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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.

There are three emerging niche uses for rye of which farmers in the region should be aware.

This fall, we may see an outbreak of armyworms and/or grasshoppers. If you have lush green winter pasture - or any pasture, for that matter - it may be a prime target.

Lime and fertilizer make up a substantial portion of the costs of producing winter pasture. Lime may or may not be needed - only a soil test can tell you for sure. If lime is recommended, its application can pay good dividends.

There are several "classes" of reserve forages that are available for grazing livestock beginning in September and going forward through winter. It is critical to take inventory of forage reserves now to determine what is on hand and what is expected to be produced.

I recently visited with a number of farmers and ranchers who are looking to reduce their input costs while maintaining comparable output. One way to accomplish this is to convert from conventional farming practices to no-till.

Let's say you look at the results from your soil sample and see there is a recommendation for lime. You check around and discover this is going to cost $40-$50 per acre. A normal person would question whether the value received from liming is worth the cost.

In most years, winter pasture would be planted by Sept. 1 and some fields would be turning green at the start of October. However, throughout southern Oklahoma and northern Texas in 2011, this may not be the case because of the drought.

The vast majority of the winter pasture in the Southern Great Plains is wheat. There are many reasons for this, including culture, the opportunity to harvest and sell grain, and government and insurance programs.

As we approach the end of 2011, many soil sample results have considerably higher than average amounts of nitrates, especially in wheat and winter pasture fields.