From my travels around the U.S., it has become obvious that orchardgrass is a foundational perennial forage in many livestock systems where adequate moisture (rain or irrigation) and moderate temperat...

August 6, 2019 • The current U.S. Drought Monitor shows only 3.5 percent of the continental U.S. under some level of drought. This compares to 34 percent from one year ago. No area is c...

Driving down a county road recently, I noticed a farmer meticulously placing his newly made round bales side-to-side in a neat row under a tree line. A little farther down the trail, on a differe...

Below are examples of alfalfa and grass prices being paid FOB barn/stack (except for those noted as delivered, which is indicated by a "d" in the table below) for selected states at the end of the d...

Much gets written and discussed about making high-quality alfalfa. In fact, there could be an entire volume of Encyclopedia Britannica dedicated to the topic. If we were to list the factors involved...

July 2, 2019 • Hay acres in the U.S. are projected to be down only slightly in 2019 compared to last year, according to USDA’s Acreage report that was released last week. The decline totale...

If you grow alfalfa, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Aphanomyces root rot. It’s a disease that has dogged me my entire working career and it can take out a new seeding field in fairly shor...

June 4, 2019 • Alfalfa will be included in the next round of government facilitation payments being used to somewhat offset losses incurred by trade war tariffs. At this time, it’s unknown...

The record rainfall that has impacted a wide swath of the U.S. this spring and early summer has resulted in a large number of prevented planted acres. Many grain farmers, and no doubt some dairy and b...

If ever there was a year that prompted the strong desire to disregard alfalfa autotoxicity and write it off as a bad dream, this is it. The problem: It’s not a bad dream. This spring has provided...