It was an easy sell . . . well . . . kind of. As an extension agent in one of the biggest dairy counties in Wisconsin, the large majority of farmers I worked with had corn-alfalfa rotations with

Greg Halich is an economist by trade. He puts together full and partial budgets on everything from corn to hay and spends time in the classroom molding younger minds about the intricacies of futures a

Now that mowers and balers are safely tucked away in machine sheds, and the focus shifts to marketing and selling the summer’s bounty. Hay marketing is a business that is built on trust and hon

Forage seed production in 2021 has experienced unprecedented challenges with virtually no popular species spared

Should I go for maximum yield or maximum quality? For generations, alfalfa growers have wrestled with this quandary

Alfalfa’s high yields and forage quality make it a premier forage worldwide. If anything about alfalfa could be improved, most growers would want to extend stand longevity

“One of the major factors negatively impacting harvested alfalfa forage quality is leaf loss,” asserted David Weakley, director of forage research nutrition for Forage Genetics Internatinoal

As the final days of August tick away, there is the realization that alfalfa plants will soon begin to downshift

In the April/May 2021 issue of Hay & Forage Grower, I wrote an article titled “How hay became a four-letter word.”

Plastics net wrap is a common binding material for large round hay bales, but it can present health challenges for cattle due to buildup in the rumen

How often have you harvested a beautiful field of alfalfa or a newly established stand of a high-quality variety of alfalfa, only to find out later that the lab test results were only average?

Forage producers differ greatly in their tolerance for weeds that invade hayfields or pastures. In the West, where hay is often grown for retail or export, there is nearly zero tolerance

It’s well known that the growing environment can impact the quality of forage. Cool temperatures generally are favorable for improving fiber digestibility, hot temperatures will speed plant maturity

One of the rituals here at the W.D. Hoard & Sons Company is that the editors of each magazine proof copy from all the other magazines. This being the case, I read a lot of articles on the care of

Measuring forage yield has never been easy, at least compared to weighing grain crops off the combine. During my university extension days, I spent many years dragging around heavy pad scales, one per

Although growers in the West and the South are well underway with this year’s alfalfa harvest, those in the Northern half of the U.S. are still greasing their mowers

The U.S. haymow is about 12% emptier today than it was one year ago.Based on USDA’s Crop Production report released last week, May 1 hay stocks dropped by almost 2.5 million tons

Hay harvesting and feeding strategies are as variable as the weather that often dictates them

Although the popularity of game shows on television has never been higher, rarely do you hear questions that pertain to agriculture. One might argue that there needs to be a game show with

The rising value of protein over the last 10 months should cause dairy producers and dairy nutritionists to reconsider the value of alfalfa hay and silage in dairy rations