It’s no secret that alfalfa fixes significant amounts of nitrogen (N) that benefits a subsequent grass crop and reduces or eliminates the need to purchase N fertilizer. The amount of available

“Accurately measuring pasture forage intake, whether warm or cool-season annuals, remains one of our greatest challenges,” says Nicolas DiLorenzo, beef specialist for the University of Florida

Kay Ledbetter, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications Farmers in the South no longer can take for granted a healthy, productive sorghum crop — even for forage. While researchers and plant

Forage testing is an ever-evolving industry. Whereas early forage testing results might only have had a half dozen tested parameters, today’s test is a plethora of metrics . . . and that’s

Across much of the Wheat Belt it is not uncommon to graze beef cattle on the vegetative growth through winter and then also harvest a grain crop from the same field

The optimum time for frost seeding legumes and grasses into established pastures varies with region, and we’ve reached the point where that time line has started its migration north. Regardles

In an apparent effort to save their own water, Saudi Arabia is buying farmland in the Southwest to grow alfalfa and ship it back to their country's dairies. According to the CNBC report

In last week's USDA Agricultural Prices report, December hay prices held about as firm as firm can get. The all-hay price held steady from November at $142 per ton while alfalfa hay did t

It’s primarily soil or crop limitations that guide the timing of lime application more so than the season. At least that's the way Dennis Beegle, Penn State extension soil scientist, sees it

Whether you grow mixed forage stands in the Northeast, corn silage in the Midwest, bermudagrass in the South, or alfalfa in the West, fertilizer is likely a big part of your crop input ledger

Perhaps nothing has gotten more attention in grazing circles during the past few years than the concept of mob or ultra-high stock density (UHSD) grazing. It’s a management-intensive system th

Hay stocks are as high as they've been for the past 10 years. Still, it's probably not a good enough reason to waste hay. Hay in storage is like money in the bank —

A 12-week feeding trial completed in New York in 2015 compared shredlage and conventionally processed corn silage. The study results were recently reported by Sally Flis, feed and crops support specia

Wheat pastures are widely used to overwinter stocker cattle in the southern U.S. From a mineral perspective, wheat provides marginal to sufficient levels of phosphorus and magnesium and is high

The USDA average November price for alfalfa fell from $156 to $150 per ton. This is the lowest November price since 2010 and was $32 below the November 2014 value

In this day and age there is a tendency to list and/or rank virtually everything (just look at the bottom of many web pages or watch ESPN for five minutes). Such exercises often make for good di

If you weren't able to attend the Western Alfalfa & Forage Symposium held earlier this month in Reno, Nev., over 30 of the presentations are now available on video for web viewing. Proceedi

There are strong opinions on whether grasses should or shouldn't be included when seeding alfalfa. There certainly are advantages and disadvantages regardless of which approach is taken

"Alfalfa is actually a difficult crop to irrigate," noted Steve Orloff, University of California farm adviser for Siskiyou County. At an Alfalfa Irrigation Workshop held prior to the Wes

USDA's November Agricultural Prices report pegged the average U.S. price for all types and quality grades of hay in October at $146 per ton, up $1 per ton from September but $25 per ton