Northern Great Plains Region Research Articles

Transnational Perspectives on the History of Great Plains Women: Gender, Race, Nations, and the Forty-ninth Parallel

History is sadly truncated if national historians travel without passports and stop investigating when the subject reaches the 49th parallel, writes Jan Noel in her introduction to a recent collection of articles that focus on race and gender in the intertwined histories of the border colonies of seventeenth and eighteenth century eastern North America. (1) There is enormous potential for similar work on cross-border history in the regions to the west of the colonies of the Noel collection. The modest goal of this article is to create interest in transnational approaches to the northern Great Plains region of the and U.S. Wests by drawing on examples from my past, present, and future areas of research that focus on Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women's and gender history within the context of imperialism of the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Transnational histories question the nation-centered focus of history, and they encompass and blend diverse approaches and perspectives including comparative and borderlands history, analysis of boundary-crossing people, ideas and institutions, and examination of the ways in which national borders were ignored, contested and manipulated. (2) A transnational approach to the Great Plains permits fresh perspectives on the history of colonized and colonial women and on gendered and racial dimensions of nation-making. Many recent studies have shown that the gendering of imperialism took different forms in different parts of the world, although there were also shared features. (3) The Great Plains provides a unique opportunity to examine a region in which two nations' institutionalization of gender and race difference, that limited and legitimized peoples' access to the resources of the nation state, took divergent forms, while sharing some features, in the same part of the world, although one bisected by a border. The field of Aboriginal women's history cannot be narrowly grounded in the nation state. The territory of many Aboriginal nations including the Plains Cree, Blackfoot, Assiniboine, Dakota, Lakota, and Ojibway, spanned the 49th parallel. Yet most historians, as Beth LaDow has commented, tend to divide the American story from the along this boundary, as if it split the past as neatly as a meat cleaver. (4) Aboriginal people are neatly categorized as Canadian or American, and are dropped from each nation's narrative once they cross the line, skewing understanding of experiences and identities that pre-date, transcend and ignore the border. One of the most prominent of the women of the mid-nineteenth-century Great Plains, Natoyist-Siksina', Holy Snake, (known in her lifetime and since to English speakers as Natawista) has been relegated to a realm oustide of history because of her Aboriginal and transnational status. She is virtually unknown today in non-Aboriginal Canada, although she is one of few women to have an entry in the Dictionary of Biography. (5) While much of her life was spent in the American West, she was born in what became Canada in 1825, lived there for the last twenty years of her life, died on the Blood Reserve in 1893, and is buried at Stand Off, Alberta. Natoyist-Siksina' was a Kainai (Blood) woman who was born, likely near Lethbridge, Alberta, to Two Suns, chief of the Fish Eaters band, and Red Deer Woman. (6) At the age of fifteen she married Alexander Culbertson, chief trader for the Upper Missouri Outfit of the American Fur Company (figure 1). A description of this marriage was written by anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan, who met the couple in 1862 and noted in his journal that When Culbertson obtained his Blackfoot wife he sent 9 horses to his wife's eldest brother. He told his men to hitch them at his lodge and to ask for the girl as his wife. She was sent to him the next day the brother returned nine other horses as a present to Culbertson. It is customary for the brother to distribute the presents among the relatives, and for the relatives to return presents to the groom. …

Farm and operator characteristics affecting the awareness and adoption of precision agriculture technologies in the US

Precision agriculture (PA) technologies have been commercially available since the early 1990s. However, not only has the pace of adoption in the US been relatively modest but a surprisingly large number of producers are not familiar with these technologies. Using farm level survey data, this study quantifies the role that awareness plays in the decision to adopt PA technology and allows us to explore the potential for public or private information programs to affect the diffusion of PA. PA adoption and awareness are modeled as jointly determined dichotomous variables and their determinants are estimated using a two-stage (i.e. instrumental variable) logistic specification. The first-stage logit model indicated that operator education and computer literacy, full-time farming, and farm size positively affected the probability of PA awareness while the effect of age was negative. Grain and oilseed farms (i.e. corn, soybean, and small grains) and specialty crop farms (i.e. fruits, vegetables, and nuts) as well as farms located in the Heartland and Northern Great Plains regions were most likely to be aware of PA technologies. The second-stage PA adoption logit model, which included an instrumental variable to account for the endogeneity of awareness, revealed that farm size, full-time farming, and computer literacy positively influenced the likelihood of PA adoption. Grain and oilseed farms were the most likely types of farms to adopt PA as were farms in the Heartland region. Awareness, as defined in this study, was not found to be limiting the adoption of PA, suggesting that farmers for whom the technology is profitable are already aware of the technology and that a sector-wide public or private initiative to disseminate PA information would not likely have a major impact on PA diffusion.

