Most of the forage acres planted in southwest Iowa include one or more of about a dozen well adapted, commonly used grasses and legumes. Several new and new-to-Iowa grasses and legumes have been promoted and marketed in Iowa in recent years. Many of these have been species that might be useful for summer forage, but whose adaptations to Iowa growing conditions are unknown. The objective of the small-plot forage research and demonstrations at the Neely-Kinyon Research Farm in 2000 was to evaluate several recently advertised "summer" forages for performance and persistence in SW Iowa.