Sept. 17, 2019
Wherever I traveled this summer, a common theme was that the spring and early summer were extremely wet. This caused problems getting any high-quality hay made, but it also was problematic from the st...


Sept. 10, 2019
After working and agonizing to keep alfalfa stands productive for multiple years, producers know the time will come when all fields must be terminated in a Rambo-like manner. The term “p...


Sept. 6, 2019
If corn is king, then alfalfa is the queen of forages. Corn silage and alfalfa complement one another well in forage cropping systems for dairy/livestock systems...


Sept. 5, 2019
Along with reduced irrigation water supplies, soil salinity is a major problem facing irrigated agriculture in the western United States, particularly as we confront a warming climate...


Sept. 5, 2019
If you drive through any agriculture-based town and stop into the local coffee shop, I can almost guarantee that there will be at least four or five conversations about the weather...


Aug. 6, 2019
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 9, 2019
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 18, 2019
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...


June 11, 2019
It was nearly 10 years ago when I attended an agronomy field day in Arlington, Wis., and heard John Grabber speak about some initial research he was doing that entailed establishing alfalfa under sila...


May 22, 2019
Working closely with growers the past 10 years, I too often recognized that high-quality forage didn’t materialize with a traditional harvest approach...