Turfgrass Evaluation of Native Grasses for the Northern Great Plains Region

ABSTRACTA range of native grass species evolved under the environmental extremes of a continental climate in the northern Great Plains, but most have not been evaluated for their suitability as turf. The objective of this research was to evaluate the turfgrass potential of a range of native grasses under three mowing heights. Twelve species (a total of 28 entries) were evaluated under three mowing heights (62, 38, and 18 mm), for turf quality, color, and density at two locations in Manitoba, Canada. The species evaluated included alpine bluegrass (Poa alpina L.), alkali grass [Puccinellia nuttalliana (Schult.) Hitchc.], alpine fescue [Festuca ovina L. var. brachyphylla (Schult. & Schult. f.) Piper, syn. F. brachyphylla Schult. & Schult. f.], blue grama [Bouteloua gracilis (Kunth) Lag. ex Griffiths], buffalograss {Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm. [= Bouteloua dactyloides (Nutt.) Columbus]} Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa L.), fescue spp., fowl bluegrass (Poa palustris L.), Idaho bentgrass (Agrostis idahoensis Nash), marsh muhly [Muhlenbergia racemosa (Michx.) Britton et al.], prairie junegrass [Koeleria macrantha (Ledeb.) Schult.], rough hairgrass {Agrostis scabra Willd. [= A. hyemalis var. scabra (Willd.) H. L. Blomq.]}, side‐oats grama [Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx.) Torr.], and tufted hairgrass [Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P. Beauv.]. Entries showed similar results across all mowing heights. ‘Bad River’ blue grama, Minnesota ecotype blue grama, and ‘Barkoel’ prairie junegrass entries showed high quality ratings across all years and locations. Blue grama, a warm‐season grass, was drought tolerant and maintained consistent green color throughout the growing season. Although a number of the species showed promise, most entries will require a breeding and selection program before release as low‐maintenance turfgrasses.

Northern Great Plains 1996/97 seasonal evolution of snowpack parameters from satellite passive-microwave measurements

AbstractFor the American northern Great Plains region, the 1996/97 snow season had snow accumulations much greater than normal, which combined with rapid warming to produce extensive flooding in the Red River of the North river basin. Passive-microwave observations from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) are used to follow the evolution of the snowpack during the snow season and to map the extent of standing water or very saturated soils during spring 1997. SSM/I-derived snow-depth algorithms that assume a fixed snow grain-size constantly underestimated the snow depth by a factor of 2 in the region where extensive flooding occurred. An estimate of the thermal gradient through the snowpack is used to model the growth of the snow grain-size and to compute more accurately the evolution of the snow depth over the region. As is commonly observed, when the melt season begins, liquid water in the snowpack causes the SSM/I spectral gradient to drop to zero. In this case, the spectral gradient fell to unusually negative values, which were indicative of large areas of open water, and not wet snow or soil.

00/00039 Coal in the Northern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains region—clean, compliant, and available

The Northern Rocky Mountains and Great Plains region produced over 340 million short tons of coal in 1997, approximately 30 percent of the nation`s total coal production. Coals from this region are shipped to 26 states in the western, midwest, southern, and eastern US and production is projected to increase to 415 million short tons by 2015; the projected increase will be utilized primarily for production of electric power. The coals are economically attractive because they can be produced by surface mining, and do not require costly beneficiation to be compliant with emission standards. The coals are compliant because their chemical composition was influenced by tectonic settings of the coal basins and provenance of the sediments entering the basins. Tectonics during the Paleocene also influenced rates of precipitation and depositional systems. These factors, in concert, controlled the amount, distribution, and levels of sulfur, ash, and trace elements of environmental concern in the region`s coals. The emphasis of this paper is on the chemistry of these thick, high-quality coals and the geologic controls that resulted in their accumulation.

