Sources Mary Drewnoski

UNL Extension Annual forages are classified into three types: 1. Cool-season, winter sensitive (spring varieties) 2. Cool-season, winter hardy (winter varieties) 3. Warm-season, summer annuals Annual forages can provide rapid growth and high production with limited amounts of moisture as long as the moisture is timely. Under irrigation, annual forages provide more reliable forage production. Annual forages offer great flexibility for managing forage supplies.

Mary Drewnoski After about 5 years of fall cover crop grazing, one thing became apparent: the amount of grazing achieved when we gave cattle access to the whole field from the start did not appear to be determined by the amount of forage that was in the field. This was because the weather seemed to determine how much trampling loss occurred. In wet years, we harvested less than 15% of the forage, and on average, we captured about 30%.

Troy Walz Cold stress increases a cow’s energy requirement and can pull down her body condition. Thin cows can result in weak calves being born in the spring and/or poor breed up. Winter storms have already swept across the Plains, giving indications this could be a long, cold winter for cows already thin due to summer drought stress. The threshold at which cattle have to start using energy to maintain their body temperature is called the lower critical temperature (LCT).