Publications

This publication provides an overview of the use of fire in grassland management. It describes the history and importance of fire in the grassland ecosystem, how plants respond to fire, and the uses and potential benefits of prescribed fire.  It summarizes fire planning and legal and safety considerations and provides guidance on special uses of fire.

In a grazing management plan grazing systems provide a sequential movement of animals among pastures with properly timed grazing and recovery periods within a season. The four major grazing systems used in the Nebraska Sandhills are discussed and seasonal charts are provided for each for various grazing strategies. It includes comparative advantages and management implications of each and illustrations of various systems in regard to stocking density and timing of grazing and effect of timing on grass production. It also includes a glossary of grazing terms and briefly describes other grazing options.

Grazing systems include:

• Continuous grazing
• Short-duration grazing
• Deferred-rotation grazing
• 50 pasture system

Soil samples representative of a field are the best guidelines to determine fertilizer needs. This publication describes proper procedures to collect representative soil samples and includes a diagram on how to sample a furrow-irrigated field.

Topics include:

• Descriptions of sampling approaches for uniform fertilizer application and variable rate fertilizer application, including grid and zone approaches
• Selecting proper sampling depth
• Collecting soil cores
• Soil sampling equipment
• Timing of sampling
• Handling of samples

Harvesting of crop residue can provide a resource for livestock feed and the production of cellulosic biofuel. Learn how to evaluate how much crop residue can be sustainably harvested from your fields based on soil nutrient availability, soil organic matter, water erosion and runoff, wind erosion, soil water availability, and yield.

Topics covered in this four-page NebGuide include:

• Estimated amount of crop residue produced
• Value of removed nutrients
• Soil organic matter
• Water erosion and runoff
• Wind erosion
• Soil water
• Manure application
• Cover crops
• Harvest equipment limitations
• Estimating the amount of crop residue to harvest

The method used to spray a field can affect pest control and potential injury to the targeted crop and adjacent crops. Proper spraying techniques for various situations are outlined and illustrated. A table shows how changing the sprayer speed can affect pressure on sprayers with rate controllers.

Topics include:

• Benefits of using GPS for sprayer guidance
• Spraying fields with rows and without rows
• Spraying field borders and while turning
• Handling irregular shaped fields
• Proper swath overlap
• Field speed
• Reducing drift injury