Late summer nitrogen fertilization is a primary factor affecting yield of cool‐season pastures allowed to accumulate herbage for deferred grazing. Attention has been given to the quantity of N applied, but the source of N has not been investigated. This study evaluated the effects of N rate and source on yield and nutritive value of stockpiled tall fescue. Trials were conducted on two farms located near Amelia, VA in 2002 and 2003 and Blackstone, VA in 2004. Six N sources (ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, broiler litter, complete fertilizer, urea, and urea‐ammonium nitrate) were applied at 0, 40, 80, and 120 lb plant available N per acre in mid‐August. Forage was allowed to accumulate until mid‐December. Yield increased linearly with N rate for each N source, but the rate of increase varied from 5 to 13 lb DM/lb of N. Compared to the unfertilized control, yield at the highest N rate was increased 25 to 61% depending on nitrogen source. Ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate were the most effective N sources for stockpiling tall fescue. Urea‐ammonium nitrate produced the lowest yield and would not be a suitable replacement for ammonium nitrate, even when applied at higher rates.

Virginia's growing agritourism industry provides additional income to farms and mitigates risk. This study empirically analyzes the effect of demographic, operational, and financial factors on the profitability of agritourism operations using a primary data set collected from a survey of more than 500 agritourism operations. Results show that greater profitability is associated with operators who are motivated by additional income and have more education, larger operations with a greater percentage of income from agritourism, and visitors who spent more on average. Characteristics having a negative effect on profitability are wineries, locations farther from interstates, and difficulty accessing capital.

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Stockpiled tall fescue can provide economical winter feed for grazing livestock in the mid‐Atlantic of the United States. The effects of N fertilization rate and application timing on the yield of stockpiled tall fescue were evaluated while considering production risk and economic returns. Four N rates ranging from 0 to 120 lb N/acre were applied in mid‐August, mid‐September, or one‐half in mid‐August and one‐half in mid‐September. Accumulated growth was harvested in mid‐December. Yield increased with N fertilization for all seven years of the study. However, the response rate, nature of the response, and optimal timing of N fertilization varied among years and was likely related to rainfall. Regression analysis across years showed that yields from plots fertilized in August or September had linear responses to N rate compared to a quadratic response for the split application. For the moderate N rates (40 and 80 lb N/acre), splitting the N application increased the probability of reaching predetermined yield goals compared to a single application. There was an economic advantage to splitting N applications of less than 80 lb/acre when hay was valued at more than $60 per ton.

Crabgrass (Digitaria species) is a summer annual grass that could provide high quality grazing for ruminant livestock in the mid‐Atlantic region of the United States. However, little is known about managing crabgrass as a forage in this region. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of N fertilizer rate and application timing on the yield of crabgrass. Nine N rates ranging from 0 to 400 lb/acre were applied as a single application at seeding or as a split application, one‐half at seeding and one‐half after the first cutting. Averaged over years, first harvest yield ranged from 800 to 4000 lb/acre and increased as N rate increased with maximum dry matter production occurring at 255 lb of N per acre. Second harvest yield was greatest when N was applied as a split application. This effect was most pronounced with ample rainfall. Total dry matter production, averaged over years, ranged from 3000 to 9000 lb/acre and increased as N rate increased with maximum dry matter production occurring at 305 lb of N per acre. Results support current recommendations for summer annual grasses of applying N at 60 to 80 lb/acre at seeding followed by N at 40 to 60 lb/acre after each harvest and suggest that crabgrass could be managed in a similar manner.