193 Forage Species to Improve Nutritional Opportunity for Grazing Livestock: A Southeast Perspective

Abstract

Abstract The southeastern US covers a number of the USDA plant hardiness zones and is therefore quite versatile in the forages that can be grazed. Many of these forages have excellent nutritional values if utilized at the proper growth stage. Generally speaking, forage nutritional value is greater from cool-season vs warm-season forages and annual vs perennial forages and declines with forage maturity. However, these nutritional differences may be offset by other factors such as greater persistence, earlier grazing or harvest, a longer growing season, adaptation to adverse environments, etc. Therefore, when evaluating forages to improve the nutritional opportunities for grazing livestock, numerous factors should be included in addition to forage chemical composition. These factors include ease and cost of establishment, longevity, productivity, palatability, adaptability to a range of soil types and environments, tolerance to grazing, and compatibility with other plants in the ecosystem either concurrently or in subsequent growing seasons. Additionally, long-term sustainability and environmental benefits should be considered. Without considering a number of these and simply focusing on nutritional values, information and recommendations may be quite misleading and result in disappointment and ultimately a loss of trust by producers. Therefore, collaboration among disciplines and agencies and the ability to monitor key factors listed above over an extended timeframe will be required. Longer-scale studies, even when evaluating annual forages, across a range of weather conditions and seasons, will provide needed information that will ultimately help producers reduce risk. Therefore, we will discuss the necessary information required to allow us to make more useful recommendations for nutritional improvement for pastures in the southeast.