• Alfalfa
  • About
  • Videos
  • Cover Crops
  • Forage
  • Wildlife
  • Seed Guides
  • Blog
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
  • Find a CISCO Seeds Dealer
Menu

CISCO Farm Seed

Hay, Pasture, Summer Annuals, Cover Crops
  • Alfalfa
  • About
  • Videos
  • Cover Crops
  • Forage
  • Wildlife
  • Seed Guides
  • Blog
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
  • Find a CISCO Seeds Dealer
cattle grazing at Sweeten's farm2.jpg

Planting a Cocktail Mix as a Nurse Crop for Permanent Pasture

July 10, 2018

In two passes across the field, Jeremy Sweeten planted a summer forage crop, and then added a permanent pasture, which he hopes to be able to graze next Spring. Check out the video below as he explains how he plans to do that.

Read More
In Establishing Pasture, Grazing Cover Crops, Pasture - How to Plant, Summer Forage Tags grazing cover crops
Comment

Grazing Cover Crops

June 5, 2018

Combing grazing with cover crops is like 1+1=3. 

First, there is the benefit of the cover crop and manure for soil health.  Nutrients are being cycled.  Approximately 66% of the phosphorous and 90% of the potassium that is in a plant when grazed are returned to the soil in the form of manure

Read More
In Grazing Cover Crops Tags grazing, grazing cover crops
Comment

Grazing Cover Crops Can Improve Field Productivity

January 30, 2018

Before the cover crop craze began years ago, we used to sell a lot of late summer and fall-planted forages to "extend the grazing season" in order to ease the burden of feeding hay all the while improving farmer profitability. Little did we know that our efforts in this area were also having positive benefits to soil health and subsequent cash crop productivity. 

In this recent onpasture.com article, Genevieve Slocum gives several tips and procedures for making these positive benefits happen on your farm. 

She covers the following areas:

  • closing the nutrient cycle by grazing
  • jumpstarting soil organic matter gains
  • the myth that grazing automatically increases soil compaction
  • grazing covers actually helps improve permanent pastures by giving them rest
  • big gains are possible because forage quality can be quite good
  • the benefits of plant diversity for overall soil health

If you've thought about planting cover crops, or have livestock that you can graze, give this article a look. You can find it here. 

If you'd like to hear first hand how one Indiana farmer utilizes cover crops in his grazing system, follow this link for a February 19 meeting in Brown County. Here's a description from their website:

Josh Cox, a farmer in Tippecanoe County, will discuss how his parents and he have implemented grazing cover crops as a way to improve soil health for their row crops and as a way to rest their permanent pastures. Cox customizes his cover crop mix to provide quality forage for the beef cattle and to reduce compaction and add organic matter to his soils.

Here's a PDF version if you'd like to print out a copy. 

In Cover Crops Tags grazing cover crops
Comment

Videos

  • Alfalfa
  • Drill Calibration
  • Soil Sampling
  • bale grazing
  • cover crops
  • mult-species cover crops
  • pasture evaluation
  • pasture fertility
  • pasture management
  • winter grazing

Articles

  • Agronomy
  • Alfalfa
  • Alfalfa - How to Plant
  • Alfalfa Management
  • Annual Ryegrass
  • Bale Grazing
  • Barley
  • Boer Goats
  • Cereal Rye
  • Cereal Rye & Radish
  • Chicory
  • Clover
  • Conferences
  • Cool Season Grasses
  • Cover Crops
  • Crop Insurance
  • Demonstration Plot
  • Earthworms
  • Establishing Pasture
  • Fall Forage
  • Field Days
  • First Year Cover Crop
  • Forage Crop Selection
  • Forage Sorghum
  • Frost Seeding Clover
  • Frosty Berseem Clover
  • Gallant Red Clover
  • Grazing
  • Grazing Cover Crops
  • Grazing Forages
  • Harvesting Practices
  • Hay Production
  • Haylage: Wheat & Radish
  • Improving Pastures
  • Improving Soil
  • Increasing Profits
  • Livestock Waterers
  • Nurse Crops
  • Overseeding a hay field
  • Pasture
  • Pasture - How to Plant
  • Pearl Millet
  • Perennial Ryegrass
  • Planting Cover Crops
  • Prevent Plant Acres
  • Reed Canarygrass
  • Rotational Grazing
  • Seed Corn & Cover Crops
  • Seed Quality
  • Seeding Depth


Forage Guide Front Cover - for Cisco Farm Seed.jpg