In addition to erosion control, ground cover can enhance soil productivity and sustain water quality. Percentage ground cover is closely related to the amount of biomass produced by forage or row crops. Rapid estimation techniques such as remote sensing would be of value but little information is available regarding their use in pastures. Thus, we compared a remote sensing method (digital imagery) against traditional techniques of estimating ground cover (point quadrat and visual assessment). Methods were tested in four different types of cool-season pastures: Lakota prairie grass (Bromus catharticus Vahl.), Kentucky 31 endophyte-free tall fescue, endophyte infected tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) and Quantum 542 tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb var.). Ground cover and forage biomass estimates were taken weekly. A strong coefficient of determination was observed for digital imagery and point quadrat methods (r2 = 0.80), while for visual assessment and point quadrat the r2 value was 0.48. Initial data indicate that remote sensing using digital imagery can be a useful tool in estimating ground cover and pasture productivity.