Category Archives: Uncategorized

from the Alliance for Grassland Renewal. During December you should be doing a forage inventory and balance to make sure you have enough pasture and hay on hand to make it through the winter.  Predict how many grazing days you have ahead of you and then figure how many days you will have to feedContinue reading “December Timely Tips”

Triple Creek Journal: November, 2024.  This has been a strange year for many of us.  We have experienced both record wet and record dry conditions at some point throughout the region.  At Virgilina we had record wet months in July and September, with very little rain in June and August, and none in October. SinceContinue reading “Triple Creek Journal: If it’s not a flood, it is a drought.”

Winter workshops are now open for registration and spring workshop dates have been set. Please join us for online or in-person educational events focused on managing toxic tall fescue and establishing novel endophyte tall fescue varieties. Date and Location Event Target Audience Link Nov. 19, 2024 Online Agent Training Extension agents, NRCS and SWCD staffContinue reading “Save the Date!”

At this time all Novel Endophyte Tall Fescue should be planted, as recommended by all states in the tall fescue belt.  This year, again due to the dry weather, many farmers delayed past normal planting dates, waiting for moisture. The Alliance for Grassland Renewal recommends holding off on seeding if soil was excessively dry untilContinue reading “Timely Tips: November 2024”

Recommended planting dates for Tall Fescue are generally September 1 to September 30 in northern (colder) regions of the tall fescue belt, and September 15 to October 15 in central and southern regions.  These dates are ideal and give seedlings plenty of time to establish before freezing weather sets in.  In recent years there haveContinue reading “Timely Tips: October 2024”

October 2024 It has been another eventful month at Triple Creek Ranch.  As usual our calves started coming about 10 days before the due date.  We have been managing the cows to gain condition since we weaned the calves in August.  Most of the cows are in a high 5 or 6 body condition, andContinue reading “Triple Creek Journal: From One Extreme to Another”

Sixteen ninety-two was a bad year in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. The previous spring had been warm and rainy, and the main crop of cereal rye had been harvested during the summer and threshed around Thanksgiving. But during the winter of 1692, young girls started to exhibit a strange, convulsive hysteria. The good townspeopleContinue reading “Witches’ Brew”

Woody Lane is a well known consultant, educator and writer living in Oregon.  Woody has been an independent operator for many years, but also did a stint in academia early in his career.  He has extensive experience working as an advisor to several successful pasture discussion groups in Oregon, and he writes for a varietyContinue reading “Book Review:  Capturing Sunlight, Book 1 and 2”

As I have grown older and wiser I realize that my real calling is as an ecologist. I am a nutritionist by training, and my work in graduate school focused on starch and fiber interactions in the diets of beef and dairy cattle fed total mixed rations. Despite the specialization of my training, I neverContinue reading “Find your proper place in the ecology of your pastures”

Many of you know my friend and colleague Deidre Harmon. Deidre’s favorite question is “what is your favorite forage”? You might think that my favorite is tall fescue, but actually for many years my favorite forage has been Dallisgrass. Dallisgrass is a summer perennial grass that is native to Argentina. At one time it wasContinue reading “Triple Creek Journal: Learning to Live with Dallisgrass”