Agronomic, Economic, and Environmental Outcomes in Dairy Forage Cropping Systems

Authors: Duff, Alison; FRANCO, JOSE - Savanna Institute; French, Elizabeth; Gamble, Joshua; Kalscheur, Kenneth; Pope, Julia; Rotz, Clarence

Submitted to: American Society of Agronomy Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/27/2026
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Dairy forage cropping systems vary in their input intensity, productivity, forage quality, and impacts on soil health. While annual crops such as corn silage offer nutritive consistency for lactating cattle, high productivity, and the simplicity of a one-cut forage system, they are input intensive and often negatively affect soil properties. Perennial forages tend to be less productive but with greater allocation to belowground biomass, less soil disturbance, and improvements in soil structure and organic matter. Cropping system diversity, including multi-species mixtures within the same growing season and seasonal crop rotations within and across years, has also been shown to improve forage yield stability and soil properties in many agronomic systems. We evaluated dairy forage systems from two experiments, one at the field scale and another at the plot scale, to compare agronomic, economic, and environmental outcomes after 3 years. The field-scale experiment was a comparison of monoculture alfalfa and an alfalfa-meadow fescue biculture, while the plot-scale experiment included monoculture corn silage, alfalfa, and perennial grass in comparison with corn silage with fall cover crops, corn silage intercropped with cover crops, and a more diverse rotation with cover crops following each year of corn silage, winter wheat, and soybeans. Measured outcomes included system profitability, yield, forage nutritive value and utility in dairy diets, and changes in soil organic carbon and soil organic matter.