crop matures, planning for the next crop continues. Winter annuals are an excellent choice for either cover cropping or forage production. In diverse mixtures or monocropped several principles are worthy of review. Planting Date: Proper timing of seeding is critical. For best survival and volume of…
Sale Topper
This new all grass mix is primarily designed to be seeded as a stand alone crop to be fed to horses, dry cows, heifers or even milking cows. Also a great complement for new alfalfa and/or clover seedings. Includes: 2 premium late heading orchardgrasses, and one early timothy along with a late timothy to throw…
Winter Annual Highlights
The selections below are not reflective of the entire line-up. These are products/concepts that we feel should be highlighted for the 2014 winter annual forage season. “It (Triticale 815) gets repeat sales and higher yields, close to 4 tons of dry matter. That’s good for something that grows over the winter. The combination of yield…
Small Grains Coming Out of Winter
The growing season was shortened by about a month in the fall and again this spring. This was evident in our research plots, where small grains planted mid-September (about a month ahead of normal) looked optimal, and those planted at later dates struggled. Winter annuals were really put to the test this year, and differences…
Why Care About Sugars?
By Chad Hale, Forage Grass Specialist “All things in moderation” is a mantra that applies to many things in life. Most of us like sugar but we probably shouldn’t let it be the majority of our diet. Ruminants are no different. They like sugar too and dairy nutritionists have a rule of thumb that sugar…
Selecting the correct seeding rate for sorghum based on its seeds per pound.
By Tracy Neff Sorghum seed, whether its forage sorghum, sorghum sudan or a sudangrass comes in varying seed size. The size of the seed (seeds per pound) will vary based on variety and/ or the growing conditions where the seed was produced from year to year. Quite often drier conditions during the seed production of…
Thin Alfalfa Stands?
Evaluating thin alfalfa stands can lead to critical decisions about summer annual forages. If your stand is not thick enough (approximately 40 stems per square ft according to Dr. Marvin Hall, Penn State University), consider interseeding a summer annual such as sorghum sudan or sudangrass, or rotating to King Fisher corn for silage. Success for…
Fine-tuning the Seed Drill
Original article by Dennis Hancock, published by Progressive Forage Grower, July 22, 2016 Late summer means the fall planting season is upon us. In the coming weeks, hundreds of thousands of acres will be planted. Here are some key considerations to help ensure your plantings are successful and cost-effective. Clean and prep Those who grew…
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