Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Day 1: This years meeting was hosted by Glenn Shewmaker from the University of Idaho and was held at the USDA-ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory (NWISRL) located near Kimberly, Idaho. This was the fifth year the meeting was held in conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Forage Workers Group annual meeting and the third year it occurred in the same location as (and just prior to) the Western County Agents Regional Professional Development meeting. Consolidating these meetings saves on travel expenses and leads to better collaboration among those involved in forage research and extension. Dr. Dave Bjorneberg, Director of the NWISRL, gave a brief overview of the station, personnel involved, and their areas of research focus. The station has 4 focus areas: soil nutrient management in irrigated cropping systems, water management aimed at reducing the footprint of irrigated agriculture, reducing air emissions associated with animal feeding operations, and sugar beet genetics and diseases. Glenn Shewmaker gave an overview of the University of Idaho Kimberly Research and Extension Center. This was originally a dry bean research facility, but has branched out into other areas such as corn, potatoes, sugar beets, and forages. Chanda Engel relinquished her role as chairman of the WERA 1014 committee since she moved from Oregon State University to North Dakota State University in 2012. Joe Brummer, former chairman of the committee, stepped in to conduct the meeting this year. He reported that the project is up for reauthorization in 2013 which requires a new proposal to be submitted early in 2013. Jennifer MacAdam agreed to draft a new project proposal with the help of Joe Brummer and Anowar Islam. Anowar was elected to chair the meeting in 2013 as it will be held somewhere in Wyoming in conjunction with the Western County Agents Regional Professional Development meeting. The development of a timothy production manual was discussed by Glenn Shewmaker. This is a project being headed up by Steve Fransen from Washington State University. The different chapters to be included in the manual were discussed and tentative writing assignments were given out. Glenn Shewmaker discussed the professional development training held in Salmon, Idaho in August 2012 for individuals (Extension, NRCS, etc.) involved with forages. There were 30 participants at this training with additional trainings planned in Fort Collins, Colorado (August 21-23, 2013) and west of the Cascades (Salem?) in the spring of 2014. There is the potential to hold a fourth training in western Wyoming, Utah, or Montana in the spring of 2013. This is a Western SARE funded project. At the request of the participants, April Leytem with the ARS gave a brief overview of her work in Idaho evaluating emissions from dairies in the area. She indicated that New Zealand is an excellent source of information on greenhouse gasses associated with dairies, especially NOx. Day 2: The first half of the morning was spent on individual state reports from Oregon  Mylen Bohle, Idaho  Glenn Shewmaker, Washington  Steve Norberg, Utah  Earl Creech and Jennifer MacAdam, Wyoming  Anowar Islam, and Colorado  Joe Brummer. During the second half of the morning, Christi Falen (UI Extension) gave an update on her work with annual forages to extend the grazing season, Amber Moore (UI Soils specialist) presented on cover crops and calculating nitrogen credits, and Steve Hines (UI Extension) gave an overview of results from his corn silage trials. A tour was held in the afternoon where participants visited forage research plots at the UI Kimberly Research and Extension Center. Two types of interseeding drills were demonstrated and participants were able to view and discuss various types of cover crops being grown for forage. The Stolzfus grazing-based dairy was visited later that day along with their associated Clover Leaf Creamery. This was a very interesting overview of a fully integrated small-scale dairy operation. The day ended with a barbeque at the home of Glenn and Bev Shewmaker.

Utah  Jennifer MacAdam is evaluating the impact of birdsfoot trefoil (BFT) on milk quality parameters such as yield, protein, fat, milk urea nitrogen content (MUN), and somatic cell count (SCC) in organic dairy systems. Cows grazing BFT tended to produce more milk with higher protein and fat contents. MUN did not change significantly, but SCC was reduced. She also is looking at steers grazing BFT pastures and measured gains from 2.34 to 3.63 lbs/day. Earl Creech from Utah conducted a feeding study comparing teff versus alfalfa based diets with no significant difference between the 2 forage types. A revision of the Intermountain Planting Guide is currently in the works. Oregon  Mylen Bohle reported that hay fields in Oregon are starting to show potassium (K) deficiencies. He plans on initiating a rate trial on orchardgrass in the spring of 2013 to document yield responses to added K. This is an issue that everyone in the West needs to be aware of as soil K levels continue to decline over time. Washington  Steve Norberg reported that the Latigo label was approved for weed control in teff. He is looking at soybeans for forage but reported that curing can be an issue with large yields (5 tons/ac) and poor drying conditions. He also reported that soybeans appear to suppress the root knot nematode. Idaho  Glenn Shewmaker evaluated light interception by orchardgrass canopies and found that when regrowth increased from 5 to 10 inches, interception of PAR increased by 33%. He also indicated that a 1 meter long light bar was too long to use easily in grazed grass canopies. The University of Idaho Forage Website contains useful tools such as a grazing wedge spreadsheet and calibrations for a Missouri type rising plate meter. Wyoming  Anowar Islam reported that Wyoming has released the first alfalfa variety with brown root rot resistance called Lander. They have also released Laramie annual medic as a potential winter annual with good drought and winterhardiness. This is a good pasture species, especially for sheep. Two varieties of sainfoin have also been released: Shoshone and Delaney. The final legume they have recently released is Forager spring pea. They are continuing to work on pea varieties that have good winterhardiness for Wyomings harsh environment. Colorado  Joe Brummer reported on a nitrogen fertility project looking at yield and quality responses to different types of protected urea fertilizers in a high elevation mountain hay meadow. After 2 years, the best yield response has been to the fall application of Nutrisphere coated urea, especially when applied at the 80 lb/ac rate.