Legumes are, in general, the highest-quality forages when properly grown and managed. However, in many regions like Oklahoma, their management is difficult. The highest-quality forages that much of the southeastern one-third of the United States can produce on a large scale are the annual grasses.
The quality of generalized forage groups are in order of worst to best as follows:

• legumes
• annual cool-season grasses (wheat, rye, ryegrass, etc.)
• highest quality warm-season annual grasses (crabgrass, etc.)
• other high-quality warm-season annual grasses (sorghum grasses, sudangrasses, millets, etc.)
• cool-season perennial grasses (fescue, orchardgrass, etc.)
• warm-season perennial grasses (native prairie, bermudagrass, Old World bluestems, etc.)

Any of these general ratings can be manipulated by practices such as management inputs and stage of harvest. We can readily see that the warm- and cool-season annuals are among the premier forages because they induce maximum stock performance. They are a bit more expensive to produce and some low-level tillage often is involved. To ensure the likelihood of economic return, we try to target the use of these forages to livestock enterprises that perform as opposed to maintain, such as stockers, weanlings, lactating dairy cattle, and replacement heifers. Many farms in Oklahoma have been paid for wholly or in part by beef production from these forages.

Some forages can be managed to volunteer, mimicking perennials. Some examples are annual ryegrass, annual and perennial bromegrasses such as 'Matua' and 'Stocker', and naturalized rescuegrass, crabgrass, and signalgrass (in the south).

Summer annuals are categorized by two types based on production technique: planted and volunteer. The volunteer forages are the most important because they cost less to produce initially and, once established, can be produced without as much labor, time, and equipment. Annual forages are intended to be only supplements because they are more susceptible to climatic extremes, but from central Oklahoma eastward the climate is more temperate.

The summer annuals include corn, millets (German, Japanese, and pearl types), sorghum grasses, sudangrasses (various forage sorghums and hybrids), and some annual legumes such as cowpeas, soybeans, and lespedeza. All of these require, to some degree, farming procedures involving tillage, chemical fallowing, and planting; minimum tillage is best. These forages fit some forage double-cropping syndromes but are falling into disfavor because of equipment and labor requirements and recurring input expenses.

Double crop or rotate annual forages to achieve the highest quality and increase production length. At The Noble Foundation, research with rye and crabgrass double cropping showed a production increase of about 60 percent when the double crop instead of the single crop was used. Green-season length was increased 45 to 90 percent compared with that of rye or crabgrass alone. The length can vary greatly, depending on how the grazier manages each forage, especially at the end of each season.

• energy (sun, fuel, etc.)
• moisture (precipitation or irrigation)
• fertility (soil fertility or fertilizer)
• time (personal time, labor)
• space (soil, surface, and air)
• finances (land payments, etc.)

In my view, any forage integration or mixtures capture the added benefits of all of the above to some degree.

Table 1 summarizes a year's cycle with crabgrass or another summer annual and a winter annual grass (with or without legumes). The information summarizes some definite management input needs and questions others.