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Photo Highlights Of The 30th Kentucky Alfalfa Conference, Kentucky Alfalfa Conference

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

No abstract provided.

How We Produce & Market Alfalfa Hay, Clayton Geralds

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

No abstract provided.

Growing Alfalfa For Wildlife, Don Ball

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa has long been recognized as a superb forage crop, which is why it is widely grown for dairy cattle, horses, sheep, and many other types of domesticated forage-consuming animals. Reasons for its popularity include wide adaptation, excellent nutritive value, good yield potential, perennial growth habit, a long growing season, and the fact that (in association with Rhizobium bacteria) it is a nitrogen-fixing legume that does not require periodic applications of nitrogen fertilizer.

Alfalfa Varieties For The Future, Joe Bouton

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

When breeding tomorrow’s alfalfa varieties, most groups employ a model of combining traditional plant breeding with biotechnology tools in order to incorporate useful traits. In this model, the conventional variety development process will be the method of choice for most traits where breeders have traditionally made progress such as adaptation, heading date, disease and insect resistance, general persistence conditions such as grazing and traffic tolerance, and even yield. It has been very successful in adding economic value to the forage and livestock operations of many producers (Bouton 2007). These traditionally developed varieties will also be used as the germplasm platform …

Do's And Don'ts In Grazing Alfalfa, Ken Johnson

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

I want to discuss some of the issues in a talk I presented nearly twenty years ago. At that point we had been grazing Alfalfa about eight years and made some general remarks about the concerns I had at the time. I will look at these as presented then and how the thoughts may have changed.

Is There A Benefit To Alfalfa Balage?, Gary Bates

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Making hay in the mid-South has always been a difficult process. High humidity and rainfall often make drying a long, tedious, if not impossible proposition. Over the last few years there has been an increased interest in making round bale silage, or balage, from forage crops. Fermenting alfalfa for storage has several advantages and disadvantages over regular haymaking systems.

Alfalfa Hay For Horses, Robert Coleman

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

When horse owners consider hay for their animals, a number of criteria are generally considered. Of major importance is the hay must be free of mold and dust. It needs to contain nutrients needed by the horse and it must be palatable. If these criteria are met, the type of hay should not matter. However, that is not the case with many horse owners. When discussing the selection of hay, many owners first consider the type of hay. Can it be alfalfa or should it be a grass or how about a mix of grass and a legume. If a …

Value Of Alfalfa In Rotation, S. Ray Smith

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

There are about 23 million acres of alfalfa in the US. Alfalfa plus other hay is the most valuable crop in the US, behind only corn and soybeans. In Kentucky alfalfa is planted on over 300,000 acres and is an economically important crop for beef and dairy farmers, cash hay producers, and provides tremendous benefits for subsequent crops. There are also many non-agricultural benefits to alfalfa.

Advances In Alfalfa Seed Coatings, Bill Talley

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

The volume of alfalfa being sold as coated seed has been in the growth mode for several years. This growth is being fueled by greater acceptance from the producer, as well as the many value added components that are now labeled and being offered as seed treatments. Originally seed coatings were looked at as a better way to deliver rhizobia to insure plant nodulation. This is still one goal, but many more value added components are now labeled that offer better plant protection, increased water absorption, enhanced germination, and micro-nutrient availability, as well as insect and parasite control. Another area …

Kentucky Alfalfa Conference Reflections After 30 Years, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

This event today marks the 30th consecutive year we have come together for a full day’s conference featuring "Alfalfa - Queen of the Forages" as the theme and focal point. Only one other state (California) in the U.S. has such an annual event.

Foreword And Recipients Of Kentucky Alfalfa Awards [2010], Garry D. Lacefield, Christi L. Forsythe

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Low And High- Kinetic Energy Wetting On Quality Of Sediment Produced By Interrill Erosion, Eduardo Abel Rienzi

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Raindrop kinetic energy and sheet flow can disintegrate aggregates during interrill erosion, a process responsible for non point source pollution. Also, the dissolution process during aggregate wetting can affect interrill erosion. These factors can be responsible for changes in particle size distribution in the sediment, especially when different tillage systems are compared. The effect of soil tillage and management on soil properties is not uniform, which determine a wide range of runoff and sediment delivery rate. Variety in these rates can be associated with pore functions and their interactions with aggregate stability. One of the objectives of this study was …

