These forages have to be estab-lished annually, which can be costly compared to the alterna-tive option of not doing it. How-ever, because they have a high nutritional value, the cost can be easily offset when compared with the cost of purchased feeds. Addi-tionally, cool-season forages can act as a cover crop which can pre-vent the germination and spread-ing of weed seeds, retention of soil and nutrients as well as (in the case of legumes) fixing nitro-gen into the soil.

Cool-Season Forages Grasses

Annual Ryegrass— is a valuable winter and spring grazing crop for use on flatwoods soils or the heavier sandy loam soils in north-west Florida. Ryegrass may be seeded alone or with a small Continues on page 2...

Some people do not see the benefit of overseeding pas-tures with cool-season forages and choose to feed their live-stock with hay. If you are one of them, maybe it is time to pencil down some numbers and contemplate if you can afford to import preserved forages in hay form or if you are better off financially by planting your pastures in small grains, clovers or cool season grasses.

Weighting the Options Well-managed winter pas-tures can provide forage from November to mid-May, de-pending on the forage combi-nations. Rye will usually pro-vide earlier grazing, regrow better during cold, and pro-duce excellent forage yield. Winter pastures can be great-ly refined and fitted to individ-ual needs.

PREPARING FOR WINTER 1, 2

UPCOMING EVENTS 1

SMALL RUMINANT PRODUCTION CONF

SMALL RUMINANT PRODUCTION CONF

FLYER

1

3

JONAEL BOSQUES UF/IFAS EXTENSION MARION COUNTY SMALL FARMS AGENT 2232 NE JACKSONVILLE ROAD OCALA, FL 34470 EMAIL: JONAEL.BOSQUES@MARIONCOUNTYFL.ORG PHONE: 352-671-8400

Inside this issue:

October, 2014 Volume 3, Issue 8

U F / I F A S E X T E N S I O N M A R I O N C O U N T Y

Preparing for Winter

Upcoming Events:

Click on the underlined links for

more information.

Florida Pomegranate Associa-

tion Meeting and Conference

October 10

Lake Alfred, FL

Invasive Exotic Species and

Management Workshop

October 23

Gainesville, FL

Fall Tomato School

October 28

Jay, FL

More Events

Marion County UF/IFAS Extension Service invites current and aspiring small ruminant farmers to join livestock agents on Oct. 16 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. for an opportunity to learn best practices for small rumi-nant production. From sheep and goat nutrition to multispecies grazing, the 2014 Small Ruminant Pro-

duction Conference will offer a full day of education on small ruminant topics to current and prospective sheep and goat farm owners. Don’t miss it. Register now by clicking here. For more information, call the UF/IFAS Extension Marion County at 352-671-8400.

Small Ruminant Production Conference

Visit our Facebook page!

Small Farms, Big Business

T his past weekend we experienced the first cool-down of fall.

Soon we will see a cessation in the warm season forage growth due to the reduced day-light. This means that it is time to prepare for winter. Bermuda grass and Bahia grass make up the greatest portion of the perennial warm-season pastures in Florida, but they go dormant in cooler months resulting in a gap in forage production for 4 to 6 months of the year.

No-till drilled ryegrass pasture in Marion County, FL.

grain on a prepared seedbed or overseeded onto perma-nent grass pastures. Seeding ryegrass with a small grain crop lengthens the grazing season. There are early, late and season-long varieties. To learn more about ryegrass click here.

Cereal Grains Rye— is the small grain most widely used for winter graz-ing. Rye is more cold tolerant than oats and generally pro-duces more forage than ei-ther oats or wheat. If rye is planted very early in the sea-son, there may be a de-creased stand caused by vari-ous seedling diseases. To learn more about rye click here. Oat – very palatable, but is susceptible to freeze injury. Oat may be planted and grazed earlier than rye. Hori-zon 201 and RAM LA 99016 are excellent forage types that have improved crown rust resistance, winter hardi-ness, and good grain produc-tion. To learn more about oats click here. Wheat— similar to oat in forage yield and palatability. Wheat is less susceptible to freeze injury than oat. Wheat should not be planted for grazing before October 15, and take caution to plant only Hessian-fly-resistant varieties for grazing. To learn more about wheat click here. Triticale— a cross between wheat and rye. It is well adapted to the southern Unit-ed States and peninsular Flor-ida. Triticale has the forage

quality of wheat and the excel-lent disease resistance of rye. Triticale does not respond well to close grazing and therefore is recommended for haylage or silage if grown alone. If used for grazing, consider blending with ryegrass to promote a longer growing season. To learn more about triticale click here.

