Range and Forage

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Traditional farming spends a great deal of time on yield and harvest timing, but when it comes to silage, extension educator Ben Beckman says preventing spoilage should be a priority.

On today's almanac, Ben talks about how minor adjustments can make a big difference in silage preservation.

[Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Whenever we're working with silage.

We've got a really great feed resource there.

And it's something that a lot of times can be really misleading in the amount of loss that we actually have that can occur in a silage pile from actual harvest time, all the way to feed out.

Silage is something that we are using a anaerobic condition to maintain quality on.

So when we've got a forage that we want to store for a long period of time, There's kind of 2 routes that we go about doing that. Either we take the moisture out of it, like in dry hay.

And so we're removing the moisture so we don't have any, you know, bacterial or yeast growth and decomposition going on, or we need to do something like ferment it, where we take the oxygen out, and we stop the decomposition that way.

And so silage and siling something is that 2nd route.

And so as we go about that process, the big enemy to any silage, however we're putting it up and wherever we're storing it is getting oxygen down into that pile, disrupting those anaerobic conditions because as soon as we start to get oxygen in there, basically we're making a giant mulch pile at that point.

Our bacteria, our yeast, start to grow, start to decompose, all of that, you know, hard work that we put into harvesting that feed source.

And so we kind of went over in this article, just some different scenarios, different ways that we can reduce that, looking at covering and how we pack that pile, where we store it out specifically, and then what that really means to our bottom line.

Dry matter loss in a silage pile is is, again, really difficult to wrap our mind around, especially if we've got like a drive over pile, where we're not covering it.

That loss is going to be in that outer layer.

And so while that might not seem like much, just looking at it, you think about how, you know, even a couple of inches on that outer layer, if you take all of that off, is a large portion of that actual piles total mass.

And so you have quite a bit that's exposed to oxygen that we can have decomposition in.

And then as that area starts to decompose, it actually compresses, you know, on the weight or if we've got precipitation, that beats it down and as the bacteria and yeast start to break that down, it releases gas.

And so that mold layer or that decomposition layer actually is really shrunk down from what it started out as as good fresh silage.

And so it's very tricking if you kind of just look at your silage pile and you see that.

Oh, we've got just, you know, a couple inches of mold on the top.

That's not too bad.

You know, that couple inches could be, you know, a foot or more of actual silage that we actually lost there.

So getting our mind around that and then looking at ways that we can keep that loss to a minimum is really going to help us from, you know, protecting what we put up and then having a good quality project that we're actually going to be able to feed out later.

Anytime that we can start to plan ahead and mitigate how much loss we have, I think is going to be really, really important.

And so if we know how much, we actually have to feed out, we can either adjust that piles dimension somewhat.

So that way we get it to a point where we can have pretty consistent feed off across that face and we don't have, again, that oxygen getting in from the front as we feed it out.

Or like you mentioned, look at other options that might be a little bit more expensive, like, you know, putting it in a bag or something along those lines where it might cost a little bit more upfront.

But if we crunch those numbers again and we reduce how much, if we go from 20% loss to 10% loss even, that might pay for itself.

And so doing some planning, I know it's not always the most fun to sit down and do the math on some of these things, but figuring out what works for your operation and giving, you know, your local extension office a call if you want to and talking through it with us as well.

You know, we can figure out what's going to be the best opportunity for your operation, what fits kind of the scenario that you have, and then how can we keep that loss to a minimum?

[Brad Mills, Program Hostess Ho-Ho]

For Nebraska extension almanac, I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

In part one of our discussion of why fall is the best time of the year for weed control in our pastures.

Extension educators Ryan Benjamin, and Ben Beckman talked about some of the weed species and techniques to control them.

On today's program, Ben starts the discussion by focusing on an integrated approach to weed control.

[Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Educator]

And I think it goes for a lot of different species, you know, not just, like I said, those noxious, noxious weeds like thistle or leafy Spurge, you know, the tricky thing when you are doing something like that is making sure that you map it out good.

So, you know, either putting out some flags or having it GPS or something like that because if you're mowing it and you're knocking it back, sometimes there's a few plants on the edge of that patch that might escape your notice, if you've been stressing it and they're hidden down in the canopy a little bit, and you, we want to make sure that we're getting good application across it.

So, you know, doing something like that, we just want to make sure that we're getting the entire patch sprayed.

But it's the same principle for some of our other thistles that are biennials, you know, they are essentially growing in the fall, producing that rosette, late summer through the fall, and then they shoot that seed stock up the next year.

Our winter annuals are doing the exact same thing where they're germinating here in the fall, things like, you know, cheat grass.

Um, a lot of our mustards.

And so if we're hitting them as they're translocating their nutrients, you kind of see a theme here, we can get really good kill.

And if we're stressing them beforehand, that's even better.

Um, even for some of our brush species, you know, things like buck brush, you know, Sue MAC, things like that, if you go in and you brush hog it ahead of time, and then you do a spray or or something like that where you've got some new growth, you've set it back and stressed it already.

You know, it's a great time to do it.

There's a caveat to that, though.

The stress side of it is we want it to be in conditions that it can regrow.

So this year we've had lots of moisture, and so that works really well.

If we would have, you know, had a really dry summer and we mowed off, you know, that Canada thistle patch or something like that, and it stayed dry, and those plants aren't really regrowing much, and they're drought stressed already, we might still have some action and get some herbicide control, but it's going to be a lot less reduced because, you know, as that plants are out stressed, It's not growing as actively as it normally is.

It's not absorbing moisture in the same way and the stomata aren't open.

A lot of different things happen when plants get drought stressed.

And so having natural stress in the environment isn't always a great time to do a fall application necessarily.

[Ryan Benjamin, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Then you were talking about making sure that you map it well and get a good application that way.

