Section 1: Opening Notes — Can You Waltz?
- Running on All Cylinders . . . . . . a magnificent pasture
Section 2: Creating Good Pastures
Choosing Forages
Some basics — identifying grasses, forage varieties & traits, forage advertisements for whom?, new forages, growing forages instead of buying hay —
- A Keen Eye for Grass . . . . . . identifying grasses by their vegetative characteristics
- Why Would You Choose . . . . . . how to select appropriate forages for a pasture; a tip on annual ryegrass
- What’s a Fellow To Do? . . . . . . finding good information about forage varieties, especially for grazing
- Yield Is Not Yield Is Not Yield . . . . . . dichotomy between forage information needed for hay versus grazing
- Seeds Out Of Sync . . . . . . the forage seed industry, two different markets: livestock farmers & seed growers
- Something New Under the Sun . . . . . . Italian ryegrass, high-sugar perennial ryegrass, forage herbs, hybrid forage brassicas
- Filling Holes . . . . . . forages for the slow-growth periods of the year
Forage Species
A potpourri of flavors here — alfalfa traits, warm-season grasses, annuals, perennials, broadleaf herbs, differences between the hemps, some forages you may never have encountered —
- Jazzed About Low-Lignin Alfalfa . . . . . . alfalfa with higher digestibility fiber
- A Specialist’s Grass . . . . . . reed canarygrass
- Sweet Grass . . . . . . high-sugar ryegrasses from Wales
- Bromes in the Toolbox . . . . . . smooth brome, prairie grass, grazing brome
- Tale of Two Grasses . . . . . . warm-season grasses; cool-season grasses, C4, C3
- Tall Grass . . . . . . sorghum-sudangrass, cyanide toxicity
- Summer Traits, Useful Traits . . . . . . sorghum-sudangrass new traits: BMR, brachytic dwarf, photoperiod sensitive
- What Will the Neighbors Think? . . . . . . crabgrass, quackgrass
- Planning, Learning, Decisions, Crabgrass . . . . . . on-farm experiment with improved crabgrass
- A Green Carpet . . . . . . kikuyugrass in Hawaii3
- Herbal Remedies . . . . . . chicory, plantain
- Two Plants, Multiple Goals . . . . . . industrial hemp, sunn hemp
Section 3: Grazing Skills
Mobs & Intensive Grazing
What is mob grazing? What is it not? What is actually going on in those paddocks? What do we know and what do we not know about this new grazing technique.
- Breakthrough! A Grazing Shorthand . . . . . . easy numerical system for describing a grazing system
- Mobs & Other Types of Grazing . . . . . . ultra-high stocking densities, mob grazing, differences from MIG
- Reflecting on Mob Rule . . . . . . stocking densities, daily feed needs, grazing in Phase II, Phase III
- Lots of Animals in a Small Area . . . . . . ramifications on forages, soil, & livestock
- Questioning the Mob . . . . . . research needed to understand mob grazing
Pasture Walks with Discussion Groups
Share the experience walking with a group of knowledgeable graziers. Making decisions about grazing situations —
- Fields With a Broader View . . . . . . pastures far from the home place, serious business decisions
- A Walk Through the Valley . . . . . . rented pastures, limited options, novel choices
- Two Walks, Two Meetings . . . . . . a field with accidental teff, a member starting pastures from scratch
- One More Walk Around the Pasture . . . . . . weeds in a hillside pasture, considerations for planting C4 grasses
Managing Animals & Pastures
Ruminants walking to graze on pastures saves a lot of money. And pushing the envelope in science to provide a new tool.
- Sheep Have Four Legs . . . . . . can animals walk to their feed? Yes. Does this reduce feed costs? Yes.
- Feeding Corn and Peas to Pastures . . . . . . fertilizer value of feeding supplement to animals on pasture
- Pushing the Weaning Envelope, 28 Days . . . . . . very early weaning lambs on alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil
Section 4: Grazing Animals: Health, Nutrition, Fiber
Livestock Health Issues on Pastures
We can manage these health issues — with knowledge and specific tools. Here are the descriptions.
- All Those Tiny Bubbles . . . . . . legume bloat I
- Bloat, A Risk Equation . . . . . . legume bloat II
- Estrogen and the Single Plant . . . . . . phytoestrogens, sublcover, red clover
- Nitrate Toxicity and Dirigibles . . . . . . nitrates, nitrites, hydrogen, methemoglobin
- Grass Staggers With a Grain of Salt . . . . . . a practical technique with magnesium tetany
- Meet the Tannin Family . . . . . . tea, leather, bypass protein, bloat, condensed & hydrolyzable tannins
- Tannins and Worms . . . . . . tannins and gastrointestinal parasites
- Pièce de Résistance . . . . . . internal parasites resistant to drugs I
- Resistance to Resistance . . . . . . internal parasites resistant to drugs II
Nutrition: Sugar, Starch, Methane
The ruminant nutritionist in me comes out. Enjoy the science . . . and the practical situations that we can encounter. Including some speculation about the edge of our knowledge and the broad implications of it.
