Grimm Winter Feed Ground - Howard Project 2010

Introduction

This project was implemented on a dryland farming and ranching operation owned by Chad Howard in Treasure County. The project evaluated the use of cover crop mixes as:

• A tool to provide high quality forage at the end of the growing season; and,
• A way to rest the native rangeland as a producer utilizes fields which have been planted to cover crops which allows the native range to recover and build up reserves.

The Grimm field (3.5 acres) has not grown anything valuable for 10 years. The ground is white with alkali and grows foxtail barley and saltgrass. Mr. Howard wants to clean up the site by growing a cocktail that will use the excess moisture, provide standing forage in the fall, increase available nitrogen, and break up an old plow layer. The organic matter of the Grimm field was 3.6 percent.

Grimm field cover crop with kochia infestation on July 30, 2010.	Grimm field cover crop with kochia infestation on July 30, 2010.	Mark Henning measuring cover crop height on July 20, 2010, in the Grimm field.
Roots growing through the plow layer in the Grimm field on July 30, 2010.	Grimm field cover crop on July 30, 2010.	Plow layer on the Grimm field.
Roots growing through the plow layer on the Grimm field on July 30, 2010.	Soil structure on the Grimm field.	Grim field after plowed under on August 29, 2010.

< Back to Cover Crops for Grazing 2010

Last Modified: 04/21/2011