Effects Of Livestock Antibiotics On Nitrification, Denitrification, And Microbial Community Compositon In Soils Along A Topographic Gradient, Sagarika Banerjee

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Several types of antibiotics (roxarsone, virginiamycin, and bacitracin) are widely included in poultry feed to improve animal growth yields. Most of the antibiotics are excreted in manure which is subsequently applied to soils. One concern with this practice is that antibiotics may affect several microbially-mediated nutrient cycling reactions in soils that influence crop productivity and water quality. The main objectives of this study were to determine the effects of livestock antibiotics on nitrification, denitrification, and microbial community composition in soils along a topographic gradient. These objectives were addressed in a series of lab experiments by monitoring changes in inorganic N …

Chromium, Copper, And Arsenic Concentration And Speciation In Soil Adjacent To Chromated Copper Arsenate (Cca) Treated Lumber Along A Topohydrosequence, Donald Roy Schwer Iii

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Arsenic (As), Chromium (Cr), and Copper (Cu) are ubiquitous in soils as a result of anthropogenic and geogenic processes. The fate of As, Cr, and Cu in the environment is largely governed by their speciation, which is influenced by soil physiochemical properties. This study investigated the influence of soil physiochemical properties and landscape position on As, Cr, and Cu concentration and speciation in soils adjacent to Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA) treated lumber fence posts. Concentration gradients showed elevated total As and Cu adjacent to the three fence posts, which decreased with increasing distance from the posts. In addition, As and …

Soil- And Groundwater-Quality Data For An Abandoned Cattle And Hog Feedlot In Henderson County, Kentucky, E. Glynn Beck, James S. Dinger, Eugenia Pena-Yewtukhiw, John H. Grove

Information Circular--KGS

Groundwater samples collected from a livestock well in southwestern Henderson County, Ky., contained nitrate-N concentrations greater than 20 mg/L, two times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant level. The well is located in an abandoned cattle and hog feedlot. The feedlot is located in an upland bedrock setting with Pleistocene loess overlying Pennsylvanian bedrock. One hundred twenty-one soil cores were collected to better define the areal extent of organic-rich soil believed to be the source of the elevated nitrate-N in the groundwater. Cores were collected on 25-ft centers to a depth of 4 ft below the land surface. Soil …

Assessment Of Row Crop, Alfalfa, And Pasture Field Practices On Groundwater Quality In An Upland Bedrock Setting, Henderson County, Kentucky: Report Of Soil- And Water-Quality Data, E. Glynn Beck, James S. Dinger, John H. Grove, Eugenia Pena-Yewtukhiw

Information Circular--KGS

An assessment of how present agricultural practices have influenced shallow groundwater and soil quality was conducted on a 540-acre farm in north-central Henderson County. Groundwater- and soil-quality data were collected from row crop (corn and soybean), alfalfa, and pasture fields. In addition to the field settings, groundwater and soil data were collected from the existing farmyard and an abandoned feedlot. Groundwater samples were analyzed for pH, specific conductance, temperature, oxidation-reduction potential, metals, anions, nutrients, herbicides, and various isotopes. Soil samples were analyzed for pH, bioavailable phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, organic matter, total nitrogen, and inorganic nitrogen (nitrate-N). Soil- and …

Soil Water And Crop Growth Processes In A Farmer's Field, Susmitha Surendran Nambuthiri

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The study was aimed to provide information on local biomass development during crop growth using ground based optical sensors and to incorporate the local crop status to a crop growth simulation model to improve understanding on inherent variability of crop field. The experiment was conducted in a farmer’s field located near Princeton in Caldwell County, Western Kentucky. Data collection on soil, crop and weather variables was carried out in the farm from 2006 December to 2008 October. During this period corn (Zea mays L.) and winter wheat (Triticum sp) were grown in the field. A 450 m …

Characterization Of Soil Carbon Stabilization In Long-Term Row-Cropped Agro-Ecosystems, Soraya Patricia Alvarado-Ochoa

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Soil organic matter (SOM) is a dynamic soil property, sensitive and responsive to many factors. The possibility of increasing soil carbon (C) sequestration by changing land use and management practices has been of great interest recently due to concerns with global changes in the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) balance. Nonetheless, as a result of the complex dynamics of SOM, there is still the need for SOM characterization procedures capable of monitoring SOM stabilization, taking into account all the factors involved.

This study characterized SOM stabilization as affected by management practices in three long-term field experiments, considering physical, chemical …