A team of USDA-ARS, West Virginia University and Virginia Tech scientists is developing practices to produce market-ready beef entirely on pasture and forage in the Appalachian Region. The research program is focused on sustainable forage-beef cattle systems, with emphasis on production, economic, and environmental aspects. A recently published paper (Scaglia, G., W. S. Swecker, Jr., J. P. Fontenot, D. Fiske, J. H. Fike, A. O. Abaye, W. Clapham, and J. B. Hall. 2008. Forage Systems for Cow/Calf Production in the Appalachian Region. Journal of Animal Science, 86:2032-2042.) reporting results of collaborative research between Virginia Tech and AFSRC is available.

Photo by N. Wade Snyder