Orchardgrass
With its rapid regrowth rates, orchardgrass is an excellent option to add to a cool-season grass mixture for late summer forage planting.

Pasture and Forage Minute: Valuing Drought Forage, Late Summer Planting, Managing High Nitrates

August 24, 2022
Insights on how forage prices should be adjusted this year for droughty crops, the optimal grasses for late summer forage planting and how to manage high nitrates in forages.

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Wheat field

Nebraska Crop Production Report for August

August 18, 2022
Based on Aug. 1 conditions, Nebraska's 2022 crop production is forecast to be lower than last year's across the board, with the most substantial deficits in oats, alfalfa hay and winter wheat.

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2021 Alfalfa and Wheat Expo attendees
Attendees of the 2021 inaugural Southeast Nebraska Alfalfa and Wheat Expo listen as former Nebraska Extension Educator Melissa Bartels shares insights about alfalfa diseases.

2022 Southeast Nebraska Alfalfa and Wheat Expo on Sept. 1

August 18, 2022
The second annual expo will feature extension insights on a wide array of alfalfa and winter wheat concerns — variety recommendations, underseeding red clover, cost-share programs, and research on pest, disease and irrigation management. 

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Corn silage
For high quality silage, inoculants alongside proper harvesting and storage can reduce the risk of spoilage and maintain its condition.

Pasture and Forage Minute: Considerations for Inoculants, Thinning and Heat-stressed Alfalfa

August 11, 2022
Extension recommendations on using inoculants to preserve corn silage quality, the best grasses to interseed in alfalfa and timing for cutting alfalfa hay in heat-stressed conditions.

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Grasshopper
With conditions remaining dry this summer, if the grasshopper population in an established field is higher than five hoppers per square yard throughout the field or 15 hoppers per square yard in field margins, insecticides should be considered.

Pasture and Forage Minute: Grasshopper Control, Safe Grazing Guidelines And Blue-green Algae Poisoning

July 13, 2022
Tips for effective control of grasshoppers in alfalfa, prussic acid poisoning from summer annual forages and blue-green algae in livestock water.

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Cutting hay
An important, yet often overlooked, way to determine when to cut grass hay is what quality of hay is needed on the operation.

Pasture and Forage Minute: Considerations for Cutting Hay, Controlling Bluegrass

June 28, 2022
Extension educators discuss some often overlooked factors for determining a grass hay cut date, and share recommendations on timing irrigation for more effective control of bluegrass in alfalfa.

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Potato leafhopper

Watch for Aphids and Potato Leafhoppers in Nebraska Alfalfa

June 22, 2022
Growers should begin scouting for potato leafhoppers and alfalfa aphids, as these pests have been spotted in Nebraska alfalfa fields prior to first cutting.

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Thunderstorm over pasture

Pasture and Forage Minute: Rain and Hail Damage, Preventing Window Disease

June 20, 2022
Extension insights on reducing rain damage to hay, assessing hail damage to forage crops, and preventing window disease in alfalfa. 

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