Earth Sciences Commons^™

Grazing Alfalfa In Tennessee: Experiences And Opportunities, Gary Bates

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Animal agriculture in the southeastern U.S. is based on forages. This area has the advantage over all other sections of the nation in forage production. From Kentucky to south Florida, with a little planning forage can be grown almost 12 months a year. Forage programs in Tennessee and Kentucky are based primarily around cool-season grasses such as tall fescue and orchardgrass. These grasses grow over a long portion of the year. In fact, producers have to deal with excess forage production during the spring and fall (Fig. 1). The quality and quantity of forage during these times of the year …

Grazing Alfalfa In Lincoln County, Dan Grigson

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa grazing is becoming an important practice for our county's large livestock enterprise. Both dairy and beef producers use alfalfa grazing in various parts of their feeding operations. Lincoln County farmers have a reputation for being good forage producers and have over the years produced good yields and good quality alfalfa. Most producers realize that good forage leads to better profits for their livestock enterprises. That's very important to us as the livestock business generates over $21 million in cash receipts annually.

Alfalfa Seed Production In The Western U.S., Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa is the primary forage for the dairy industry in the United States and provides a majority of the nutrients and energy needs for other classes of livestock including beef cattle, horses and sheep.

In order to maximize forage yield, quality and persistence, one should start with high quality seed. Seed must be free of noxious weeds, have a purity higher than 99.5 percent, a germination of 90 percent or higher and true to the variety stated.

Over 80% of the alfalfa seed was grown in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states prior to 1948. This was mostly uncertified, …

Do's And Don'ts Of Alfalfa Round Baled Silage, Michael Collins

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Round baled silage provides an option for outside storage of round bales that protects them from weathering. With shorter field exposure times, silage can dramatically increase forage quality compared with hay. Harvest problems caused by wet weather and/or poor drying conditions during spring and for the freeze-down harvest during autumn could be alleviated by incorporating silage into the harvest system.

Alfalfa Hay: Quality Makes The Difference, Garry D. Lacefield, Jimmy C. Henning

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Alfalfa "Queen of the Forage Crops" is one of the most important forage legumes grown in the U.S. It can be grown over a wide range of soil and climatic conditions, it has the highest yield potential and the highest feeding values of all adapted perennial forage legumes. Alfalfa is a versatile crop which can be used for pasture, hay, silage, green-chop, soil improvements and · human consumption (sprouts, etc.).

A Solution To Some Spring-Seeded Alfalfa Problems, Paul C. Vincelli

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

One of the most important assignments I received when I assumed this position in 1990 was to address the question, "What is the cause of seeding failure when alfalfa is spring-seeded into soils that remain wet after seeding?" Six years of laboratory and field work have finally borne fruit. Based on our research, we can confidently present Kentucky alfalfa producers with three conclusions and a recommendation.

Manure On Alfalfa: Why, When, And How Much?, Monroe Rasnake

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Manure is an excellent source of nutrients for growing crops. Its' value has been recognized for thousands of years. Before the development of chemical fertilizers, it served as the primary source of nutrients. It has decreased in importance as a nutrient source in this century and in some cases has become a disposal problem. This has led many farmers to consider using it on legume crops such as alfalfa that don't need to have nitrogen added, but will utilize it and other . nutrients in relatively large amounts. The first question to be considered, then, is why apply manure to …

Controlling Weeds In New Seedings And Established Stands, Jonathan D. Green

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

The importance of weed control in forage production should not be overlooked, especially when you consider the high investment associated with alfalfa and other legume forages. Weeds may reduce forage yield by competing for water, sunlight and nutrients. For example, yield obtained from the first cutting of alfalfa can be significantly reduced by a heavy infestation of common chickweed. In addition to yield losses, weeds can also lower forage quality, increase the incidence of disease and insect problems, cause premature stand loss, and create harvesting problems. In some cases weeds are unpalatable to livestock or may be poisonous.

What I'Ve Learned From Three Years Of Intensive Experience With No-Till Alfalfa, Jimmy C. Henning, Garry D. Lacefield, Andy Anderson

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Three years ago, a project was begun to better understand the 'hands-on' aspects of no-till establishment of legumes especially alfalfa into fescue sod. Although no-till drills and technology had been around for nearly two decades, farmer feedback on the success of no-till establishment was not uniformly good. The University of Kentucky initiated a program called the 'Establishment Initiative' in partnership with seed companies and Agco-Tye to conduct no-till establishment demonstrations of no-till establishment. These demonstrations focused on getting alfalfa and red clover established into fescue sod which had been suppressed with herbicides. The following are some of the lessons learned.

