Managing Winterfed Hay for Fertilizer Value and Minimize Water-Quality Impact

Promote innovative conservation management in livestock grazing operations. This project will provide farmers the information they need to understand the impact of winter feeding strategies on nutrient distribution in their fields. Through a combination of on-farm demonstrations and trials at two University of Missouri Farms we will develop data and educational materials demonstrating the impact of winter feeding strategies on animal behavior, nutrient distribution in pastures, pasture yield, damage to the pasture, and the operations bottom line. The project will compare the traditional static feeder strategy with unrolling hay daily and frequent moving of hay rings.