Integrated crop-livestock systems in the southeastern

Opportunities to integrate crops and livestock are abundant throughout the southeastern USA due to a mild climate and a rich natural resource base that can produce different crops throughout the year. Although not currently common, integration of forage and grazing animals with cropping systems could benefit both production and environmental goals. This report summarizes research from some of the key components that could produce viable integrated crop– livestock production systems: sod-based crop rotation, cover cropping, intercropping, and conservation tillage. Sod-based crop rotations have been effective in breaking pest cycles and restoring soil organic matter, which critically controls a wide diversity of key soil and plant prop-erties and processes. Cover cropping by itself has many agronomic benefits, but its adoption appears to be limited, because of cost without immediate economic benefit. Grazing of cover crops could provide a