What’s the Best Time of Day to Make Hay?
By Joy Beam, King’s AgriSeeds The best time of day to cut hay is a balancing act between maximizing the nutritional quality and store-ability of the bales. During the day, the plant undergoes the process of photosynthesis, or production of carbohydrates- what we know better as ‘sugars’. However, these sugars are produced at a rate…
Frost-seeding? Consider your Clover Options
By Joy Beam, King’s AgriSeeds Consider using the cold mornings in February as an opportunity to frost-seed your pastures with clover for more productive forages this upcoming spring! Besides fixing 40-120 pounds of N/A/Year, these legumes increase animal performance while improving the palatability of forages. This leads to an increased amount and quality of forage…
Rotation, diversity, multi-faceted defense needed to manage nematodes
SCN females on infected roots.Photo by Iowa State, https://www.plantpath.iastate.edu/scn/symptoms With many agronomic challenges, the gist of any thoughtful response is usually rotation, rotation, rotation. Change up your management strategy every year, so that the pest or weed doesn’t get habituated to whatever you’re doing. When it comes to nematodes – unsegmented, microscopic round worms that…
The Gateway Sorghum-sudan
Two rows of photoperiod sensitive sorghum-sudan, left, forage sorghum on right If you haven’t dealt with sorghum crops in the past, photoperiod sensitive sorghum-sudans could be a good initiation into the world of multi-cut crops like sorghum-sudan and sudangrass. Sensitive to day length, they won’t initiate flowering until the day length gets below 12 hours…
Are Nurse Crops Needed? Factors to Consider in Spring Cool Season Perennial Seedings
The King’s AgriSeeds Agronomy Team You may be wondering how necessary it is to plant a nurse crop, such as oats, with your perennial grass or alfalfa seedings this spring. Here’s the scoop: The main function of spring nurse crops is for weed control. Fall nurse crops, on the other hand, also serve as a…
The Price of an Uneven Stand
Preparing the planter and the field A consistent corn stand is a profitable stand. This spring, paying attention to detail and waiting for those optimal planting conditions can pave the way for success. It’s a good idea to dig up seeds at planting to make sure you have an even and adequate depth, and consistent…
The Harm in Soil Crusting
Soil aggregation and earthworm, both good soil health indicators Soil crusts form a barrier at the soil surface – against oxygen and water from above, and emerging seedlings from beneath. A surface crust is more hard, compact, and brittle than the soil beneath it, which can be loose and friable. Certain soils are more prone…
Diamonds in the Rough- Italian Ryegrasses
By Joy Beam As an annual that behaves like a biennial, Green Spirit, KF Allegro and other Italian ryegrasses can be placed strategically on livestock operations to capitalize on both yield and quality. They are ideal as silage or green chop for high producing dairy cows and produce impressive forage yields of exceptional high-quality feed.…
The Carbon Cycle
By Harold Schrock Carbon. This is arguably the most important physical factor in all of life, and is the primary nutrient needed for plant growth. There are several aspects of carbon that effect farmers. In plants this material makes the bulk of the dry matter, in soils it is the bulk of the organic matter…
Pasture Pruning: Preventing Problems, Pursuing excellence
By David Hunsberger, Central Regional Coordinator What is pasture pruning? Isn’t that just another way to say clipping? No, according to Cliff Hawbaker, an innovative grazer near Chamberburg PA, the two should not be confused. Hawbaker has been on the leading edge of many practices to improve dairy margins over the years. We took the…
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