 Hello, my name is Kevin Sadovic. I'm the Extension Rangeland Management Specialist with North Dakota State University Extension, and I'm the Director of the Central Grasslands Research Extension Center. Today we have the opportunity to talk about cover crops and their value for livestock grazing. Cover crops have been a popular tool that we've seen really grow over the last five to ten years, and it's value for crop land soil health. And so we see these cover crops being incorporated into ways to enhance our soil health, enhance our soil tilth, and water holding capacity. The beauty of the cover crops that we're using today really fit well in terms of livestock grazing because we're typically using a cover crop mix that comprises different forages and different forage types. And so we can look at these cover crops and actually tailor them to fit not only the soil health component, but also look at ways to enhance livestock production or find ways to add value to that crop land towards the livestock production. Now most of our cover crops are used to enhance the biology of the soil and enhance that microbial population. The beauty of adding livestock to that system is you get another biology that the livestock bring to that soil component. So the livestock not only give a feed value, but also add value towards that crop ground in terms of biology for the microbiology population. So today we're going to look at common cover crops that we'll see used in mixes that will fit the soil health question as well as the livestock question. And we look around, I'm standing in a cover crop mix that actually belongs to Dr. Maricel Burdy, and she plants a number of cover crops that look really at livestock grazing. And we also have the chance to look at the soil health. And so there's two common questions that you'll see used for soil health. And one is, do we need to add carbon to that soil profile? Or do we have too much residue on the soil and we need to add nitrogen into that biology to consume some of that tissue or some of that residue? And so I'm standing here today to my left is a sorghum sedan. It's a solid stand of sorghum sedan within a mix that we typically don't see commonly planted. We typically see a mix that's done here. But this is a mix that you'll see heavy in warm season crops designed to add carbon to the soil. And that carbon is used then by the microbial population to break down and look at and add more carbon or organic matter into that profile. The other question is we get a lot is, should we have a lot of residue on the soil? Can we do a mix that takes away some of that top soil residue while still building the soil health below ground and providing feed for livestock? And so to my left here is a common cool season mix that we'll see used that still has a warm season grass in the sorghum sedan here. But you have grass like this is an oat, which is the cool season grass extremely high in fibrous roots that really fits that soil tilt at the top soil. Within here we also see a legume. We almost always put a legume in a mix to give us that nitrogen building capacity. Also these legumes provide great feed for any kind of livestock you're going to graze here. This is a field pea. And then we also see this large broadleaf plant. You'll see the broadleaf is commonly used in a mix to give another different root dynamic and another different feed for these animals. This is just a brassica. This is a turnip and a kale that makes a really nice cool season mix that adds not only value to the soil but provides extremely high quality diet for livestock, not only in terms of nutrition but in terms of palatability. And so you'll see these common mixes used in terms of diversity for our livestock production and our soil microbial population. So when we look at a cover crop mix and when we want to make a mix, we often look at plant diversity. And you say, why do we want a diverse plant mix? And it's commonly used to not only give you different fibrous tissues, different plant species, they enhance the biology and different micro micro fauna that you'll find in the soil. It also makes a really nice opportunity to feed livestock different mixes and different crops that livestock like. And so for us, when we get into these cool season mix like we see in front of me here, this is a high protein diet, high in nitrogen, really enhances the microbial population and really fits the soil health component while feeding the livestock production side of the question. And when we look at cover crops, one of the greatest ways to look at value to a cover crop instantly is using that cover crop for livestock. The common question we get when we add livestock to a cover crop is, do we get an increase in compaction? And the data out of the Northern Plains has consistently shown that livestock grazing in the fall and into the winter does not create compaction on that soil. So as a producer wants to farm that the next year, they don't see a negative effect from that compaction. So from that, we kind of look at those questions. The other thing that the cattle will do is they add a biology. So the manure they bring in, the urine that they deposit, all our fertilizers that help not only the soil microbes in terms of breaking that down and making it available to the crop the next year, it also enhances that biology. What we found was that on our trials at Central Grasslands is that cattle actually enhanced the aggregate stability of our soils. So when you look at your soils and you break them apart, these are called aggregates. And aggregates, the larger the aggregates, the better you have in terms of soil health and tilt. When they get low aggregate stability, you have smaller particles and they basically create almost a resistant layer. So you want these pores for water to not only flow through, but also create areas where you have organic matter. And this creates really healthy soil that not only creates a healthy micro riser, but also creates poor space for holding water. We've seen in many parts of the areas in the last five to 10 years, we have too much water in our soils. And we deal with then flooding or water sitting on our soils in the spring. If you have healthy aggregate stability, how healthy micro riser, you're going to have better water holding capacity and you'll get in the fields quicker with your farming equipment. So this is kind of a quick story on cover crops. I think cover crops are a great alternative for soils, for enhancing your soils. But you can look at your mixes and design your mixes to provide great feed sources for your livestock. And you look at a mix that's really mixture of warm season grasses, cool season grasses, like a small grain. We almost always put a brassica, whether it's a turnip or radish or kale in that mix. We'll see some non brassicas like a sunflower or even a hemp will go in those mixes. And then of course we look at a number of legumes. So when you look at these mixes, I always like to look at costs and drive my decisions based on cost, but still fitting the soils and managing the soils for the future health of those soils.