A new Purdue University Extension Web site offers growers and livestock producers a place to buy and sell forages.
Forage Finder can help them take advantage of what has the potential to be a high-yielding 2012 crop, says Keith Johnson, Extension forage specialist. He notes that Indiana’s forage crops came through the winter in great shape, and, because of warm conditions, pastures are in better shape than normal.
Growers who have extra forage can post it free on Forage Finder so those who need to supplement their feed inventories can find it. “Many Web sites like this give a listing of what’s available from A to Z. But here buyers can select what forages they are really interested in. It also gives buyers the option to search a radius of how far they're willing to travel.”
Buyers also can search for oat, rye, barley and wheat straw.
Search results can be narrowed even further for bale type, price, cut and forage analysis. Listings are automatically deleted after 30 days to keep the information up to date. Sellers can renew their listings if forages haven't sold in 30 days.