Assessing economic impacts of biological control of weeds: The case of leafy spurge in the northern Great Plains of the United States

Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esulaL.), a perennial weed native to Europe and Asia, has become a serious problem for ranchers and land managers in the northern Great Plains region of the United States. Potential economic benefits (i.e. gross benefits, not including the cost of biological control) from biological control of leafy spurge in the four-state region of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming are estimated. Biological agents were predicted to control about 65% of the region's leafy spurge infestations—about 1·2 million acres (497 000 ha)—by the year 2025. Direct economic impacts from control were estimated to total about $19·1 million annually, and secondary impacts were estimated at $39·3 million, for a total annual economic impact of $58·4 million.

Contributions of groundwater conditions to soil and water salinization

Salinization is the process whereby the concentration of dissolved salts in water and soil is increased due to natural or human-induced processes. Water is lost through one or any combination of four main mechanisms: evaporation, evapotranspiration, hydrolysis, and leakage between aquifers. Salinity increases from catchment divides to the valley floors and in the direction of groundwater flow. Salinization is explained by two main chemical models developed by the authors: weathering and deposition. These models are in agreement with the weathering and depositional geological processes that have formed soils and overburden in the catchments. Five soil-change processes in arid and semi-arid climates are associated with waterlogging and water. In all represented cases, groundwater is the main geological agent for transmitting, accumulating, and discharging salt. At a small catchment scale in South and Western Australia, water is lost through evapotranspiration and hydrolysis. Saline groundwater flows along the beds of the streams and is accumulated in paleochannels, which act as a salt repository, and finally discharges in lakes, where most of the saline groundwater is concentrated. In the hummocky terrains of the Northern Great Plains Region, Canada and USA, the localized recharge and discharge scenarios cause salinization to occur mainly in depressions, in conjunction with the formation of saline soils and seepages. On a regional scale within closed basins, this process can create playas or saline lakes. In the continental aquifers of the rift basins of Sudan, salinity increases along the groundwater flow path and forms a saline zone at the distal end. The saline zone in each rift forms a closed ridge, which coincides with the closed trough of the groundwater-level map. The saline body or bodies were formed by evaporation coupled with alkaline-earth carbonate precipitation and dissolution of capillary salts.

Abstract: Dealing With Uncertainty: Assessment of Gas Plays in the Rocky Mountains and Northern Great Plains Region 

Abstract: Dealing With Uncertainty: Assessment of Gas Plays in the Rocky Mountains and Northern Great Plains Region 

Cadmium Burden of Men and Women Who Report Regular Consumption of Confectionery Sunflower Kernels Containing a Natural Abundance of Cadmium

Because of inherent genetic and physiological characteristics, the natural concentration of cadmium in the kernels of sunflowers grown in uncontaminated soils of the northern Great Plains region of the United States is higher than in most other grains. We tested the hypothesis that a habitual consumption of sunflower kernels will increase the body burden and health effects of cadmium in humans. Sixty-six men and women who reported consuming various amounts of sunflower kernels were recruited and divided by sex and kernel consumption: those who consumed less than or equal to 1 ounce(oz)/week and those who consumed more than 1 oz/week. Cadmium intake was assessed by calculation from 7-day food diaries, cadmium burden by whole blood cadmium, red blood cell (RBC) cadmium and urine cadmium concentrations, and health effects by urinary excretion of N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) activity and beta2-microglobulin (beta2MG). The results showed that high intakes of sunflower kernels (>1 oz/day) significantly increased the intake of cadmium (p<0.004). However, the amount of cadmium in whole blood or RBCs was not affected by cadmium intake. Urinary excretion of cadmium also was not affected by cadmium intake. Urine NAG activity and the amount of urinary beta2MG were significantly elevated in the urine of high sunflower kernel consumers when the values were expressed on a urine volume basis (p<0.03), but not when expressed on a creatinine basis (p>0.05). Because normal ranges for the excretion of these protein markers have not been established, it was not possible to determine if these elevated values were meaningful. However, given the knowledge that habitual consumption of sunflower kernels with natural cadmium concentrations higher than most other food products will increase the average intake of dietary cadmium, the potential exists for an increased body burden of cadmium. Controlled feeding studies in humans should be pursued in order to determine if the body burden does indeed increase and, if so, is it a cause for concern.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE VARIABILITY OF MIDWINTER SNOW-DEPTH DECREASE IN THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS OF THE UNITED STATES

