Iowa Beef Center and Kirkwood Community College to Host Forage Field Day

By Sherry Hoyer

An ongoing research project with the Iowa Beef Center focuses on interseeding Sudangrass into poor stands of perennial pastures as an effort to boost forage productivity. IBC will host a field day to present current findings on Sept. 12 at the Kirkwood Community College’s Tippie Beef Center in Cedar Rapids.

“This field day will feature research plots where Sudangrass was interseeded into calving paddocks this spring," said Iowa Beef Center program specialist Beth Reynolds. "This is the second year of a three-year project, and the results will be shared with attendees.”

In addition to growing additional forage, the Sudangrass can capture valuable nutrients that are more prone to runoff in areas with a greater proportion of bare ground

“Some growth was realized by this warm season annual during the significant drought in 2023, and this growing season has seen significantly more growth," Reynolds said. "Weed control, specifically strategies to eliminate Canada thistle in overgrazed spring feeding areas, will also be discussed.”

The Tippie Beef Center is located at at 801 76th Ave. Drive SW, Cedar Rapids, where the program will run from 1-3 p.m.

This research is funded by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship's State Soil Conservation and Water Quality Committee with the objectives of demonstrating the viability of interseeding Sudangrass into existing perennial pasture in the Iowa climate and the impact interseeding a summer annual has on the perennial stand.

After being grazed hard in the spring, the plot areas were interseeded without fertilizer inputs. Plots are then grazed when the forage quantity is adequate. Forage samples are collected before each grazing period to track yields of the summer annual, perennial pasture grass, and weeds. Fall soil samples are taken as well to track changes.