Improve forage quality with grazing decisions, not fertilizer

It is no secret that improving forage quality will improve animal performance and probably lower costs due to less need for supplemental feed. There are many components of forage quality, but the two Hay and Forage Grower focuses on in this article are crude protein and energy, or total digestible nutrients. When some ranchers discuss improving crude protein in introduced forages, they often talk about using fertilizer, particularly nitrogen. This seems logical since crude protein is directly proportional to the percentage of nitrogen in the plant. However, like many other things that seem logical but are not, this is not the case. Proper fertilization of introduced forages results in more forage but not necessarily better forage. Read more at Hay & Forage Grower…