Impacts of Grazing Cover Crops On Following Row Crops in a Sod Based Rotation.

Sod based rotations have shown to enhance yield, economics, and environmental quality when used in rotation with row crops.  Cattle are a natural part of any system that has forages whether winter annuals or perennial grasses and have been shown to increase the profitability of farming systems.  However, little is known about the impacts of grazing winter annuals or perennial grasses on the following row crops.  This study evaluated the impacts of grazing cattle on following row crops through use of exclusion cages on a farm scale farm system.  Cattle tended to compact the surface 6 cm of soil and recycle nutrients which had a positive impact on cotton yields and little or no impact on the following peanut crop.  Overall impacts of perennial grass on following row crops have been very positive and cattle can be a very important part of the system to increase profitability.