“We are very different than most other places in the United States.”That was the assessment of Jerry Cherney, a forage specialist and researcher with Cornell University, as he addressed hay

Farmers and ranchers have a reputation of always talking and complaining about current weather conditions in the same way that police officers get hung with the notoriety of consuming donuts like they

Orchardgrass is grown widely across the United States where adequate moisture and moderate temperatures exist. Though not the most winter hardy, orchardgrass has for years been a staple pasture and ha

“If it’s marketed as reduced lignin, that means there must be something good about less lignin ... right?” asked Mark Sulc, as he addressed attendees at Michigan State’s Ag Innovation

A growing trend of obesity and associated metabolic disorders are raising the horse industry’s need for alternative forage sources

According to USDA’s 2014 Census of Agriculture, 97 percent of the 2.1 million farms in the United States are family owned and operated. Unfortunately, the trend for the last few years ha

It seems that 2017 has brought more discussion about whether a beef cattle operation should buy or bale hay than what I recall seeing in the past. The beauty of such a discussion is that there is no c

The push to improve alfalfa forage quality through lowering lignin content and, more importantly, improving fiber digestibility is in full-throttle mode. You’d have to be living under a rock to thin

One of the constants in the forage world seems to be the love-hate relationship that practicing agriculturalists have with haymaking

In many parts of the United States, alfalfa is cut three to five times per year for three to five years; then the stand begins to lose productivity and it is rotated to another crop.Research has shown

The rake, generally speaking, is the piece of forage-making equipment that probably suffers from the biggest inferiority complex

One of the long-standing topics of debate in the forage world is whether it is advantageous to cut in the morning or during late afternoon. People still hang their hat on one side of this argument or

I’ve come to the conclusion that no forage species offers more complexities and mind-boggling management alternatives than toxic tall fescue. It is both a gift from God and at the same time a curse

With a growing need for alfalfa, the Peoples Republic of China aims to significantly ramp up domestic production, according to a recent GAIN Report published by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service

I’ll admit it — for many years my eyes glossed right over the ash content of a forage sample. That’s not the case anymore.Ash content in harvested forages can have a significant role

It’s usually a no-win deal. The hay is ready to cut ... perhaps past ready ... but there’s a chance of rain over the next few days. So, do you cut and take a chance on the crop getting washed?

After the speaker spent the better part of 45 minutes discussing the virtues of high forage fiber digestibility, he opened the floor up for questions. First out of the chute came this question in the

Harvesting hay from the road right-of-way is a common practice in many parts of the United States. While the phrase “It’s better than feeding snowballs” is often associated with road

Never, ever complain or worry about a dry late winter and early spring.We’ve probably all done this and perhaps still do, but more often than not Mother Nature evens the score in May and June

These articles cover alfalfa variety breeding and characterization, the progression from breeder seed through foundation to commercial seed, some basics of alfalfa seed growing and cleaning, and seed purity