Other Forage

Crop rotations may benefit from high-yielding forages that are harvested as silage or hay and marketed to livestock producers. Traditionally, producers have focused on a few common crops for forage and silage production, such as corn and alfalfa, and for good reason.

Farmers in Washington harvest alfalfa on average four times a year, costing about $256 per acre for swathing, raking and baling.

Most cropland in the northeastern U.S. is better suited to perennial grass production than to legumes or row crop production.

Sometimes non-traditional crops for livestock can augment forage supplies or stretch the production on a piece of land.

While perennial forage species are the backbone of most forage-based livestock systems, annual forages can supplement and complement the perennials to increase production of your operation.

Producers are changing the way they value a corn crop. Fields that once yielded only grain and “trash” are now revered as the source of a valuable but under-used commodity: corn stover. Whether on the soil or in the barn, corn stover is a valuable resource on crop and livestock farms.