Name any Upper Midwest state and there’s a good chance widespread alfalfa winterkill is being discussed.Although no year is a good year to be looking at brown alfalfa fields in the spring, the timin
It’s true. When it comes to alfalfa, the holy grail is to achieve high yields, high quality, and a long stand life. The latter is often called persistence.We’ve talked about these production
The California dairy and alfalfa industries have been a largely successful, symbiotic duo for a very long time. However, the days of spreading alfalfa bales along a bunkline and feeding cows grain mix
John GoeserForages bring a variety of different facets to dairy and beef diets. The physically effective fiber and energy values for forages are often the focal point with nutritionists
What was once a minor curiosity has fully emerged as a major market for western U.S. hay products. Who could imagine a hay crop produced in Bakersfield would feed a cow in Beijing or Buraydah?
What agronomic traits might the perfect alfalfa variety possess? The laundry list could get pretty long and may slightly vary between individuals, but I’m sure “high yielding” would
Experiencing the National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance’s (NAFA) Alfalfa Intensive Training Seminar (AITS) is like “drinking out of a fire hose; there is a lot of information in a short period
Low-lignin forages are a hot topic in agriculture. With high digestibility and improved milk yield, it’s easy to understand why BMR (brown midrib) corn hybrids and reduced-lignin alfalfa varieties
Throughout the United States, a lot of alfalfa is grown with grass. This is sometimes done by design, but other times it occurs unintentionally. In some areas, grass is very well adapted
We have all seen the effects that weathering causes when hay is stored outside. Most of the deterioration is on the outer layer of the bale and particularly where it rests on the soil
Summer and winter alfalfa are different in structure. The change occurs during the process of hardening in the fall to allow the alfalfa plant to survive colder temperatures
As alfalfa producers look to new varieties with the promise of improved fiber digestibility, don’t forget about some of the basics that will allow for full economic returns.That’s the advice
Many years ago, during my extension agent days, I got a phone call from a large dairy producer. The conversation went something like this:DP: “Mike, these seed salesmen are beating me up and I don�
Grass — any grass — is somewhat peculiar in that a specific species or variety likely will perform differently depending on what region or state it is grown in. That was just one of the take-home
Alfalfa has not been a “go to” forage in the South for a long time, but for many forage producers that line of thinking is starting to change. A combination of recent research and extension
As the autumn days grind by, most of the alfalfa decision making is in the rear-view mirror. However, there are two considerations that might still be on the proverbial table for some fields.One of th
With the impending Labor Day weekend nearly upon us, it’s a sure sign that alfalfa’s physiological game plan is about to change in central portions of the United States and points north
There is growing interest in alfalfa-grass mixtures across the northern United States. Grass tends to be considerably higher in neutral detergent fiber digestibility (NDFD) than alfalfa