I think another thing that's really important to point out for a lot of weeds, but especially something like common molen, or some of these weeds that have a little more hairy leaves, is using a surfactant so that those herbicides can actually reach the, reach the leaf surface and get absorbed.

It's pretty easy to think you're getting an effective treatment and not actually get those herbicides down into the plant on some of these sweets.

[Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Sometimes the weeds that we notice the most this time of the year are not the ones that we want to go after, though.

A lot of our summer annual weeds, things like pig weed, you know, our foxtails, kosher, you know, rag weed, things like that, are at the end of their life cycle, they've already set seed.

They're already, you know, dying off.

And so spraying those really noticeable weeds at this point isn't going to do a whole lot for control.

Really need either a perennial species or something that is going to be growing and, again, absorbing those nutrients into their system to get through the winter, spraying our summer annuals that are really noticeable right now because they're producing all their seed or they have produced their seed and they're at the end of their life cycle, isn't going to be effective.

And so you might as well save some time and money and keep your herbicide for next spring or early summer for those species.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Today's program was a portion of an interview from the Beefwatch podcast offered by Nebraska extension.

To hear the entire interview, go to beef.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts for Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of I.E. And our media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Weed control in our pastures and range lands might not be a top priority right now, but fall can be one of the most effective times to control some of our toughest range land weeds.

Extension educators, Ryan Benjamin and Ben Beckman, discuss why fall is prime time to control certain species of weeds.

[Ryan Benjamin, Nebraska Extension Educator]

As we move into the fall.

A lot of these perennial and biennial plants start to move a lot of resources into their roots to overwinter and winter annuals as well.

And it provides a really good time to apply some herbicide and get that herbicide down into the roots of those plants and be really effective on some of these more hard to control pasture weeds and range weeds.

I think that's kind of the gist of why the fall can be really effective at treating some of these wheats.

[Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Educator]

And I jump on too, Ryan.

You know, I think it's a difficult time of year.

We're busy bringing cattle back from summer past year and everything that comes with that.

If you've got, you know, crops, we're we're dealing with fall harvest, we're getting hay put up and things around for winter, and so there's a lot going on, and you have to hit the right window for a good effective fall treatment too.

It's getting it while that plant is actively growing and pulling those nutrients down to the roots like Ryan said, are translocated herbicides.

We can get really good kills on our perennials and biennials and winter annuals as they're pulling it down.

You know, it's pretty much ideal for a herbicide treatment, but we got to hit the right window in order to get that done effectively.

I would say it is a little bit different depending on what species you're dealing with, mostly because, again, we need an actively growing plant.

And so for a lot of our plants.

Once we start to get close to frost, you know, we want to hit it good 7 to 10 days before we actually get cold weather because at that point, especially our perennial plants are going to start shedding their leaves, you know, once the leaves start to turn color, that's a sign that a lot of the nutrients have actually been pulled out of those leaves and translocated down already and that plant is really preparing for winter at that point.

So we still want to get it while it's green.

And that's, again, it's kind of a tricky window to figure out usually later September in through October, just depending on the weather conditions when we want to hit that.

We also want to kind of avoid just chili periods in general.

You know, we've had a cooler stretch here as we're recording this, which has been really nice, but we still have, you know, highs in the 70s, you know, across the state, once we start to get into the real fall temps where we're getting, you know, highs into the low 60s, 50s.

At that point, the plant's not really actively growing as much anymore and we don't get as much translocation.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Ryan and Ben detail some of the weed species that respond to fall herbicide treatments.

Yeah, there's several.

A lot of the thistles, obviously.

Leafy Spurge is another one. That responds seemingly really well to fall, herbicide application.

And I think Leafy Spurge, something like 24D or, well, Pickleram and 24D mix is probably the most effective that I've heard of.

A lot of our options that we would use, I would say, typically throughout the year are going to work.

It's just, again, that timing of application, and then hitting that new growth on your leafy Spurge, just early spring applications, we don't want to skip in order to do a fall application because we're stopping seed set.

So that's that's the benefit of doing a herbicide application earlier on in the year, you know, like our can of thistle, Leafy Spurge, many other really tricky perennial plants like that, a lot of our noxious weeds.

We don't want to skip that spring application because we're stopping seed production and stopping the spread that way, but if we can hit it again in the fall.

I just want to make sure we're reading the labels and not overdoing exceeding the maximum rate.

A lot of times it says how much we can apply per year.

But if we can hit it again in the fall, that's when we can really get kill and really start to control a patch really good, if you can kind of do that 12 punch.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Ryan and Ben will return to this discussion in future programs to discuss integrated management strategies for fall weed control, for Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans.

Go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Rainfall is in the forecast for late summer and fall in Nebraska, and that could mean some decent growth for our rangeland grasses.

On a recent almanac program, extension range management specialist Mitch Stevenson said, that would really help rangeland grasses make a comeback from severe drought conditions.

On today's program, Mitch talks about how prolonged hot and dry conditions are invitations for weeds to take root.

[Mitch Stephenson, Nebraska Extension Range Management Specialist]
You know, when we think about drought in our annual Forbes, especially if they're native annual Forbes, typically that's that's a mechanism that they have, there's a trigger that that would say that, you know, the grasses have been the kind of stressed and and so then we get rain the following year that this is our year to go, right?

And oftentimes following a drought, even though our range lines are typically low nitrogen systems that's out there.

If the grasses are limited in their growth from the previous year, their tends to be somewhat build up of some of those nitrates, even though it's fairly low, right?

So I think some of our annual Forbes take advantage of that. And take advantage of that moisture and take advantage of that opened up area.

So most of the time, if you have a healthy plant community, a healthy grass community, that only lasts for a year, maybe 2 after drought, and can somewhat be cyclical.