Foreword [1997], Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

This is the front matter of the proceedings.

How Do Bacteria Move Through Soil?, Mark S. Coyne, J. M. Howell, R. E. Phillips

Soil Science News and Views

The contamination of water supplies by fecal bacteria is an important water quality issue in Kentucky. Contamination may come from point sources, such as straight pipes depositing raw sewage into streams, or nonpoint sources, such as manure runoff from cropland. A direct cost of contaminating water supplies is the expense that homesteads or water companies incur to chlorinate, filter, and otherwise treat water to make it potable. Indirect costs are the time lost to illness from drinking inadequately treated water, slower weight gain in livestock drinking contaminated water, and the degradation of aquatic habitats.

Profitability Of Variable Rate Fertilization On A Kentucky Soil (A Theoretical Analysis), Lloyd W. Murdock, Paula L. Howe

Soil Science News and Views

Grid soil sampling and variable rate fertilizer applications are a part of the precision agriculture movement that has captured the interest of many farmers. Variable rate fertilization requires extra expense and effort plus the use of often unfamiliar technology. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) equipment and computer software are used to outline and grid the field into small manageable units or “cells” (usually 2.5 acres). Each grid cell is soil sampled and tested for pH and available nutrients. Fertilizer recommendations are made on each grid cell and the fertilizer is spread by each grid cell using a truck equipped with GPS …

Detection Of Nitrate-N And Triazine Herbicides In Groundwater And Surface Water Of An Agricultural Watershed In Western Kentucky, John Potts, Larry Reber

Soil Science News and Views

The quality of water in Kentucky's agricultural watersheds has received considerable attention in recent years. The main concerns in com production areas usually center on content of nitrogen (N) from commercial fertilizer and triazines from herbicide applications in water. Although N can be found naturally in Kentucky soils, it can't supply all the N that com needs to produce optimum yields. Therefore, fertilizer N is added to ensure ample nutrition. Triazine herbicides, on the other hand, do not occur naturally in the soil but are applied to the soil to effectively control weeds. Most commonly, these herbicides are applied at …

No Tillage Use For Crop Production In Kentucky Counties In 1996, Gerald R. Haszler, Grant W. Thomas

Soil Science News and Views

Two years ago, we reported the status of notillage adoption in Kentucky counties in the year 1994. Now, CTIC has published the results for 1996. As before, Kentucky leads the nation in percent of crops produced under no tillage, but the percentage has increased significantly. In 1994, 44% of crops were produced under no tillage in Kentucky, whereas in 1996, that figure had reached 51 %. The results for both 1994 and 1996 are shown in Table 1. It is evident that Kentucky has both maintained first place and has also increased its lead over the other states. The percentage …

Filter Strip Length And Fecal Bacteria Trapping From Poultry Waste - An Update, Mark S. Coyne, R. A. Gilfillen, Robert L. Blevins

Soil Science News and Views

Cheap, efficient, and environmentally sound waste disposal will be needed as Kentucky's broiler industry expands. The filter strip length needed to protect water resources from contaminants in surface runoff is a pressing issue in waste management and water quality. In a previous Soil Science News and Views (Vol. 15, No. 8) we reported that grass filter strips as short as 15 feet can trap over 90% of the fecal bacteria eroding from land-applied and incorporated poultry waste during runoff following rainstorms. In this update, we provide some additional information and conclusions from that study on filter strip length, based on …

How Accurate Are Uk's Nitrogen Recommendations For Corn?, Kenneth L. Wells, James E. Dollarhide, David C. Ditsch

Soil Science News and Views

Average corn yields produced on soils with high yield potential have steadily been increasing in Kentucky during the past several years. Yields from such soils in years with adequate amounts of rainfall well distributed over the growing season (May-September) may average 180 to 200 bushels per acre. A bushel of corn with crude protein content of 8 to 9% contains about 1.3 to 1.4% total nitrogen (N) on a dry matter basis. This is about 0.6 to 0.7 lbs total N per bushel of corn (at 15.5% moisture), or 108 to 126 lbs N per acre for a 180 bu/A …

Economics Of Precision Farming: Payoff In The Future, Jess Lowenberg-Beboer

Soil Science News and Views

Precision agriculture is an infant technology. This infant has some of the signs of eventual greatness, but its full capacities will not be evident for some years. Like all infants, it will require an investment of time and resources to help it to maturity. This investment will have some short term payoff, but the main benefits will be in the future.

