Projects and Objectives:
Integrated Forage Systems for Food and Energy Production in the Southern Great Plains
- Compare effects of different systems of intensive grazing on plant communities and soil properties of tallgrass prairie, and responses to applied management.
- Develop improved cool-season grasses that utilize water and nutrients efficiently.
- Identify forage species and management practices, including legume crops, that promote efficient resource use and increase year-round forage availability.
- Determine how SP forage-livestock systems interact with plants, soils, and climate with respect to C and N cycling, especially greenhouse gases.
- Define influences of Eastern redcedar on soil conditions of abandoned cropland and develop restoration practices for brushy native prairie.
- Provide decision-support tools for evaluating climatic risks and ecologic and economic outcomes of different production and conservation practices and strategies.
Improving the Efficiency and Sustainability of Diversified Forage-Based Livestock Production Systems
- Compare effects of different systems of intensive grazing on plant communities and soil properties of tallgrass prairie, and responses to applied management.
- Determine how Southern Plains forage-livestock systems interact with plants, soils, and climate with respect to C and N cycling, especially greenhouse gases.
- Evaluate efficient ruminant genotypes, feed intake, and nutrient-use efficiency of cattle fed varying proportions of forage and grain.
- Increase marketing options through methods to produce farm-finished beef.
- Provide decision-support tools for evaluating climatic risks and ecologic and economic outcomes of different production and conservation practices and strategies.