And we're talking, you know, some of our sunflowers, uh, Mayor's Tale, and some of these other species that we see out there that, that may, may look a little rough after drought, but more often than not, if you, if you manage it right, keep an eye on it, uh, it'll pull through out of that, and, and as the grass gains more bigger, you'll see less and less of those species.

For our annual invasive grasses, cheat grass primarily, in the past, we've always had some growth.

We look at that earlier in the year, in that late April period, early May period, is really starting to take off and grow.

You know, the last 2 years, that really hasn't been optimal growth conditions for the cheat grass, you know, in fact, this year, we went out to a lot of our plots and plots that had pretty substantial amounts of annual invasive grasses that had 0 annual invasive grasses on our cover as well as our biomass samples.

And so it really is going to be interesting to see how annual invasive grasses respond to this kind of a drought.

You know, I think we need to keep an eye out for them.

You know, we need to map out areas that they might be more prevalent.

We need to keep an eye on our perennial grasses and how they're coming back with that as well, as if there are some options that we can, we can spray for some of those annual invasive grasses.

But going into the fall, if we do get some of this precipitation, I think it's going to be really important that we get out there and and really map and see where those annual invasive grasses are.

Or if they're drought like this will set them back.

And so, you know, typically speaking, the annual invasives in the Western grade planes have this, this boom bust cycle, you know, where they'll, you'll see a lot of annual evasive grasses and then they'll, they'll drop down because of weather conditions and other things, and then they'll come back.

And in a lot of our counties, we've seen that steadily increase.

So the cover has gone up and then down up and down, but generally speaking, it's, it's, it's on an upward trajectory.

And so, that's where I do think it is really important to, the best defense, I think there is against annual invasive, is a healthy perennial grass plant community, right?

And it's it's not going to be 100%.

Annual invasives do a very good job.

Grasses do a very good job of coming into those interspaces that are just common in our plant communities.

And so there are some things we can think about targeted grazing.

We think about herbicide applications and those types of things.

But really, you know, maintaining that perennial grass community is just the most important.

[Brad Mills, Program Ho]
There is much more to this topic as Mitch talks about important issues with recovering range lands after severe drought conditions.

To listen to the entire interview or read the detailed article on this topic, go to UNL's beef website, at beef.unl.edu, or download the podcast from Apple Podcasts or Spotify, for Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IE&R Media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.UNL.edu.
 

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Current pasture conditions across Nebraska are better than they were earlier this spring, but there are still some challenges.

Late rains have green things up, but according to extension range management specialist Mitch Stevenson, that doesn't automatically mean grass is ever covered from the spring extreme drought conditions.

Rain is in the forecast for the fall, and Mitch talks about what that might mean for range managers moving forward.

[Mitch Stephenson, Nebraska Extension Range Management Specialist]
As we think about the bimodal pattern of growth of cool season grass is, you know, most of their growth is going to be late April to mid-June, and that they put most of their growth on.

But a lot of our research would show that that fall period can be really important for growth as well.

And so already a stress plant.

If we do get the precipitation, that plant's going to, going to put leaf area on, it's going to have that photosynthesis that's going to try to store those carbohydrates.

And that's gonna be really important to next year's growth.

And so as we consider that, if we do get some good rain, it starts to green up on those cool season grasses.

I know a lot of folks are going to want to get out and graze, right?

And but I do think that we need to be careful that we're not over grazing that because it's really a drought stress plant that needs to build up strength and bigger again.

And then those fall rains can really help with that, especially if it stays warmer later into the fall with the rains.

And so, so I really need to think that if checking your pastures, you know, considering, uh, if you can defer that and continue to not raise those going into next year, that could be really important with the hope that we get the rainfall next year.

Or grazing it at a level that you're leaving substantial amounts of biomass behind.

Now, if you are in areas that are predominantly warm season, really, you know, you might see a little bit of green up.

It could have a little bit of growth, but we're kind of hitting the tail end of the optimal time for warm season grass growth.

And so as it gets later into the fall, You know, we're not seeing as much growth on those warm season species.

And so even if it's screening up, it's likely not putting on a lot of additional biomass on those warm season species.

But still, it is important that they get that rainfall and they continue to grow.

And and so the more opportunities we can give them to recover from this drought stress, the better they are going to pull out of it next year and when those rains and precipitation come back.

So at the Goodman's and Santiels lab, just to give some numbers on this as well.

We have a crew out there now that are that are clipping our August biomass data collection.

So typically we try to get mid mid-August period and then we also get a mid-June period where we sample biomass at the Goodmanson Sandhills lab, which is in the central sandhills.

And so, When we sampled in mid-June and collected that data, our cool season grasses were only at 20% of what we would expect in an average year.

And we've collected this data since 2007 there.

And, uh, you know, when we looked at total biomass production, we were still only about 30% of of our average that we had out there.

So that's cool season warm season 4 of shrubs, everything.

And current year's growth on shrubs is all that we sample.

And so, so we clip a number of these quadrats at the ranch and uh, and, and we, we, we try to uh, link that with some of our precipitation data.

And this this year is definitely giving us a point that is is somewhat unique in terms of just the low level of precipitation we've had other.

The closest one that we've had would have been 2012.

We don't have data at Goodmanson, but 2002 would probably be another year that would be somewhat similar to this as well, or that period, right?

It's droughts oftentimes aren't just in a year.

They carry over into multiple years.

And that's that's something that we need to consider.

And so, you know, when we sampled in mid-June, most of those cool season grasses had probably reached their optimal time of growth there in mid-June.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Stay tuned for part 2 of this discussion on drought recovery.

With some possible precipitation this fall.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
 

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

UNL's Goodmanson Sandhill Lab will host its annual open house on August 19th near Whitman.

