FRANKFORT, Ky. (Nov. 10, 2025) — When heat turns bluegrass brown, Â鶹ֱ˛Ą goes where the grass is growing. Recently, a Kentucky State team traveled to Headland, Ala., worked with Auburn University’s Wiregrass Research and Extension Center to cut and bale summer annual hay, and hauled the fresh harvest back for the year ahead.

The hay now sits at Kentucky State’s Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm, where it will support an applied feeding study and supplement University herds. The study will look deeper into utilizing conserved summer annual forages as a high-quality feed source for cattle. In addition to strong nutritive quality, these forages can be especially valuable during winter feeding, when fescue growth is low and supplemental feed is costly.

Annual forages harvested for this study include Mojo crabgrass, Tifleaf 3 hybrid pearl millet, and Sweet Six BMR sorghum-sudangrass from Caudill Seed, as well as a novel variety known as prussic acid-free sorghum-sudangrass (SP4409 PF) from S&W Seed. Early field observations suggest strong yield potential and adequate quality for late-gestation diets, though more formal results will follow as part of the Benson Farm trial.

Producers across Kentucky and the Southeast know the “summer slump,” when cool-season pastures slow down and animal performance can slip. “Warm-season annuals can bridge that gap,” said Dr. Abbigail Hines, assistant professor of animal science. “We’re focused on solutions that are productive, farm-ready, and safe.”

Based in Hines’ Livestock x Forage Nutrition Research Lab, this applied work is part of the multi-institutional initiative “Enhancing Marginalized Ruminant Production Systems through Annual Cover Crop Forages in the Southeastern U.S.” with Auburn University, S&W Seed, and Caudill Seed. It advances the land-grant mission to deliver practical tools for producers.

Because some summer annual crops, like sorghum-based varieties, can develop natural toxic compounds after drought or plant stress, continuous grazing can be risky. Practical steps like routine forage testing and turning cattle in at the right growth stage are important. Evaluating novel forages, such as the prussic acid-free sorghum-sudangrass option, can reduce those concerns and offer a safer, high-quality, high-yielding forage for livestock producers.

Collaboration was key from the start.

For Kentucky State, William Rogers handled the haul and logistics, and Michael Wilson, beef herd manager, prepared fields and set the pilot grazing. Deborah Lancaster, executive assistant to the dean in the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources and an equine expert, also evaluated the hay for horse use. Student researchers working alongside faculty include undergraduate Jacob Wells, and graduate students Rosemary Ewetade, Ibukunoluwa Salako, and Elizabeth Workman.

Partners from Auburn include Dr. W. Brandon Smith, assistant professor of ruminant nutrition and forage systems, along with the Wiregrass Research and Extension Center farm staff, who assisted with plot planning and management, harvest timing, and load-out, helping keep the work moving smoothly start to finish.