Meltwater from snow provides an important source of fresh water for agriculture, domestic use, and hydroelectric power in many regions of the world. In the winter and early spring, however, rapid ablation of the snowpack can lead to environmental hazards such as flooding. Most snowmelt research has relied on measured data, which have limited the spatial and temporal resolution of the studies. Generally, these studies have been conducted at single locations over periods of a few days to a few weeks. This project investigates snowdepth changes on a more expansive scale by using a one-dimensional mass- and energy-balance model (SNTHERM) to compute the convective and radiative fluxes associated with large snow-depth change events. Midwinter snow-depth changes and the variability in snow-depth changes are evaluated for a 25-year time period over the northern Great Plains region of the United States during February. Statistical analyses indicate that variations in sensible heat flux have the greatest influence on midwinter variability of snow-depth changes. This is shown by the consistently strong relationship between modeled sensible heat-flux values and changes in snow depth over the entire study period and at nearly every station. Mean daily temperature followed by mean daily dew-point temperature show the next strongest statistical relationships with snow-cover ablation. Radiative fluxes and net solar radiation in particular, have low correlations with changes in snow depth and are therefore found to have little impact on snow-depth change variability during the month of February. Although net solar radiation is not highly correlated with the variability of decreases in depth, its energy input is nevertheless an important source of energy for ablation processes. [Key words: snow melt, modeling, Great Plains.]

Bedding characteristics of Holocene sediments from salt lakes of the northern Great Plains, Western Canada

The northern Great Plains region of western Canada contains many saline and hypersaline lakes. These lakes exhibit great diversity in geochemical and sedimentological characteristics which results in a wide range of bedding features and lamination types. Because of the high brine salinities and supersaturation with respect to many carbonate and sulfate evaporitic minerals, chemical laminae and beds are the most common stratification types observed. Simple monomineralic carbonate or sulfate layers as well as beds composed of complex mixtures of aragonite, magnesite, hydromagnesite, mirabilite, gypsum, epsomite,and/or bloedite occur frequently in Holocene sequences from these saline lakes. In addition, biolaminae, including microbialite bedding and accretionary tufa and travertine deposits, are present. Due to the dominance of chemical sedimentary processes operating in these lakes, physical laminae are uncommon. Other observed bedding features and sedimentary structures consist of distinctive pedogenic-cryogenic dry zones, salt karst structures, and clastic dykes and diapirs. Although paleoenvironmental investigations of these well-bedded sequences have just recently begun, several basins provide examples of the nature of paleolimnological information that can be derived from the salt lakes of the northern Great Plains. The chemical and biological laminae preserved in the Holocene sequence of Waldsea Lake provide evidence for significant fluctuations in brine chemistry and chemocline depth in this meromictic basin. Freefight Lake, another hypersaline meromictic lake, contains a relatively thick sequence of rapidly deposited, deep-water salts underlain by finely laminated carbonates, sulfates, and microbial mat sediments. These very thin, undisturbed laminae, combined with exceedingly high rates of offshore evaporite mineral accumulation, provide an excellent opportunity for high resolution geochemical and hydrologic reconstructions in a part of the region distinguished by a paucity of other sources of paleoenvironmental information. Chappice Lake, a shallow, hypersaline brine pool, contains a wealth of paleoenvironmental information. Although the basin probably never experienced the deep-water conditions that earmark Waldsea and Freefight lakes, nonetheless, finely laminated and well-bedded sequences abound in the Holocene record of Chappice Lake. The endogenic magnesium and calcium carbonates and sulfates comprising these laminae can be used to interpret the history of brine chemistry fluctuations which may then help to understand past changes in the hydrologic budget and groundwater inflow.