The event is open to cattle producers or other ag professionals, interested in the latest beef industry research findings.

Extension beef educator T.L. Meyer begins today's program by talking about the history of the ranch and what its mission is.

[T.L. Meyer, Nebraska Extension Educator]

All right, goodness to Sandhills Laboratory.

It's a 13,000 acre plus ranch in the heart of the sandhills that lays right over where Cherry, Grant and Hooker County come together.

It was donated back in the 80s to the University of Nebraska Foundation, and then UNL leases it, and they do, uh, the focus is on cow calf systems research, uh, wildlife research, range land research.

Anything you can think of.

Um, it's probably been research at Goodmanson.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

TL talks about what attendees can expect by visiting the ranch during the open house.

[T.L. Meyer, Nebraska Extension Educator]

We feel like this is a great way to showcase what's going on at Goodmanson, uh, to showcase the research, uh, maybe showcase some of that research that's been taken to the extension level and used uh, on local ranches. 2026 has been especially tough for that part of the state.

And we kind of want to talk on that too.

Goodmanson's currently facing some of the worst drought at scene.

And so we want to talk about not only drought, but unfortunately, the wildfire recovery as well, just there's a lot of challenges in our area out there this year.

And so we're also probably going to talk about that this year.

We will probably have a market update and a weather outlook with Eric, which we really appreciate him coming out to do.

A highlight we started a few years ago was adding interactive sessions, and this is just where we kind of open up the area for about an hour and a half .

We have different topics at different areas around the facility there at the wagon hammer.

People can come and go, interact, ask questions, get that one on one interaction with our specialists on a wide range of topics.

Anything from fly control to virtual fencing to weather, to getting your cows pregnant.

Another thing is we like to do.

We end the day now with research updates and we do just short little blurbs about the research going on at Goodmanson.

And then we bring all those presenters back, and we do what we call a bullpen session, which are kind of well known at the range beef cow symposiums, but we allow the audience to ask any and all questions of the presenters, and we kind of go till that that ends, and then we wrap up for the day.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

The government's ranch is a research facility.

And TL says the lab has researched many key issues during its history.

[T.L. Meyer, Nebraska Extension Educator]

We like to think the research taking place at Goodmanson is very applicable to other sandhills ranches and even beyond the sandhills.

We've done some groundbreaking research in cabin date work that started back in the 90s that continues on.

Goodmanson is, um, they have a March cabin herd and a make having herd, so we're constantly comparing that whole system, whether it be developing heifers or feeding out the stair progeny.

We think what we do at Goodmanson is applicable in the real world.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Once again, the 2026 Goodmanson Sandhill lab open house is coming up August 19th near Whitman.

To register for the event.

Go to go.unl.edu/openhouse.

That's go.unl.edu/Openhouse.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Part of every farm's operation mission is to conserve their land for future generations and the continued success of their agricultural business.

Also part of that mission is wildlife conservation strategies.

Extension specialist Andy Little runs the applied wildlife ecology and spatial movement lab, or awesome lab, which focuses on helping landowners conserve wildlife habitat that can greatly benefit their agricultural operation.

He talks about why that is so integral to a farm success.

[Andy Little, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

Historically, you know, what we would see, you know, we kind of go back in like the 50s and 60s, when I talk to landowners around Nebraska, they remember, hey, I could go back in the back 40, my property and hunt quail, pheasants, a lot of other game, and now I'm not seeing those game species like I used to, or non-game.

So, uh, meadowlarks, other grass and birds, like dickcissel that are seen declines.

Um, and basically what landowners are saying is, hey, are there ways that we can kind of get back to some of those times where I had more wildlife in my land out in my farm, my operation.

And that's where prairie strips and many other conservation practices out there can help with that so that you can basically balance production and also have those areas where you can have wildlife species.

But also not only, you know, improving wildlife populations is also addressing soil, erosion issues, the water quality and quantity issues.

So if you have areas where your field, where maybe you're lower yielding, they can be targeted for some conservation practices to help benefit your whole operation.

One of the things that we're working in the awesome lab on is the idea of stackable enterprises.

So you kind of think of like your financial portfolio, you usually don't put all your money in one or 2 stocks.

You actually have diversified funding streams.

And so conservation can be one of those funding streams, but really, the sky's the limit on people's creativity.

So we're starting and looking at some additional stackable enterprises at the moment.

One of those is, you know, grazing.

Just a simple thing.

You can have a row crop system where you're managing, but you're bringing grazing that cattle component into your operation.

But also looking at it from maybe a managed access or basically open fields and waters program.

I know Game of Parks has right now in Nebraska, where you can basically get paid to put your land in to basically access for people to come and recreate there.

And so the point is, is being able to take and target areas of your operation where maybe you're just not making the most amount of money off of that operation that you hope.

And so can we actually take and strategically target that?

Basically, every acre has a role, whether that's production or conservation in the land, and so that helps you optimize your overall profitability beyond maybe what you've had seen in the past.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

The growing human population is obviously a great concern for the ag industry, helping feed people is obviously the number one concern of agriculture.

Andy talks about how his lab and research efforts are supporting that issue.

[Andy Little, Nebraska Extension Specialist]

I'm looking at it as, hey, instead of kind of just focusing on a smaller issue, let's take him, let's try to address this big challenge of how can we creatively address the lack of habitat, but doing it in a way that's sustainable for our farmers and ranchers.

Ultimately, that's going to come down to kind of two really key pathways.

One is addressing risks.

So obviously, if I'm losing money on my operation by putting a certain practice or whatever that really is, I can't be losing money.

And so, ultimately, if we, from the stackable enterprise side, find ways to optimize those revenues so you can actually make more money on your operation, now you're diversifying your financial portfolio, diversifying your operation.

And it doesn't have to be extreme.

It can be small areas where you can just target and test out.