The purpose of this presentation is to help you manage your adoption of precision farming technology for that future payoff. The specific objectives will be to:review what we have learned about the economics of precision farming, identify future benefits, …

A Deep-To-Shallow Transition In The Fort Payne Formation (Lower Mississippian), Kentucky Highway 61, Cumberland County, Kentucky, David L. Meyer, Paul E. Potter, Jennifer L. Thies, William I. Ausich, Stephen A. Leslie

Map and Chart--KGS

The Fort Payne Formation of the Cumberland Saddle region of south-central Kentucky and north-central Tennessee is part of a vast marine sedimentation system that extended over much of North America during the Early Mississippian Period; broadly similar facies reached from Georgia through Tennessee and Kentucky, into western Illinois and Missouri, and into New Mexico and the northern Rockies (Pryor and Sable, 1974). Throughout North America the Fort Payne and its equivalents overlie a black shale (in Kentucky called the Chattanooga Shale) and underlie thick carbonates (in Kentucky, the Warsaw Formation and younger middle Mississippian limestones).

Six miles south of Burkesville, …

Oil And Gas Map Of The Middlesboro 30 X 60 Minute Quadrangle, Kentucky, Anna E. Watson, Lance G. Morris, Brandon C. Nuttall, Daniel I. Carey

Map and Chart--KGS

The purpose of the oil and gas map series is to portray the distribution of oil and gas resources in a manner useful to the oil and gas industry and to others interested in subsurface research.

Pelletized Lime - How Quickly Does It React, Lloyd W. Murdock

Soil Science News and Views

Pelletized lime is made by granulating finely ground agricultural (ag) lime. It may be dolomitic or calcitic depending on the nature of the original limestone. The fine lime particles are bonded together with lignosulfonates during the pelletizing process. In general, the pelletized lime contains about 9% lignosulfonates. Pelletized limestone is a product that has been on the market for many years. The price of the material on a per ton basis is considerably higher than bulk ag lime, so its use has mainly been confined to specialty markets, with little use in production agriculture. However, the product is becoming more …

Tillage Slows Fecal Bacteria Infiltration Through Soil, Mark S. Coyne, S. W. Mcmurry, E. Perfect

Soil Science News and Views

Bacterial pathogens can degrade ground water quality by infiltrating and eroding from land treated with poultry wastes. The potential for ground water contamination (as well as associated health risks and cost of water treatment) greatly depends on the depth of soil to the water table or bedrock and soil structure. Pathogens must move through the soil profile to contaminate ground water (although sinkholes can provide a direct channel from the soil surface to the water table in karst areas). Deep soils have less potential for contamination than shallow soils. Structureless soils retain fecal bacteria better than well structured soils. Research …

Soil Management For Intensive Grazing, Kenneth L. Wells, Charles T. Dougherty

Soil Science News and Views

Recycling of plant nutrients is of major concern in managing paddocks in pasturefields for intensive grazing. Redistribution of nutrients present in fecal and urine deposits is an important issue in growing climatically and seasonally-adapted forage species and for efficient conversion of herbage into animal products while adding to the sustainability of the system. Some of the questions that arise in managing soils for intensive grazing are discussed below.

Hydrogeology And Ground-Water Monitoring Of Coal-Ash Disposal Sites In A Karst Terrane Near Burnside, South-Central Kentucky, Shelley Minns Hutcheson, Lyle V. A. Sendlein, James S. Dinger, James C. Currens, Arsin M. Sahba

Report of Investigations--KGS

The effects of two coal-ash disposal facilities on ground-water quality at the John Sherman Cooper Power Plant, located in a karst region of south-central Kentucky, were evaluated using dye traces in springs. Springs were used for monitoring rather than wells, because in a karst terrane wells are unlikely to intercept individual conduits.