HISTORICAL SNOW COVER VARIABILITY IN THE GREAT PLAINS REGION OF THE USA: 1910 THROUGH TO 1993

The duration of seasonal (September–May) snow cover over the central and northern Great Plains region of the USA has varied considerably during this past century. Annual and decadal fluctuations are embedded in a statistically significant trend toward greater seasonal snow cover, from 29 days in the early part of the century to 38 days in recent decades. The variability of snow cover duration also increased throughout the century, exhibiting the largest changes in a north-west-trending zone bisecting the region. Seasonal snowfall, temperature, and precipitation show fluctuations similar to those of snow cover; however, only snowfall has increased significantly since 1910. A post-1970 shift toward longer autumn (September–November) snow cover duration and shorter spring (March–May) duration has been accompanied by decreases in autumn maximum and minimum temperatures and increases in spring minimum temperatures. The reliance on snow cover for hydrological and agricultural purposes in this part of the country, the sensitivity of the boundary layer climate to snow cover conditions in the Plains, and the projections by global climate models for this region to become warmer and dryer as a result of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, necessitate increased study and hence a better understanding of the variability of snow cover over the Plains.

HISTORICAL SNOW COVER VARIABILITY IN THE GREAT PLAINS REGION OF THE USA: 1910 THROUGH TO 1993

The duration of seasonal (September–May) snow cover over the central and northern Great Plains region of the USA has varied considerably during this past century. Annual and decadal fluctuations are embedded in a statistically significant trend toward greater seasonal snow cover, from 29 days in the early part of the century to 38 days in recent decades. The variability of snow cover duration also increased throughout the century, exhibiting the largest changes in a north-west-trending zone bisecting the region. Seasonal snowfall, temperature, and precipitation show fluctuations similar to those of snow cover; however, only snowfall has increased significantly since 1910. A post-1970 shift toward longer autumn (September–November) snow cover duration and shorter spring (March–May) duration has been accompanied by decreases in autumn maximum and minimum temperatures and increases in spring minimum temperatures. The reliance on snow cover for hydrological and agricultural purposes in this part of the country, the sensitivity of the boundary layer climate to snow cover conditions in the Plains, and the projections by global climate models for this region to become warmer and dryer as a result of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, necessitate increased study and hence a better understanding of the variability of snow cover over the Plains.

Ash Yellows in the Northern Great Plains Region

Ash Yellows in the Northern Great Plains Region

EPIC model parameters for cereal, oilseed, and forage crops in the northern Great Plains region

The EPIC computer simulation model has potential for assessing agricultural management scenarios in the northern Great Plains region of the United States and western Canada. The objectives of this study were to develop parameters for economically important crop and forage species grown in these regions and to determine whether EPIC could use these parameters to reasonably simulate yields. Parameters for leaf-area development, temperature responses, biomass growth and partitioning, and nutrient concentrations were derived from data in the literature for spring canola, wheat, barley, maize and six forage species. Because of the growing importance of canola in Canada and the United States, much emphasis was placed on deriving its parameters. With these inputs, EPIC reasonably simulated forage and crop yields in six locations and canola yields in four locations. The model should provide reasonable simulations for a wide range of applications throughout these regions. Key words: simulation modeling, canola, agricultural management

Heritability of Resistance to Leaf Spot Caused by Septoria spraguei in Russian Wildrye

A leaf‐spot disease of Russian wildrye [Psathyrostachys juncea (Fischer) Nevski] caused by Septoria spraguei Uecker & J.M. Krupinsky has the potential to reduce forage quality and yield, particularly in subhumid portions of the northern Great Plains region of the USA and Canada. This study was conducted to estimate heritability of resistance to S. spraguei and to measure the correlation between disease ratings in greenhouse and field environments. Twenty‐five parent clones and their respective half‐sib families were inoculated with S. spraguei in a greenhouse environment and subjected to natural infection in a field nursery. In the greenhouse, narrow‐sense heritability (h2) estimates from the regression of half‐sib family means on parent means were 0.57, 0.79, and 0.72, respectively, for lesion number, lesion size, and percentage necrosis ratings on leaf blades. Heritability estimates in the field environment were 0.22, 0.57, and 0.36, respectively, for lesion number, lesion size, and percentage necrosis. Lesion size was the only rating for which the entry × year interaction was nonsignificant in the field for both parents and half‐sib families. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient between greenhouse and field environments for lesion size means of half‐sib families was 0.61**. Recurrent phenotypic selection for small lesion size among half‐sib families inoculated with S. spraguei in a single greenhouse environment should be effective in improving resistance to this leaf‐spot disease in Russian wildrye.

