No dairy farm looks the same. The same can be said for their perennial forage fields, most notably those with alfalfa

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down world economies for extended periods and continues to have a long tail. Ramping back up hasn’t been easy as evidenced by production challenges of goods and services

There are several situations when the ability to seed alfalfa after a killed alfalfa crop might be the desired play. It certainly would be a “go-to” practice for many commercial alfalfa growers

Plant maturity is often cited as the primary driver of forage quality. Make no mistake — it is

I just returned from south central Missouri where repeated heavy rains have left hayfields and pastures in a bog-like condition

Decade ago, genetically modified (GM) alfalfa was commercialized. The occurrence of feral alfalfa populations along roadsides and in natural habitats is widely recognized

One chance per year. That’s all you get. There are no do-overs — no country club mulligans. That one chance refers to the proper timing of making first-cut alfalfa, and given the price of other

It’s been well-documented that alfalfa yields have not improved at the rates seen in other agronomic crops over the past 50 years

Just as roast beef and mashed potatoes make for a natural combination on dinner plates, corn silage and alfalfa are brought together in most lactating dairy cow rations

Perhaps no other issue garners more attention from alfalfa growers than the moisture level of the crop in the windrow

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), are more frequently being used for applying pesticides on farms for crop protection

Companion: noun; one that accompanies, is closely connected, or serves another. Though often associated with a person, in the alfalfa world, companion is typically associated with a cereal grass crops

If it’s true that fiber digestibility has a greater impact on milk production than the digestibility of any other feed component, then the road to greater feed efficiency and higher milk production

For many Western alfalfa growers, rodents fall into a major pest category right along with insects, diseases, and weeds

The current drought in the West has likely had no greater impact on other agricultural entities than on alfalfa, according to Dan Putnam, the longtime extension forage agronomist

Alfalfa growers in the western U.S. are very aware of how important it is to have adequate irrigation water to produce a crop

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

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