PR-861: 2024 Annual Grass Report Warm Season and Cool Season (Cereals)

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Chris Teutsch, Jimmy Henning, Bill Bruening | Jan. 21, 2025 (New)

Summer annual grasses provide an important forage crop option for producers in Kentucky. These grasses are mainly used as emergency or supplemental pasture, silage, or hay crops, but little information is available on their yield potential. The purpose of this publication is to summarize the University of Kentucky 2008-2024 forage yield trials with sudangrass, sorghum/sudangrass, forage sorghum, millets, teff, crabgrass, and cereal crops.

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PR-859: 2024 Cool-Season Grass Grazing Tolerance Report

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Chris Teutsch, Jimmy Henning, Tim Phillips | Jan. 17, 2025 (New)

Cool-season forages such as tall fescue, orchardgrass, and Kentucky bluegrass are the primary pasture grasses in Kentucky. Other species such as perennial ryegrass and festulolium can also be used in pasture systems. Little is known about the effect of variety on the grazing tolerance of these cool-season grass species.

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PR-854: 2024 Orchardgrass Report

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Chris Teutsch, Tim Phillips, Jimmy Henning | Jan. 16, 2025 (New)

Orchardgrass (Dactylus glomerata) is a high-quality, productive, cool-season grass that is well-adapted to Kentucky conditions. This grass is used for pasture, hay, green chop, and silage, but it requires better management than tall fescue for greater yields, higher quality, and longer stand life. It produces an open, bunch-type sod, making it compatible with alfalfa or red clover as a pasture and hay crop or as habitat for wildlife.

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PR-858: 2024 Alfalfa, Red Clover, and White Clover Grazing Tolerance Report

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Chris Teutsch, Jimmy Henning | Jan. 16, 2025 (New)

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is the highest-yielding, highest-quality forage legume grown in Kentucky. It forms the basis of Kentucky’s cash hay enterprise and is an important component in dairy, horse, beef, and sheep diets. Recent emphasis on its use as a grazing crop and the release of grazing-tolerant varieties have raised the following question: Do varieties differ in tolerance to grazing? To answer this question, we have chosen to use the standard tolerance test recommended by the North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference. This test uses continuous heavy grazing to sort out differences in grazing tolerance in a relatively short period of time.

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PR-855: 2024 Tall Fescue, Bromegrass and Meadow Fescue Report

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Chris Teutsch, Tim Phillips, Jimmy Henning | Jan. 13, 2025 (New)

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) is a productive, well-adapted, persistent, soil-conserving, cool-season grass grown on approximately 5.5 million acres in Kentucky. This grass, used for both hay and pasture, is the forage base of most of Kentucky’s livestock enterprises, particularly beef cattle.

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PR-862: 2024 Long-Term Summary of Kentucky Forage Variety Trials

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Jimmy Henning, Chris Teutsch | Jan. 10, 2025 (New)

Forage crops occupy approximately 7 million acres in Kentucky. Forages provide a majority of the nutrition for beef, dairy, horse, goat, sheep, and wildlife in the state. In addition, forage crops play a positive environmental role in soil conservation, water quality, and air quality. There are more than 60 forage species adapted to the climate and soil conditions of Kentucky. Only 10 to 12 of these species occupy the majority of the acreage, but within these species there is a tremendous variation in varieties.

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PR-852: 2024 Red and White Clover and Annual Lespedeza Report

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Chris Teutsch, Jimmy Henning | Dec. 11, 2024 (New)

Red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) is a high-quality, short-lived, perennial legume used in mixed or pure stands for pasture, hay, silage, green chop, soil improvement, and wildlife habitat. This species is adapted to a wide range of climatic and soil conditions. Stands of improved varieties generally are productive for 2½ to 3 years, with the highest yields occurring in the year following establishment. Red clover is used primarily as a renovation legume for grass pastures and hay fields. It is a dominant forage legume in Kentucky because it is relatively easy to establish and has high forage quality, yield, and animal acceptance.

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PR-856: 2024 Timothy and Kentucky Bluegrass Report

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Tim Phillips, Chris Teutsch, Jimmy Henning | Dec. 11, 2024 (New)

Timothy (Phleum pratense) is the fourth most widely sown cool-season perennial grass used in Kentucky for forage—after tall fescue, orchardgrass, and Kentucky bluegrass. It is a late-maturing bunchgrass that is primarily harvested as hay, particularly for horses. It also can be used for grazing or wildlife habitat.

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PR-857: 2024 Annual and Perennial Ryegrass and Festulolium Report

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Tim Phillips, Chris Teutsch, Jimmy Henning | Dec. 11, 2024 (New)

Annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) and perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) are high quality, productive, cool-season grasses used in Kentucky. Both have exceptionally high seedling vigor and are highly palatable to livestock. In Kentucky, winter survival can be an issue for many annual ryegrass varieties, so before planting, review winter survival results in this publication.

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PR-860: 2024 Cool-Season Grass Horse Grazing Tolerance Report

Gene Olson, Ray Smith, Chris Teutsch, Jimmy Henning, Tim Phillips, Laurie Lawrence | Dec. 6, 2024 (New)

Cool-season forages such as Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, and orchardgrass are dominant pasture grasses for horses in Kentucky. Variety evaluations for yield have been carried out for many years, but little work has been done to evaluate varieties of these grasses for persistence when subjected to close, continual grazing by horses.