Characterizing the long-term variability of snow-cover extent over the interior of North America

Historical and reconstructed snow-cover data show evidence of a gradual increase in snow cover over the continental interior of North America (NA) during much of the 20th century, primarily in response to increasing snowfall. A rapid decrease in Canadian-prairies snow cover after 1970 is not observed over the Great Plains. Analysis of snow-cover-climate relationships revealed systematic increases in the sensitivity of snow cover to Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperatures over the 1940-65 period. This change is mainly due to an increase in snowfall-temperature sensitivity during this period. Seasonal analysis revealed that the observed increase in snow-cover and snowfall temperature sensitivity is primarily a spring phenomenon. A marked increase in the importance of the spring period is observed around 1960, which coincides with a well-documented change in atmospheric circulation over NA. The post-1960 period is characterized by a significant inverse relationship between snow cover and hemispheric air temperature over the Canadian prairies and northern Great Plains regions.

Characterizing the long-term variability of snow-cover extent over the interior of North America

Historical and reconstructed snow-cover data show evidence of a gradual increase in snow cover over the continental interior of North America (NA) during much of the 20th century, primarily in response to increasing snowfall. A rapid decrease in Canadian-prairies snow cover after 1970 is not observed over the Great Plains. Analysis of snow-cover-climate relationships revealed systematic increases in the sensitivity of snow cover to Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperatures over the 1940-65 period. This change is mainly due to an increase in snowfall-temperature sensitivity during this period. Seasonal analysis revealed that the observed increase in snow-cover and snowfall temperature sensitivity is primarily a spring phenomenon. A marked increase in the importance of the spring period is observed around 1960, which coincides with a well-documented change in atmospheric circulation over NA. The post-1960 period is characterized by a significant inverse relationship between snow cover and hemispheric air temperature over the Canadian prairies and northern Great Plains regions.

Salt dissolution features in saline lakes of the northern Great Plains, western Canada

Large-scale salt dissolution is an important process affecting the sediments of many of the saline lakes in the northern Great Plains region of western Canada. The most easily recognized features of this salt karst are water-filled chimneys, vertical shafts, and collapse structures. The largest individual chimneys can be up to 20 m deep and 50 m in diameter, with volumes exceeding 25,000 m 3. Large, mud-filled chimneys and cavities, and salt-filled chimneys have also been identified in both the modern lakes and in the Quaternary sediments of the basins, which can adversely affect the salt mining potential of the basins. Because these salt karst features can affect large vertical sections of the sediment fill in the lakes, their recognition is of fundamental importance in attempting to use the stratigraphic records of the basins for paleoenvironmental research.

Planting date effects on yield and quality of foxtail millet and three annual legumes

Annual grasses and legumes offer potential as forages in the northern Great Plains region of the USA during late summer when perennial cool-season grass pastures are unproductive. The objective of this study was to evaluate the forage yield, in vitro digestible dry matter (IVDDM), and crude protein concentration of four annual species planted in May, June, and July at two South Dakota locations in 1989 and 1990. The species evaluated were cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.), mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek), soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), and Siberian foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) Beauv.). In 1989 cowpea, soybean, and millet produced similar yields at Highmore when planted in May, whereas in 1990 soybean had the highest forage yield of 8.3 t ha−1. Forage yields for the July planting were lower than those of the May planting, except for mungbean grown at Highmore in 1989 where the July planting produced 2.2 t ha−1 more forage than the May planting. Cowpea had significantly greater IVDDM than the other species for all three planting dates at Beresford in 1989, whereas at Highmore IVDDM for cowpea was not greater than that of mungbean for the May and June planting dates. Cowpea had the greatest crude protein concentration for all planting dates at Highmore in 1989, the greatest crude protein concentration for May and June planting dates at Beresford, and similar crude protein concentration to soybean for the July planting date. Millet, with the exception of the May planting at Highmore in 1990, consistently had lower IVDDM and crude protein concentrations than all three legumes each year at each location. The highest soybean forage yields at each location were always obtained from the May plantings. Cowpea forage yields were highest for the May planting at Highmore in 1989 and the June planting in 1990. Since cowpea often had higher forage yields, IVDDM, and crude protein concentrations than the other species it appears to be a viable alternative forage crop for this region.Key words: Annual forage legumes, millet, yield, quality