20th Annual VT Grazing & Livestock Conference

Are there opportunities for you to increase profitability by choosing forage species and varieties that address various needs on your farm?  If you could increase the dry matter intake and lactation of your cows by using haylage made with lower-fiber grasses or grasses with higher fiber digestibility, would it be worth a look?   Are there higher-yielding, more persistent legume species and varieties?  What does it look like when you combine species/variety X, Y, and Z?  What kind of seeding rate is appropriate?  You can read the tech sheets on the varieties available from your local vendor, or you can take a look at them in a setting similar the one on your own farm.  UVM Extension Agronomist Dan Hudson planted 200+ mixed forage plots on multiple farms in Vermont and New Hampshire in 2014 and 2015 to demonstrate the answers to some of these questions and will present the results so far.