- Follow the Data . . . . . . cows are down, forage tests, the real problem: magnesium or sugar
- Acidosis, Thin Ice . . . . . . highly fermentable feedstuffs in the rumen
- Starch . . . . . . starch, in detail, good and bad
- Crimp, Pellet, and Roll . . . . . . pelleting complexities, different feeds, processing grain
- A Methane Lover’s Delight: Garlic . . . . . . reducing methane from ruminants
- Easy Keepers . . . . . . residual feed intake, feed efficiency, brown fat
- Brixit . . . . . . do brix values predict forage quality?
Fiber
Enjoy the tour of fiber-eating species — some truly fascinating ones here. Gain appreciation for the lowly intestinal tract, including ours. And the last chapter will help you in the supermarket.
- Ruminant Ruminations . . . . . . digestive tract anatomy: ruminants and horses
- Second Time Around . . . . . . digestive tract anatomy: rodents and rabbits
- Variations on the Fiber Theme . . . . . . fiber digesters: hippos, kangaroos, capybaras
- Walking on the Wild Side of Fiber . . . . . . fiber digesters: hoatzin, termites, shipworms
- The Fiber That Gels . . . . . . pectin
- Fiber Digestion, Time, and Distance . . . . . . fiber digestibility, TTNDFD
- Dietary Fiber or Ruminant Fiber? . . . . . . what does the label on human foods mean?
Section 5: Toxins, Fungi, Minerals, Chemistry
Toxins & Weeds
An array of plants that don’t like us or our livestock. Some chemistry, some medical and veterinary issues. And some history — from Socrates to Marco Polo. And maybe a little bit of humor about leuceana.
- Witches’ Brew . . . . . . ergot, grass species, no-till planting, the Salem witch trials
- Hemlock . . . . . . a common weed, a good plant to avoid
- Dr. Brassica & Mr. Hyde . . . . . . brassica nutritional issues: iodine, erucic acid, sulfur, ABPE, anemia
- Salad Bowl Blues . . . . . . rhubarb, fiddleheads, comfrey
- Olly Olly Oxalates . . . . . . oxalate toxicity, kidney damage, calcium deficiency
- Toxic Algae That’s Not Algae . . . . . . blue-green algae blooms, cyanobacteria, photosynthesis, a variety of toxins
- Not-So-Friendly Mushrooms . . . . . . toxic mushrooms, cyclic peptides, the Amanita genus
- Solid Like an Oak . . . . . . oak toxicity, hydrolyzable tannins, green acorns, unusual situations
- Tansy Ragwort, Again? . . . . . . resurgence of tansy ragwort, alkaloids, biological control
- Staggering Connections . . . . . . annual ryegrass toxicity, corynetoxins, a complex combination of species
- Plants That Practice the Martial Arts . . . . . . hairy vetch, poison ivy-oak-sumac, immune system response
- Swapping Bugs . . . . . . leucaena toxicity and an unconventional technique to solve it
- Two C’s for the Holidays . . . . . . chickling peas (not chickpeas), lathyrism, cassava, cyanide, goiter
- The World According to Gorse . . . . . . a novel approach to weed management
Endophyte
Five chapters on a fascinating topic — with implications beyond grazing. Plants within plants, symbiosis and toxicity.
- Plants Within Plants . . . . . . endophyte fungi in tall fescue and perennial ryegrass, symbiosis
- It’s a Turf Life . . . . . . perennial ryegrass staggers, endophyte alkaloids
- Endophytes Revisited . . . . . . managing endophyte toxicity in perennial ryegrass, novel endophytes
- Toxin Coping . . . . . . managing endophyte toxicity in tall fescue, options
- Friendly Fungi . . . . . . novel endophytes
Forage Defense Strategies
Soil fungi, soil communications, weird plant attack strategies. All of these periodically make the news.
- The Fungus Among Us . . . . . . arbuscular mycorrhizae
- A Three-Ring Circus . . . . . . flavonoids
- Bad Neighbors . . . . . . allelopathy
Plant Minerals
Some interesting sidelights in the plant world. Some good; some bad.
- A Trace of Moly . . . . . . molybdenum in soils, plants, & animals
- Lots of Selenium . . . . . . selenium accumulator plants, Marco Polo
- Metallic Plants . . . . . . hyperaccumulator plants, selenium, cadmium, nickel, phytomining
Section 6: Closing Notes — Imagine
And now for something completely different. The word “imagine” is not an accident. Enjoy.
- The Sheep Meadow . . . . . . the famous one in New York City
- The Barn . . . . . . the past and future meet in a special place