A closed-out ash pond located over a conduit-flow system discharges to three springs in the upper Salem and Warsaw Formations along Lake Cumberland. Water discharging from these downgradient springs is similar to springs unaffected by ash-disposal facilities and is a calcium-bicarbonate type. No constituent concentrations found in this …

Fresh-Water Aquifer In The Knox Group (Cambrian–Ordovician) Of Central Kentucky, James A. Kipp

Report of Investigations--KGS

Fresh water can be found in Cambrian and Ordovician carbonate rocks of the Knox Group in central Kentucky. The top of the aquifer is as much as 300 ft above mean sea level (m.s.l.) on the crest of the Cincinnati Arch, but descends off the flanks of the arch. Water is normally found in the upper 100 to 250 ft of the Knox, primarily in secondary porosity apparently associated with the unconformity at the top of the unit. Knox wells commonly exceed 750 ft in total depth, but because the aquifer is artesian, water rises to an elevation of about …

Runoff Quality Responses To Cattle-Gazing Strategy And Grassed Buffer Zone Length, Dwayne R. Edwards, Brian T. Larsen, Teng T. Lim

KWRRI Research Reports

Grazed pastures represent a source of potential nonpoint pollution. In comparison to other nonpoint sources (e.g., row-cropped lands), relatively little information exists regarding possible magnitudes of pollution from grazed pasture; how that pollution is affected by weather, soil, management and other variables; and how the pollution can be minimized. The objective of this study was to assess how the quality of runoff from simulated grazed pasture is influenced by grazing duration (4-12 weeks), grazing strategy (no grazing, conventional grazing and rotational grazing), and by the use of grassed buffer strips (ranging in length from O to 18.3 m) installed down-slope …

Vegetative Filter Strip Removal Of Metals In Runoff From Poultry Litter-Amended Fescuegrass Plots, Dwayne R. Edwards, P. A. Moore Jr., Tommy C. Daniel, Puneet Srivastava, D. J. Nichols

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Runoff from land areas amended with poultry (Gallus gallus domesticus) manure can contain elevated concentrations of metals such as Cu, Fe, and Zn. Vegetative filter strips (VFS) can reduce runoff concentrations of animal manure components, but reported studies have typically focused on nutrients and solids rather than metals. This experiment assessed the impact of VFS length (0 to 12 m) on concentrations and mass losses of Cu, Fe, K, Na, Ni, and Zn in runoff from fescuegrass (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) plots (1.5 m wide × 6 and 12 m long) treated with poultry litter. The runoff was produced from simulated …

Modeling Transport Of Colloid-Bound Herbicides And Heavy Metals To Groundwater, Anastasios D. Karathanasis, R. E. Phillips, A. K. Seta

KWRRI Research Reports

Recent studies have suggested that contaminant transport to groundwater may be enhanced by association with colloidal particles. This study evaluated the role of water dispersible colloids with diverse mineralogical composition in co-transporting selected herbicides and heavy metals through intact soil columns. Colloid recovery in the eluents ranged from 45-90% for the herbicides and 10-60% for the heavy metals. The presence of colloids enhanced the transport of atrazine by 2-18%, and metolachlor by 8-30%. The corresponding increase for Cu and Zn was 2-150 and 5-30 times, respectively. For Pb, there was essentially no elution in the absence of colloids, suggesting nearly …

Mapped Karst Ground-Water Basins In The Lexington 30 X 60 Minute Quadrangle, James C. Currens, Joseph A. Ray

Map and Chart--KGS

No abstract provided.

Formulation Enhanced Transport Of A Soil Applied Herbicide, V. P. Evangelou, Louis M. Mcdonald, Sandra Prima

KWRRI Research Reports

Because pesticides are applied as formulated particles and the affinity of the active ingredient for the formulation is higher than for the bulk water, we hypothesized that a formulation complex could affect active ingredient transport. Our objectives were to investigate the nature and extent of surfactant-atrazine-clay/oxide surface interactions. When atrazine and an anionic surfactant were dried onto plain or Fe-coated sand and leached, atrazine concentrations in the initial leachate were lower in the Fe-coated sand treatment. This was likely due to an electrostatic attraction between the sand and surfactant. When a nonionic surfactant was used, atrazine concentration in the initial …

Flash-Flood Monitoring And Modeling In Kentucky, Mark French, Nageshwar Bhaskar, George K. A. Kyiamah

KWRRI Research Reports

This research project focused on the evaluation of hydrologic issue of flash-flooding in the state of Kentucky. The primary objectives of this project were the following:
(1) to initiate the establishment of a hydrologic database archive necessary for characterizing rainfall and runoff associated with flash-flooding;
(2) identification of appropriate modeling approaches for evaluating site-specific flash-flood runoff behavior.

Specific tasks accomplished to meet the objectives include the following:
(1) development of a rainfall and streamflow data archive using existing measurement gages and identification of the rain gage data from two sources for preliminary quality control;
(2) identification of the spatial and …