Fall Field Day featured UK Forage specialist

The Clinton County Cooperative Extension Service hosted a field day focused on improving forage quality and utilization last week at Springhaven Farms in Clinton County. About 30 producers attended the program. The featured speaker for the afternoon program was Dr. Ray Smith, UK Forage Extension specialist. Dr. Smith has been with UK since 2004, he works closely with county extension agents and producers across the state, conducting applied forage research. We were excited to have Dr. Smith here to present at the field day.

During the field day, Dr. Smith discussed reseeding and renovating cool season grasses. We had the opportunity to see a field that was renovated last month on Sprinhaven farm. The field was seeded to orchardgrass, clover and ryegrass. Dr. Smith demonstrated how to properly identify seedling grasses and how to determine if the seedlings have had enough growth to survive the winter. Dr. Smith also discussed when and how to properly seed clovers into the field for the best stand.

As colder weather approaches many calls come in from producers about prussic acid poisoning in livestock from frosted Johnsongrass. Dr. Smith discussed with producers at the field day the risks involved with grazing cattle in fields with Johnsongrass. He said the most risk is with the young shoots and a frost that only burns the leaves slightly; older johnsongrass that has gone to seed poses less risk for prussic acid poisoning. After a frost it is best to wait two weeks for the cyanide to dissipate before allowing cattle to graze johnsongrass, after a killing frost wait until the plant is dried down before grazing. Dr. Smith is shown in a photo discussing the different stages of johnsongrass and the risks of prussic acid poisoning the plants poses.

Extending the grazing season using stockpiled forages has been around for a long time, yet is still something that gets a lot of inquiry. We set up a stockpiled fescue demonstration at Springhaven Farms to show producers the amount and quality of forage that can be produced with fescue. In mid-August, the field was bushhogged to remove the top growth in preparation for the stockpiling process. Three treatments were used in the demo, 80 lbs. Nitrogen per acre, 40 lbs. Nitrogen per acre, and 16 lbs. Nitrogen per acre. Three square foot blocks were cut and sent to dairy one forage lab for quality analysis. The analysis for the treatments were 80 lbsN/A-16.5%CP, 59%TDN, 40lbsN/A-15.3%CP, 57%TDN, and 16lbsN/A-12.3%CP, 56%TDN. Dry matter yields for the three treatments were 80lbsN/A- 3832lbs/A, 40lbsN/A-3131lbs/A, and 16lbsN/A-2244lbsn/A. The high quality and amount of forage produced in a stockpiled fescue pasture will allow producers to rely less on stored feed and let cattle harvest the forage themselves. The plan is to strip graze the demo plot to get utilization up to about 70 percent. By strip grazing we will section off the pasture using temporary fencing and cattle will only have access to a small amount of the stockpiled forage. This will increase utilization by limiting the amount of forage that gets trampled. Dr. Smith talked with producers in the stockpiled fescue plot.

The field day also had NRCS district conservationist Joe Russell on hand to talk with producers about programs available through the local NRCS office. Corey Anderson with Farm Service Agency in Albany gave producers an update on livestock and forage programs available through FSA, Corey also updated producers on the new farm bill. Steve Peddicord owner of Springhaven Farms gave a demonstration on processing newborn calves. Steve discussed the process of weighing, tagging, banding, and implanting calves at birth. In another photo Steve is shown with a newborn calf in his transport trailer, discussing processing new calves at his farm.

The field day concluded with a meal prepared by the Twin Lakes Cattle Association. I have talked with several producers that attended the field day and many have said they definitely learned something new they can take back to their own operations and implement. I would like to say a special thank you to all the speakers who presented at the field day, the Clinton County Farm Bureau Federation and Clinton County Soil Conservation District for sponsoring the meal and Springhaven Farms for hosting. I look forward to seeing you at our next field day.

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