Everyone knows crabgrass as a weed; few know it as a valuable summer annual forage.  That view is changing with more and more producers planting and utilizing crabgrass as part of their forage-livestock production systems. There are differences between the weedy type and the cultivated type.  Both are botanically in the genus Digitaria…

Watch a YouTube video about summer annuals and their importance on livestock farms.

At some point, there will be a lapse in the rain and we can all get in the fields and get to the farm work that has been stacking up. Of this long list, there are a few items that are critical for summer annual forage management.

If you have ever been in the row crop or bermudagrass hay business, the name “crabgrass” makes you cringe. This prolific summer annual grass has been rampant across the Southeast for years, showing itself in corn and soybean fields and filling in between fescue and bermudagrass plants in pastures. Its capacity to reseed, “crawl”, survive through…