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Sericea lespedeza is a native of eastern Asia and can trace its roots in the United States back to 1896, when it was first planted by the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station.

Sericea lespedeza is a deep rooted drought tolerant perennial legume that was introduced in the upper south region of the United States from Japan in the late 1890's. Sericea became important as a low quality forage plant in the 1920's and 1930's when it was used for pasture and erosion control.

In 1997, the Forage Improvement Division was established at the Noble Research Institute. It was challenged to start a program that focused on the development of perennial winter forages that could serve as high-quality, cost-reducing substitutes for annually produced winter forages.

Here at the Noble Research Institute, we take the mission to improve forages and forage systems very seriously. For the benefit of regional ranchers, the ultimate achievement would be to provide a year-round grazing system that could utilize a perennial cool-season grass.

Planting season for winter pasture is rapidly approaching, and, after the lack of rainfall in our geographic region last fall and winter, there will be less cereal rye and wheat seed available this year. Therefore, if you have not located a source of seed for winter pasture, you'd better start now and reserve your needs as soon as possible.

In recent years, grazing-type alfalfa varieties have been released, providing opportunities to livestock operations as a low-input, high-return forage, if managed properly; stands typically could last three to five years with good management.

Be flexible, proactive and have a mindset of year-long forage flow in addition to seasonal grazing.

I've always kind of known that grazing management affects roots, but it was made crystal clear to me this past summer when I was introduced to some work published by F.J. Crider in 1955.

A few of the benefits of sod-seeding small grain winter pasture include providing high quality forage during the winter months, providing additional forage production during the warm-season grass's dormant season and potentially reducing the need for winter supplementation.

In most operations, hay feeding represents a large portion of a cow's annual maintenance cost. The cost of feeding hay includes much more than just the production cost or purchase price of the hay.