August 22, 2009
Hay Market Update
Hay Prices Are Mired In Summer Slump
Hay prices are at seasonal lows, having weakened slightly from those reported in May and running well below year-ago levels in most areas. In a few states,...
Features
Roundup Ready Alfalfa EIS Coming Soon
Roundup Ready alfalfa seed could be back on the market in time for spring 2010 seedings, believes Matt Fanta, trait business manager for Forage Genetics International....
Roundup Ready Foe Will Scrutinize USDA Document
The environmental-protection group that filed the lawsuit leading to the injunction against Roundup Ready alfalfa seed sales may or may not try to keep...
Hay Export Optimism
A variety of factors combined to put a clamp on U.S. hay exports earlier this year. But some of the country's leading exporters say better times may be...
Making Alfalfa More Cow-Friendly
Although it's only been in existence for six years, the Consortium for Alfalfa Improvement is steadily making progress in its goal to redesign alfalfa...
Alfalfa On The Rocks
It's just a big pile of ground rocks. But a taconite tailings basin is a good place to grow alfalfa when biosolids from a municipal waste treatment facility...
Studying Switchgrass
Farmers in 21 Tennessee counties hope to figure out how to grow, harvest and market crops, including switchgrass, for bioenergy. They're doing it through...
Quality-Keeping Alfalfa
Reduced-lignin alfalfa can be harvested eight to 10 days later than conventional alfalfa while maintaining its quality. That may mean fewer cuttings per...
Low-Cost Wide Swaths
If more Wisconsin dairy producers would chop alfalfa the same day it's mowed, they'd harvest higher-quality haylage and reduce rain-damage worries, says...
Condition Cool-Weather Haylage Cuttings
Always condition alfalfa that will be put up as dry hay. But when making wide swaths for haylage, choose to condition or not based on temperature and...
Bale Liner is More Than A Baling Band-Aid
About 15 years ago, Leland Driggs was fed up with all the problems inherent in baling square bales breakdowns, knotter issues and broken bales, leaf loss...
Grass-Fed Beef Business Booms
Todd Churchill needs more producers to finish cattle on organic grass pastures so he can meet the burgeoning demand for his premium-priced beef. Sales...
Beef Producer Summer Stockpiling For (Nearly) Year- Round Grazing
Early summer stockpiling is helping Robert Shoemaker, Delaplane, VA, nearly attain his goal of rotationally grazing a 350-head herd of Angus-based crossbreeds...
New Endophytes Will Expand Non-Toxic Fescue Choices
In about two years, livestock producers who want to replace toxic-endophyte-infected tall fescue with non-toxic varieties will have more options to choose...
Oval Alfalfa Yellowing May Signal Aphanomyces
If you find oval yellowing, stunted patches of alfalfa in your fields, you may have aphanomyces, a fungal root rot disease that can reduce yields. What...
Get Replanting Advice From Various Sources
After experiencing a crop failure and determining it's worth planting another crop, growers look for advice. Get it from several sources, including seed...
Custom Bale Conversion Business Caters To Customers
An Elgin, OK, hay marketer hopes to create a kind of fast-food chain for livestock by expanding its sister company appropriately called McHay which converts...
Beef Cows Weaned Into Corn
As forage harvesting costs and feed-grain prices climb, beef producers are faced with some hard feeding choices. Throw drought into the mix and these...
Industry News
Manufacturer Joins Hay Industry
Not everyone views the forage industry with a doom-and-gloom attitude. W.R. Long Inc., a 25-year-old company that manufactures front-end loader attachments,...
AFGC Elects Officers, Names Contest Winners
Miles Kuhn of FFR Cooperative, Lafayette, IN, was named new president of the American Forage and Grassland Council (AFGC) during its June annual meeting...
Ag Engineers Prepare Net-Wrap Standard
A draft standard on net-wrap for round balers is expected to be finished by early 2010, according to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological...
Dairyland Seed Debuts New Alfalfa Hybrid
A new alfalfa hybrid from Dairy-land Seed, West Bend, WI, offers even better yield and persistence than earlier hybrids, say company officials. HybriForce-2400...
Product Preview
Wide-Windrow Pickup
A wide-windrow pickup attachment for John Deere's 3975 pull-type forage harvesters allows for faster drydown, according to its manufacturer, RCI Engineering, Mayville, WI...
Rotary Cutters
The Rhino FR180 (15') and FR120 (10') heavy-duty flexwing rotary cutters are new from the Ag Division of Alamo Group Inc...
Sickle-Bar Mower
Frontier Equipment has introduced the SB3108 sickle-bar mower with a longer cutterbar for increased capacity...
Loaders
The S630 skid-steer and T630 compact track loader, the first models in the new M-Series from Bobcat...
Hay Tarp
The Hay Saver hay tarp, from Inland Tarp & Cover, Inc., fits 4"- to 6"-diameter round bales and comes in a 52" standard length, accommodating eight to nine 6" bales and 12-13 4" bales lined in a row stacked one or two bales high...
Research In Brief
Interseeded Annual Legumes Improve Bermuda Pastures
Interseeding annual legumes into bermudagrass pastures showed good economic potential in a first-year trial at The Noble Foundation, Ardmore, OK. The...
Biomass Alfalfa Can Be Quality Livestock Feed
Alfalfa developed for biomass production makes good livestock feed when harvested at bud stage, say USDA-ARS and University of Minnesota researchers in...
Forage Kochia Excels In Winter Pasture Study
Adding perennial forage kochia to traditional winter pastures significantly increased their productivity in a Utah State University study. Forage kochia...
Most Popular Articles
advertisement
Research in Brief
The following items report on forage-related research recently presented by University experts at meetings across the country.
