Resilient Livestock Winter Feeding

Emerging agronomic production methods such as the solar corridor cropping system (SCCS) offer solutions to many critical management concerns of farmers including animal feed cost, which represents by far the largest expenses for livestock producers. The cost of production of winter forage for livestock is tremendous with a large commitment to machinery cost and maintenance. Moving to a year-round grazing system for livestock can help alleviate major financial burdens including machinery costs involved in grain, hay and forage harvesting and storage. Growing grain crops like grain sorghum together with a high-protein summer and fall/winter cover crops (“inter-crops” or “floor crops”) using the SCCS method provides opportunities for livestock producers to develop a high energy and protein grazing system during the fall and winter. The SCCS can also significantly increase soil carbon storage via year-round soil cover, which will significantly improve climate resilience of U.S. farmers. However, adoption of these systems by Missouri farmers more broadly, and by historically underserved producers in particular, remains extremely low to none. The project is designed in partnership with collaborator farmers to develop and promote effective SCCS-based winter-grazing systems that can meet the energy and protein needs of multispecies livestock including ewes, cattle, and hogs.