And then, two, is being able to create those kind of pathways, and that's where our lab is also working in that arena, being able to have some simple stackable enterprises on your operation.

And then let's walk through a couple of case examples, so we can actually have the tools and the programs that help you be successful adopting them on your operation.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Nebraska Extension Almanac.

Historic fires this past spring in Western Nebraska have slowly been making a recovery in range land and past years.

Four major fires destroyed over 800,000 acres of Sandhill property.

On past almanac programs, we've discussed how these fires have become more frequent due to drier conditions out west in the fall and winter months.

On today's almanac, Nebraska extension educator, Gary Stone, talks about what happened and how Rangeland Prairie grasses and plants are making a comeback.

He begins the interview by recapping what happened this past March.

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Okay, so from mid late March, uh, we had what we call the moral fire, predominantly in Garden County.

It covered over 640,000 acres.

It was pretty bad, burned a lot of the prairie, grass to where nothing was left, but just the sand hills.

So the damage was pretty extensive.

Some fences were lost.

Some water sources were covered, so, yes, and some livestock was lost also.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Gary talks about a possible timeline when this range lands might recover.

He says, despite drought conditions in the sand hills and low precipitation, prairie plants have shown some resilience.

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Okay, so the recovery has already started.

They've had some fairly decent rains in spite of the drought that we've had, the grass is starting to come back very well. Things are starting to green up.

The native plants are showing a real good job of being able to bounce back with such a fire that took place.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Gary says Mother Nature has a way to make things come back in unexpected ways.

He says there isn't much we can do to accelerate that process.

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

So for now, mostly it's just a wait and see issue.

So from where I see it, this is something that Mother Nature has to do for us.

The sandhills are such a sensitive area, they are sandhills for that reason, of pure sand.

So the native grasses, Forbes, and everything, just need time to come back, get some decent moisture, and they should spring back.

And hopefully, this time next year, things will bounce back, look like they used to be.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

As previously mentioned, severe drought conditions out West haven't really helped in the recovery process.

Gary says, despite all that, range lands and pasture have already started to green up.

But there isn't really any way to put a timeline on when things will be back to normal.

[Gary Stone, Nebraska Extension Educator]

Uh, in uh, places, the rain, uh, if it's been uh, uh, uh, down, gullet washer, yes, it has washed, but uh, I've traveled through there a couple of times after the rains, and I don't see that much evidence of it washing.

So things are bouncing back pretty good.

It's just good to see the native grasses come back, see the wildflowers, see the other plants pop back, and, you know, if you just saw it after the fire, you would have thought nothing's ever going to come back, but things look really nice, really green.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]

Wildfires in Nebraska aren't anything new, and the recovery process will have to rely mostly on Mother Nature.

But as Gary said, it's been surprising that despite low precipitation and a streak of extremely hot weather, the range land is making a comeback.

Stay tuned for future updates on this topic.

For Nebraska Extension Almanac.

I'm Brad Mills.

Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IE&R Media and Nebraska Extension.

For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

By mid-summer, summer annual grasses like foxtail, sandbur, and crabgrass are already up and growing—and they’re starting to cause issues in perennial hay or pasture fields.

At this point in the season, pre-emergent herbicides are no longer an effective control option for already growing summer annual weeds. Our best bet is to focus on post-emergent control and timely harvest management. In Roundup Ready® alfalfa, a labeled glyphosate product is a solid option—just be sure to treat while weeds are still small and before the alfalfa canopy blocks spray coverage.

In conventional alfalfa, grass-selective herbicides like Select®, Assure®, or Poast® can still work on smaller grasses. Follow the label closely for height limits and grazing or harvest restrictions.

If weeds are already well established, burn-down products like Gramoxone® may be your best shot. Apply immediately after cutting—before much alfalfa regrowth occurs—to knock back annual grasses with limited damage to the stand.

In mixed alfalfa-grass fields, your herbicide options are even more limited.  The only post emergent product we might consider is Pursuit®, which may stunt perennial grasses.  This doesn’t disqualify it as an option, but be aware it may open the door for more weed pressure.

This late in the season, cultural controls like adjusting harvest timing and maintaining a dense, vigorous stand may do more for long-term control than a spray pass. And remember—no herbicide will make up for poor timing.

Summer grasses are a challenge, but with a sharp eye and well-timed management, you can still limit their impact and protect your hay quality.

For today’s Pasture and Forage Minute, I’m Nebraska Extension Forage Systems Educator, Ben Beckman.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac. Nebraska's recent wildfires have devastated thousands of acres of pasture lands. Extension educators Ben Beckman and Ryan Benjamin talk about a few tips to help ranchers reduce the risk of fire on their past years. Ryan starts off the program with a simple tip to encourage producers to keep vehicles away from tall, dry grass.

[Ryan Benjamin, Nebraska Extension Educator]
Yeah, so I think one of the things that we were talking about before we started recording was kind of the fuel load out there, because we never really had any snow this winter, a lot of our grass fuels that typically would kind of be pushed down onto the ground is still standing vertical and very easily ignited.

So one of the big things that we talk about is vehicle traffic through the pasture and just it being so dry and still having that tall standing fuel, pretty easy to start a fire with vehicles.

And so one of the main themes of the, the article is talking about, you know, the different types of vehicles and considering what to drive.

Pickups tend to have lower exhaust systems and ones that get quite warm due to catalytic converters or region on some of these diesel pickups.

And so that exhaust system is very much hot enough to start a fire.

Um, we've seen it happen several times here where I'm at.

And so tending to use more side by sides and 4 wheelers can be helpful.

A lot of times, 4 wheelers and side by side, that exhaust system is, you know, tucked up a little higher in the body.