Legumes White Clover— usually a win-ter annual but may act as a perennial under optimum soil fertility and moisture condi-tions. It is adapted to moist soils throughout Florida. Pro-duction and persistence of white clover can be limited by nematodes and other pests. To learn more about white clover click here. Red Clover— behaves as a win-ter annual under Florida condi-tions and usually does not re-seed itself. It does not tolerate poorly drained soils. To learn more about red clover click here. Berseem Clover— has low bloat potential and is well adapted to many soil types in Florida, including more alkaline and wet soils. Care should be given to the management of berseem clover when grazed. It is advisable to graze at about 10 inches and leave a 3–4 inch stubble height. To learn more about berseem clover click here. Alfalfa— Alfalfa is usually grown as a winter short-term perennial in Florida. Alfalfa is used for haylage, green chop-ping, or hay. Alfalfa requires

Page 2

Volume 3, Issue 8

“WINTER

PASTURES CAN BE

GREATLY REFINED

AND FITTED TO

INDIVIDUAL

NEEDS”.

good management and high soil fertility. It is not tolerant of flooding or soils with high water tables. Alfalfa is not widely culti-vated in Florida because of the production costs and manage-ment requirements. To learn more about alfalfa click here.

Tillage versus Overseeding There are advantages and disad-vantages to tilling versus over-seeding. Some forages will ger-minate better when tilled while others can be overseeded over a prepared seedbed. If you are contemplating over-seeding cool-season forages into Bahiagrass or Bermudagrass pastures follow the steps found in the Overseeding Winter For-ages on bahiagrass of bermu-dagrass Pastures section of the SS-AGR-43 EDIS publication (click here).

Nutritive value Another factor to consider re-garding cool season forages is

the nutritive value. Cool-season annual grass forages are ex-tremely high in CP (> 25 percent

DM basis) and low in fiber (40 to 49 percent neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and 19 to 29 percent

acid detergent fiber (ADF), DM basis) during the fall and early spring.

For more information on Cool-season forage varieties recom-mended for Florida click here or give us a call at the UF/IFAS Ex-tension Marion County office at 352-671-8400.

Visit our Facebook page!

Preparing for Winter, Continued

Sheep grazing on Berseem clover during the month of March, 2014 in Marion County, FL.

Registration includes materials, lunch, and refreshments.

To register by phone, call 352-671-8400

To register by mail, send form and payment to:

(checks payable to) Marion County EAC

2232 NE Jacksonville Rd • Ocala, FL 34470

Extending our Grazing Season

Safeguarding our On-farm Water

Small Ruminant Enterprise Development

Sheep and Goat Pregnancy Detection

FAMACHA Training

Common Diseases

Internal Parasite Management

Rotational Grazing Strategies

Sheep and Goat Economics and

Marketing

Ration Formulation for Small

Ruminants

Small Ruminant Production Conference—October 16, 2014

Name: ___________________Farm Name: ___________________ Address: ______________________________________________ Phone: _______________________________________________ Email: _______________________________________________

An Equal Opportunity Institution

October 16, 2014 • 9:00 am—5:00 pm UF/IFAS Extension Marion County Office 2232 NE Jacksonville Rd., Ocala, FL 34470 Cost: $25 per person

UF/IFAS Extension Marion County and the Central Florida Livestock Agent’s Group invites you to our third Small Ruminant Production Conference. The program will focus on goat and sheep health, nutrition, production efficiency and management for your herd or flock. The covered topics include: