The research and demonstration plots discussed in this publication are a cooperative effort by thirteen Virginia Cooperative Extension Agents and Specialists, numerous producers, local soil and water conservation districts, and many members of the agribusiness community. The fieldwork and printing of this publication is mainly supported by the Virginia Corn Check-Off Fund through the Virginia Corn Board. Anyone who would like a copy should contact their local extension agent, who can request a copy from the Northumberland County Extension office.

The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and some other regions produce more manure nutrients than local crops need. This manure has traditionally been applied to row crops and overapplication has led to soil-test phosphorus (P) being well above agronomic optimum in many cases. In 2008, it was estimated that nutrient-management regulations now require that approximately 85 percent of poultry litter be applied off poultry farms, as they do not have sufficient land to beneficially recycle their manure nutrients. There is a substantial area of nutrient-deficient forage production in the Shenandoah Valley that could benefit from this poultry litter. This publication summarizes two years of field research on fertilizing nutrient-deficient forages with poultry or commercial fertilizer. It also evaluates split versus single annual applications of nutrients and addresses a common misconception that poultry litter contains weed seeds.

Selecting an appropriate, high-yielding variety is one of the most important management decisions that producers make. Yield potential is clearly important, but the decision is complicated by such factors as the cropping system, the need for disease resistance, end-use quality goals, year-to-year climatic variation, and the need to select multiple varieties in order to reduce risk by spreading out flowering and maturity dates.