It's a little easier to avoid some of the tall fuels with a smaller vehicle.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Ben says another simple tip would be to have clear communication with your farm staff or younger family members about pastor driving and parking.

[Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Educator]
Some of where this was coming down through too, is how can we make a comprehensive list?

So, you know, when you're having somebody on your operation that maybe isn't used to ranching, isn't used to working in dry conditions like this or hasn't done it before, or maybe is just, you know, a little bit younger in age and isn't thinking through everything quite as clearly just ready to go out and get work done, being able to have these conversations and have it all in one place.

And so, yeah, just talking through, like Ryan said, you know, tall grass, if it's dry, avoid that if possible, driving in areas where it's green, where we've got shorter vegetation, so we don't have that risk of things brushing up against hot equipment.

Where do we park on a place that's going to have shorter vegetation, green vegetation?

You know, if there's a bear patch, just some of those practices, you know, keeping an eye on a vehicle after we've driven a little bit, just being aware of, you know, how long we've driven sometimes even can make a big difference.

You know, if we just drove a mile to go check a pasture, that exhaust still has, you know, the risk of being hot, but it's not going to be as hot as if we drove that vehicle for 30 miles to, you know, town and back and then went to go check a pasture after that.

Just being aware of some of those things.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Ryan points out, basic tools available to respond to a fire situation can make all the difference in prevention.

[Ryan Benjamin, Nebraska Extension Educator]
One person with a shovel early on can do a whole lot of good and preventing a large fire.

The other thing that we really encourage producers to do is carry like one of those big silver, like 2.5 gallon water can fire extinguishers.

You can get them fairly affordable and they're reusable, which is the big reason that I like them.

You know, a lot of guys carry them on the tractor, on the Baylor or whatnot, but having one in your picket too is a good idea.

When a fire's small, it's pretty easy to, to get it stopped, but the bigger it gets the, the more it requires.

And so if something does start and you think it's something that's more than you can take care of, just call the fire department quick.

I'm on the volunteer fire department up here and and we would much rather you call us and turn us around if you get it under control than just having a huge incident and and spending a lot of time trying to catch up and and get that thing stopped.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion of an interview taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension. To hear the entire interview, Go to beef.unl.edu, or download from Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills. Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension.For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac. On a previous almanac program, extension specialist Mary Dornowski talked about some of the benefits of grazing summer annual Sudan grass. On today's program, shall detail some of the advantages and disadvantages of grazing annuals versus perennials.

[Mary Drewnowski, Nebraska Beef Specialist]
On grazing all annuals.

Uh, when you think it's ready or when you think it's going to be ready, say in a few days, it's ready.

Oh, that's the 1st one, like, don't delay, just go.

The other one is you typically with perennials, right?

You really need to be thinking about, what am I doing to my root reserves?

Am I ensuring that that plant is going to be be able to make it and is going to maintain?

And so, you know, you want to be conservative about how much you take off?

They talk about take half, leave, half.

Throw all that out the window with annuals.

These guys are a little bit different in terms of what they're thinking about, right?

I mean, if you want to say plants think.

So a perennial, it wants to survive, right?

And then it wants to reproduce, if it can.

Annuals are going to go to sea.

That is their whole job, right?

And so one of our biggest challenges is that the quality declines as the plant matures and annuals want to mature rapidly.

Your grazing management will dictate how high of quality that forage will be.

And so you're actually sometimes better off, especially early on, to maybe go through and hit some of the field hard if you have enough animals to do so.

That's why I like to split it up.

Because if you can keep it to where you actually maybe even set it back a little bit so that as you move on, it's not getting away from you the next time, it actually helps with the grazing management.

So I actually graze fairly severely when I am initially grazing some of my annuals, because I know that in the end, that's going to keep that from getting too mature on me.

And so that's one of the things that I think is a little bit different in terms of the mentality.

And I think, uh, I've had several, including, uh, some of my students who, when they 1st go out and they see how I'm suggesting to graze, they kind of look at me like I'm crazy.

Eventually, they get on board and they understand, especially when they see the pastures that maybe we move to the next one because we thought, oh, the next one is really needs to get on it because it has too much forage and it's getting mature, and so we don't graze the one as hard as we should.

Then what happens is you have some plants. That actually get mature in other plants, right, that got grazed, and then the cattle only eat the plants that got grazed, and it's almost magnified like a 100 fold in annual systems than in perennial systems.

One of the risk of grazing Sudan grass is a chance of prussic acid in the plant.

Mary talks about minimizing the risk of cattle grazing on high concentrate oppressic acid.

Prussic acid happens really in 2 situations, right?

One is the very immature plant has a prussic acid risk and it is really, really high risk when you talk about sorghum.

And sorghum sedan is kind of in between, like we tell you never to graze sorghum until it's 2 foot tall, right?

And Sorum Sedan usually, that's the same suggestion.

But for sedan grass, it still has that risk, but it's lower, and in fact, we tell you that, um, you can graze it at 15 inches.

So, one of the things it's not about like how far down you graze it, like once the plant gets above 15 inches.

You can graze it down to the ground and that's fine.

That's one of the questions I sometimes get.

It is just about how young the plant is, if that makes sense.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion of an interview taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension. To hear the entire interview, go to beef.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts. For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills. 
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media, and Nebraska Extension. For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
 

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac. Extension specialist Mary Dronowski says sedan grass can be a great option for summer grazing. She says it stands up well due to its tendency for better regrowth after grazing, and it thrives during the hot summer months.

[Mary Drewnoski, Nebraska Extension Beef Specialist]
Let's talk a little bit about sedan grass itself.

So we said need summer grazing.

And sedan grass is a warm season, and it's actually one of the parents of probably the warm season grass annual grass that most people are familiar with, sorghum sedan, right?

This is different, just to be clear.

