On the Ground
The use of easily accessible information to forecast when standing forage may lack nutrients to sustain cattle production could be valuable to the ranching community.
Our study was designed to determine if forage crude protein and acid detergent fiber could be reasonably predicted using precipitation, season, and temperature.
In south Texas, monthly precipitation in the fall accounted for 63% of the variation in crude protein and 73% of the variation in acid detergent fiber.
A better understanding of how forage nutritive value changes over the year can improve strategic supplementation efforts.