The winter and spring of 2019 did a tremendous amount of damage to our hay and pasture fields, particularly where cattle were fed and equipment was required to move across rain soaked fields.  It is usually hard to get farmers to agree on a lot of things, however, there was 100% agreement among cattle producers in Bath County that these high traffic, and heavy feeding areas were in need of a lot of work.

To try to address this issue, on March 19^th the extension office hosted a video training conducted by Dr. Chris Teutsch on managing “pugged” pastures.  This training addressed many of the concerns farmers had in managing these problems.  There were 65 Bath County farmers in attendance and the responses from the program were extremely positive.  One recommendation from the video was to try some of the improved crabgrass varieties to establish summer forages in these areas.  Four local producers established crabgrass as a part of their operation and results from these four were very good. These producers are attempting to manage these crabgrass stands in a manner that will allow them to reseed and reestablish next year.

As we now know, the spring and early summer rains turned off to extremely dry pastures and near record heat into early fall.  The hot and dry weather has caused issues for pastures and hayfields, and has caused some concern about hay supplies going into this fall and winter.  

To build on our work in the forage area, the Bath County field day focused heavily on forages.   NRCS conducted a session on winter feeding areas management and establishment and the Extension office and conservation district featured the new county hay wrapper.  The wrapper provides a tool that can be used to put up hay when it is in the proper stage of growth to maximize nutritional content and reduces hay losses, as compared to hay stored outside.  The reduction in loss, may be the difference between having enough hay and being short this season.  

As we move into the winter months, more work will be done to address the effects of the late summer drought and extreme heat on pastures and hayfields next spring.