It's actually one of the things that sorghum sedan is the cross of.

So it's sorghum and then sedan grasses crossed to get sorghum sedan.

So that's important because sedan grass, it looks a lot like sorghum sedan, but it has some differences that is really useful from the grazing perspective.

And one of those is that it yields a little less if you're trying to just ton it out for hay, but it regrows better after grazing.

So on a grazing situation, we typically see actually a little bit more grazing from it than sorghum sedan.

And there's kind of a little bit of a bonus in that it's lower prussic acid.

So it has a little bit less risk when you're grazing those smaller plants.

So we still tell people to wait till it's 15 inches before you turn out, and there are actually varieties that are even lower risk versus others.

And so the one I've been using is Piper.

It's from the 70s people.

So this is nothing new.

But Piper, uh, sedan grass does a really nice job of, of regrowing after grazing, and even when the cattle step on it, it seems to be able to recover, you can sometimes have stems that almost look shattered and yet they're still growing and being productive, which is pretty cool.

So we've been actually putting incident grass after rye.

And so we've been grazing rye until, well, until right now, until the end of May, and then we'll kill the rye out and we'll plant sedan grass.

So just get an idea of the timing.

We're kind of planting it a little bit later, then maybe some people would because we're trying to get the most used out of our winter annual.

So we're planning it now, and then it's usually ready to graze at 30 to 40 days.

Sometimes, actually 40 days is too long.

It gets going and it can grow really, really fast.

So sometimes at 40 days it's 5 foot tall.

Just to tell you.

But what we've been doing is we actually been grazing it both with uh, cow calf pears and with stalker calves.

So both of those classes of cattle, we grazed on the rye 1st and then we took them off.

We took them over to perennial pastures.

So in our case, smooth broom grass, let them graze for that month to 40 days and then came back to our annual field.

So, with the sedan grass.

Honestly, with all annuals, I suggest you rotationally grace.

I realize it's a lot of work to put up fences in a crop field, but I think it is more than worth it to go ahead and divide it up into quarters and and be able to rotationally grace because your whole goal with annuals is to keep them vegetative.

So keep them young and keep them growing quickly and keep them very high quality.

And you can do it, and cattle will perform really well.

In fact, we did peak lactation cows who we were breeding out on the sedan grass, and they maintained condition, and their cabs gained actually £2.5 a day.

So they had, like, they were started out about 70 days of age.

And we went um, for uh, about 70 days uh, on the grazing.

And so those cabs gained actually about £4 more than calves who were actually on cows out on our perennial pasture.

So the quality is really good.

The stalker calves are heavier when they went out.

Um, they were actually 880 pounds at turnout, I know, crazy.

So, turnout's really July 1st time frame, just to have everybody on the same page, and they gained about one. £6 a day.

So really good quality stuff

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Today's program was a portion of an interview taken from a recent beef watch podcast offered by Nebraska extension to hear the entire interview go to beef.unl.edu or download from Apple Podcasts. For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills. 
Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media and Nebraska Extension. For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, Go to extension.unl.edu.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac. Check any empty pasture land in Nebraska, and chances are they'll be dotted with eastern red cedar sprouts or actual trees in some cases. UNL Woody Invasion ecologist Dillon Fogerty says, the cedars are a threat to our grasslands, and talks about a few possible solutions.

[Dillon Fogerty UNL Woody Invasion Ecologist]
We're seeing large grassland areas over just a 30 year time period transition to, you know, eastern red cedar dominance.

It really is a massive change that we're seen in our grasslands.

So essentially our grasslands have become more vulnerable to woody encroachment over the last century.

Um, and so what we're seeing is grasslands across the Great Plains are transitioning to a eastern red cedar dominated state.

There's 2 big factors.

I hit on that are driving that vulnerability.

The one is seed sources.

We've increased grassland exposure to seed sources, tree plantings and encroachment have just introduced more seed sources on the landscape that are contributing to encroachment.

The other factor is grasslands are more sensitive to witty encroachment today than in the past.

You know, fire has been a critical component of of maintaining resilient great plains grasslands.

As we've removed fire, largely from the Great Plains, you know, that takes away a pretty important controlling limiting factor for trees, allowing them to spread more rapidly and take over our grasslands.

So this is a strategy for managing woody encroachment on the landscape.

You know, past approaches have really focused on what tools you can use to manage the problem, what defend the core grow the core does, is it introduces a strategy for using those tools.

So instead of focusing on, you know, highly infested areas where our odds of success, long term, are tend to be low.

With this strategy, we focus on our best grasslands, and then we work towards the problem.

So we're identifying, we're number one, we're protecting our best grasslands.

And number two, we're working in the least encroached areas where we can make the most gains and have the biggest bang for our buck.

So with the defend the core grow the core approach.

Instead of focusing on emergency care.

We're using preventative and proactive care.

To number one, protect our most intact grasslands.

And then number two, we can identify some of the most cost-effective areas to manage encroachment.

Some of the problems with the past approach is that we're putting all of our management resources into infested areas.

Meanwhile, the front lines of the problem were advancing into our best grasslands where we weren't focusing on.

And so we're missing those opportunities for management.

What ended up happening at large scales like, um, in grassland regions or at the state or biome level, is we were chasing the problem with management.

And so the idea behind defend the car, grow the car, is we're not going to chase the problem anymore.

We're going to get out in front of it. And meet it on the front lines.

One of the things we talk about is identifying where those intact grasslands occur. Because they serve as anchor points for new management strategies.

So, as a general rule of thumb, uh, based on research out of the sandhills, over 95% of Eastern Red City recruitment occurs within 2 football fields of a seed source.

So we, when we talk about intact grasslands, we consider those areas that are more than 2 football fields from the nearest seed source.

From a planning standpoint.

