The author is an associate professor and a beef systems extension specialist with Kansas State University. Cover crops are a conservation management tool in grain production that are used to enhance soil properties, reduce erosion, control weeds, and play a role in water management. However, there are costs associated with establishment and termination of cover crops, and oftentimes the economic returns are slowly recaptured, if measurable at all. One way to quickly recoup the cost of cover crops is to use them as an annual forage for livestock. Integrating cattle (or other livestock species) into cropping systems offers many benefits to production agriculture, such as diversification, spreading risk, improving the ecological production of crops, and offering positive economic returns.