Forage

All Forage Content

An orange plastic hoop placed around a portion of tall grass on a range to provide a measurement.

You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure: Range Record Keeping

Range record keeping helps detect and demonstrate landscape changes that have a direct impact on your ability to maintain or grow your herd.

oats

Cover Crops

The benefits of planting cover crops are numerous. 

aerial view of South Dakota farm and surrounding land

Crops

During the growing season, SDSU Extension provides weekly production recommendations.

A field of alfalfa.

Forage Variety Trial Results

The 2025 Forage Variety Trial Results include data from different locations in South Dakota.

Yellow toadflax plants flowering in a grassy area beside a field.

Yellow Toadflax Has Begun Producing Seeds: Scout before treating infested areas

Yellow toadflax is a perennial weed that infests pasture and rangeland across South Dakota. This year, with an abundance of heat and moisture, plants flowered in early August and now have started to produce seeds.

Cow grazing on sudangrass.

SDSU Extension welcomes new crop and livestock field specialist

September 12, 2025

South Dakota State University Extension is pleased to welcome Parker Witt as a new Crop and Livestock Field Specialist.

A group of brown cattle foraging in a green field.

Prussic Acid Poisoning

As the first frost date approaches, producers often have concerns about the risk of prussic acid poisoning in livestock. Certain forage plants, especially sorghums and related species are associated with an increased risk of death loss because of prussic acid poisoning.

bales in a field

Forage

SDSU Extension works with forage producers, providing them with access to quick tests, research-based information, and best management practices to help maximize yields and nutritional quality of forages.

Multiple grasshoppers feeding on a corn ear.

Grasshopper Populations Continue to Cause Issues in South Dakota

Recent reports of crop loss along field edges indicate that grasshopper populations in some areas of South Dakota are well above threshold. Unfortunately, crops are often the target of these moving populations.

True armyworm caterpillar on a corn leaf.

Reports of Pyrethroid Failures for True Armyworm Caterpillar Management

True armyworm caterpillars reached thresholds in oats and wheat in many areas of South Dakota recently. Management efforts to reduce populations had varying levels of success, with SDSU Extension receiving numerous reports of pyrethroid insecticide failures.