Location: Livestock, Forage and Pasture Management Research Unit
Project Number: 3070-21500-001-015-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 3, 2024
End Date: May 31, 2028
Objective:
1. Evaluate the impacts of variable weather and different grazing and burning regimes on forage quality and yield in tallgrass prairie.
2. Evaluate the potential of passive and active satellite remote sensing in monitoring hay harvest activities.
Approach:
Daily digital images from Phenocam, hyperspectral images from unmanned aerial systems (UAS), satellite remote sensing data, eddy covariance measurements of water use and carbon gain, and field sampling of biometric measurements, forage quality, and yield data will be integrated to develop forage quality and yield estimating algorithms. The derived algorithms are used to estimate forage quality and yield under different weather conditions and grazing and burning regimes. The effectiveness of various satellite remote sensing data on monitoring hay harvesting and their sensitivity to harvesting time and forage yield will also be evaluated.
