Reflecting on another drought year may put a fire under some farmers’ seats to be more proactive about forage availability next season. Adding warm-season grasses into hay and grazing systems might...
In regions where wheat fields dominate the agricultural landscape, farmers often use fall and spring growth as a source of forage — weather permitting. What seemed like a questionable year to use wh...
Who can forget those old Miller Lite beer commercials when a variety of celebrities were enlisted to tout the product as either tasting great or being less filling? Of course, in the eyes of the Mille...
The offseason is planning season, which includes preparing for pasture and hayfield improvements. In this case, a good plan will justify why, how, and when stand maintenance is required, as well a bud...
In every edition of eHay Weekly, we offer examples of market prices for alfalfa and grass hay from selected state USDA reports. Those reports are also used to complete the Market Update column toward...
I’m a big believer in no Christmas preparations or activities until after Thanksgiving. So, when it was suggested that I hang the Christmas lights on the house last week, my response was a hard “n...
Winter can be a critical growth period for weaned calves that are retained as backgrounders. This stretch of time sets the stage for final animal performance, which may be helped or hindered by the gr...
The first production year for spring-seeded alfalfa typically gets off to a slow start. In some cases, farmers may only get half of the forage yield they would expect from an established stand.This yi...
Alfalfa-killing freezes aren’t what they used to be. In fact, other than perhaps the far Northern reaches of the U.S., alfalfa is barely showing signs of frost damage, if at all. This is unusual giv...
Drought can take an obvious toll on forage supplies, stand condition, and water resources, but the effect it has on electric fences may be less apparent. Less apparent, that is, until livestock escape...