Author: Lindie Huffman
Major Program: Forages
Soil is literally and figuratively the foundation of all of life. Managing soil fertility is imperative to producing food to feed the world and our livestock. The Pendleton County Extension Office, like all Extension offices across the Commonwealth, provides soil testing for farmers to understand what lies beneath the crust and agents provide valuable information on how to provide ample nutrients to improve and maximize yield of vegetables, fruits, row crops, and forages.In 2017, the Pendleton C
Author: Christopher Teutsch
Forage presentations given at conferences held in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and some at the regional and national level were captured in real-time using a software package called CAMTASIA. Videos were then produced and posted on the KYForages YouTube Channel, which has 1,190 subscribers. In the past year, these videos have been viewed more than 73,000 times with a total watch time of 883,000 minutes. Although majority of views come from the United States and Canada (77%), pe
In 2018, the Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference was held in Cave City, KY. The focus of the conference was intensive alfalfa management. Topics covered included selecting improved varieties, establishment, managing soil fertility, weed control, insect and disease management, harvesting high quality forage, and a look forward into the future of alfalfa production. This was one of the best alfalfa management programs offered in the United States in 2018. In fact, our keyn
Rotational stocking increases pasture productivity by 30%. Fencing is a key component of improved grazing systems. In recent past, high row crop prices encouraged farmers to tear fences out and convert marginal farmland from pastures to row crops. As row crop prices have moderated, there is increased interest in converting marginal row crop land back to pastures. The Kentucky fencing school was established in 2017 and is a partnership of cooperative extension, the Kentuck
Author: Whitney Carman
Fescue has been the most consistent forage for hay and pasture in Grayson County. Some people will claim that fescue is the only thing keeping Grayson County from eroding into the twin lakes. Although fescue has provided adequate forage and erosion control, it also has its faults when it comes to endophyte, and summer growth. In Kentucky, we have a growth slump in the summer, and for the average producer, that’s an important time of year for cattle growth and reproduction. The Agriculture
Author: Thomas Keene
In order for people in eastern Kentucky to have and maintain economic stability (now that coal production has been almost eliminated), animal agriculture has the opportunity to play a big role in that process. Cattle and other species currently graze river bottoms and hillsides that primarily consist of tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus). While this has been part of animal agriculture for many years in eastern Kentucky many thousands of acres of reclaimed mine remain unproductive
Author: Eric Baker
In the post-burley tobacco era, livestock and forage production are a major portion of the agricultural economy in Estill and Madison County. Madison County harvests 52,000 acres of hay not including alfalfa each year and Estill County harvests 8,410 acres. Most livestock producers invest significant time, machinery, infrastructure, and finances into forage production. With this investment, producers look for more efficient ways to produce more tonnage of stored forages with higher nutritional v
Author: Mary McCarty
2017 Fall Ag Field Day was held at a Beef Farm and alternative forages and weed control was the concentration of presentations at the event. After hearing the alternate forage presentation by Dr. Jimmy Henning yak (Bos grunniens) producer requested a farm visit to check out the forages that his yak was consuming and what they were passing up. At the farm visit a few weeks later it was found that the yak would not consume vegetative high quality tall fescue, even in fall when most palatable. Init
Author: Brandon Sears
Madison County is ranked 2nd in the state for production of hay other than alfalfa. Local seed dealers sell thousands of pounds of forage seed each year to maintain pasture and hayfields. Over the past several years, many changes and improvements have been made in the area of seed coatings and technology. Some of these changes have required farmers to adjust seeding rates and rethink settings when using No-Till drills to plant their forage crops.On January 9th, Dr. Jimmy Henning and Dr. Ray Smit
Burley tobacco production in Madison County has declined dramatically since the mid-1990’s, falling from a top 3 producer in the state to its current position of only 8 growers and not enough acreage to be listed as a tobacco growing county by National Ag Statistics Servie. Among other enterprises, former tobacco farmers have increased the number of beef cattle in their operations to offset lost tobacco income. Madison County currently ranks 2nd in the state for beef cattle production with
Author: April Wilhoit
The Buffalo Trace counties represent a large portion of rural area, and forage production plays a vital role for agriculture across the five counties. With one of the largest alfalfa producing counties in the state along with high ranking grass hay production, offering a program to focus on improving forage quality would benefit local producers and agriculture operations in the Buffalo Trace Counties. The area Agriculture and Natural Resources Agents worked with specialist, agents,
Author: Philip Konopka
With the Buffalo Trace counties representing a large portion of rural area, forage production plays a vital role for agriculture across the five counties. With one of the largest alfalfa producing counties in the state along with high ranking grass hay production, offering a program to focus on improving forage quality would benefit local producers and agriculture operations in the Buffalo Trace Counties. The area Agriculture and Natural Resources Agents worked with specialist, agents, and local
Author: Tommy Yankey
For most of my career farmers have been reluctant to spray pastures for weed control using herbicides for fear of losing their legumes. Even though in many cases the farmers overestimate the actual percentage of legumes in their pastures and would be ahead to spray hard to control weeds such as Tall Ironweed, cocklebur, etc. In many cases the weeds make up 30-40% of the pasture. Costing the farmer decreased carrying capacity and the loss of additional lbs of gain. This ag
Author: Jimmy Henning
A Menifee County producer asked for help in understanding why his Yak (Bos grunniens) would not consume vegetative high quality tall fescue, even in fall when most palatable. Initial farm visits could find no apparent reason for this refusal of forage. At the suggestion of the UK County Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources Mary McCarty, a replicated forage species study was designed and planted during spring, 2018. The forages included toxic endophyte, friendly endophyte and endophyte fre
Author: Jonathan Oakes
Since 2014, Master Stocker, Master Cattlemen, Master Grazer, and Applied Master Cattlemen, have all been conducted in the four county area. Together over 40 individuals participated in those courses. With that being said, the four county area agents decided they would try a newer program that was put together by the tri-county area agents (Adair, Green and Taylor), Master Haymaker. The program started in fall of 2017 and carried through the winter months of 2018. The program consisted of seven s
Author: Keenan Bishop
We partnered with UK Forage Specialists and Pennington Seed to demonstrate the benefits of replacing KY-31 fescue with an endophyte friendly type for beef production. Two cooperators agreed to participate. One was a cow calf operation while the other backgrounded calves.Both farms were sampled for endophyte levels in the test field and control fields and will be regularly through the years. The test areas were then burned down and reseeded with Jessup Max-Q fescue.The cow calf producer will make
A local producer with good management practices was concerned about a decline in forage on certain pastures despite rotational grazing and annual soil testing and amendments. This cooperator was also our Farm City Field Day Host.We enlisted the help of Dr. Jimmy Henning who asked Krista Lea to assist. With the help of our summer intern, Alex Brodie, and Morehead freshman, Conner Dailey, we developed a plan to asses the different fields and try and determine what was occurring. Krista traine
Author: Gregory Drake
Forage Production is an important enterprise on Butler County Farms. The most recent census data indicate Butler County has 14,496 acres of forage production. This causes Butler to rank sixty second in forage production in the state. The agriculture program, working with the Butler County Stockman’s Association has offered a comprehensive education program to improve forage production. The year started with a forage field day. At the field day Dr. Chris Teusch