When you're out on the land, you can identify those intact areas, and then think about where are those seed sources, and where can I put management to, uh, number one, defend those areas, those intact areas?

And then number two, where can I grow those areas?

And so, you know, defend the core, grow the core, is a strategy that we can, we can plug in different tools.

So we can use mechanical cutting to remove mature seed sources.

We can use prescribed fire to manage seeds, seedlings, and mature trees, but it allows us to plug in different management tools to achieve our different goals.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
For Nebraska Extension Almanac, I'm Brad Mills. Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR Media and Nebraska Extension. For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.
 

Alfalfa weevil continues to be an issue in some fields, particularly those that are established. With recent population spikes and feeding damage observed, alfalfa producers throughout the state are urged to scout for this pest up to and shortly following first cutting.

Plant injury from alfalfa weevil feeding damage appears as pinholes in the terminal leaves, with leaves becoming skeletonized and fields appearing droughty or frosted as feeding severity increases. Larvae are 1/10” to ½” long with a black head, wrinkled green body, and white stripe along the back and will curl into a C-shape when disturbed. 

Scouting for alfalfa weevil is simple and can mitigate yield losses due to feeding damage. First, use a sweep net to determine whether larvae are present. If they are, randomly select 5 sites across the field and collect 10 stems at each site, cutting the stems at ground level. Beat the stems into a deep sided white bucket, count the total number of larvae, and divide by 10 to determine the average number of larvae per stem. Economic thresholds for Alfalfa Weevil can vary greatly from an average of 1-7 larvae per stem, depending on a variety of factors. If very small larvae are found before the first cutting, it is recommended that the field be scouted after cutting to check for feeding on regrowth.

Insecticides labeled for alfalfa weevil control include pyrethroids and products containing indoxacarb (such as Steward). Pyrethroids are more harmful to natural enemies of alfalfa weevil and resistance may be developing in some weevil populations, while indoxacarb is more selective and may help to maintain beneficial insect populations. When alfalfa reaches 50% or more bud stage, it may be more profitable to cut the alfalfa early rather than treat it. 

For today’s Pasture and Forage Minute, I’m Nebraska Extension Crops & Water Educator, Samantha Daniel.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
Nebraska Extension Almanac. Grasslands are the number one use of land in Nebraska, and cover almost half the state, but transitions away from maintaining our state's grasslands are leading to many problems for farmers and ranchers. Dirac Twidwell, a professor in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at UNL describes his research on the benefits, grasslands have on human well-being, and his work with grassland owners across the Great Plains to combat these problems.

[Dirac Twidwell, UNL Agronomy & Horticulture Professor]
We specialize in, uh, grassland conservation, uh, their management at large scales, so we do a lot in the state, working with ranchers, industry, a number of stakeholders on it.

I think for a lot of people, grasslands are often talked about it.

They're the least conserved, often most underfunded, least appreciated.

And so it's one of those, uh, that a lot of Nebraskans don't know it's our number one land use in the state.

Covers over half the state.

And it's vital to a number of our ecosystem services, both for agricultural productivity, preventing major issues associated with, like, natural disasters like wildfire.

They're surprising disease vectors, when we lose grasslands, things like woody encroachment.

So our lab really focuses on how grasslands are important to human well being, not just to a producer on a ranch, not just for, say, like, wildlife conservation, but to the entire state.

Our grasslands, because they're overwhelmingly privately owned in the state.

One of the important things that we started doing several years ago is working with teams and collaborations of rancher communities.

And so we've been able to scale up from instead of just working on individual experiment or place, collaborating at, you know, hundreds of thousands of acres across multiple communities in the state, spanning areas like southwest Nebraska, less canyons, sandhills, southeast, northeast, up in the Pine Ridge.

And that's helped us align local needs and rancher needs, too, a lot of supporting groups.

So grasslands, there's that entity that brings all these groups with their individual values together, spanning wildlife water production.

And we slide into that, kind of that classical land gram mission of where research and that technical expertise fits into how we support this privately owned resource that, historically and still today, is the majority of our state.

When we're looking at grasslands today and the opportunity going forward, I mean, we're all really specialized in what we know with our jobs, and that is where the next level and nexus is.

If we, you know, which areas today are contributing the most to our rangeland productivity, which obviously is a key cornerstone of our beef industry here in the state.

But there's also areas that are disproportionately important for bird conservation, which are the fastest group of declining species, or grassland birds.

So, then, if we knew where water is critical, and things like woody encroachment pose those risks across all three of those sectors, that's where we're able to start teasing apart different specializations of, like, what's our hydraulology team know well?

And building that over with, like, our avian conservation, with, like, people in animal science, with our beef industry and sector?

And that's what ranchers and a lot of these groups that work in grasslands are dealing with all the time.

They're not managing just one thing.

They're managing the ecosystem.

And so when we do that, and, you know, the growing wildfire issue in the state, like, that's where I want to see things be able to grow, is we're having teams of people across all units.

And we're getting a lot of interest from other universities on that, as well, because that's a common shared pool of questions that every land grant institution has here in the Great Plains.

So that's what I think is next.

Like, not only getting our land grants more collaborative on these big questions in space.

And what we're seeing on the back end is that's directly fueling those conservation partners, like the USDA and our state wildlife agencies.

It makes that science more actionable.

And that really goes back to really helping one group, and that's the ranchers that own those land.

They're not just profitable because of what they're doing on the ground.

They're managing for our water resources, our biodiversity, these other things we care about, that we often take for granted that's on their shoulders, because they're the key decision maker.

[Brad Mills, Program Host]
For Nebraska extension almanac, I'm Brad Mills. Nebraska Extension Almanac is a production of IANR media, and Nebraska Extension. For more information on how your university is serving Nebraskans, go to extension.unl.edu.