I wonder what Ed Nolt is thinking these days. Many people argue that the small square bale is all but a history lesson . . . but is it?Nolt, a Pennsylvania Dutchman, invented the prototype for t
Heard about reduced lignin alfalfa? Wondered if it can play a role on your farm? Redesigned to increase digestibility by 12-15 percent, HarvXtra™ alfalfa with Roundup Ready® Technology allows
Alfalfa enhanced with the transgenic, reduced-lignin trait being marketed as HarvXtra was made available in limited supplies for spring 2016 planting. In 2017, at least 10 seed marketers will offer Ha
The thought of alfalfa being traded on the futures market is a concept that probably scares a lot of hay growers and marketers. After all, supply, demand, quality, and good old-fashioned one-on-one ne
Cutting alfalfa after temperatures have reached the point that regrowth will no longer occur makes for a different discussion than cutting during the period of four to six weeks before first frost. In
With the opening weekend of the college football season now behind us, alfalfa breaks out a new game plan of its own — one of conservative offense and a tough defense.As temperatures cool, alf
In virtually all walks of life, we’ve become a society that wants information and wants it now. Waiting is often an option only if there are no other alternatives. Farmers are no different.Last fall
That was the response I got not too long ago as I called to confirm a morning farm visit.The hay grower had cut early to capture the quality premiums that go along with Supreme quality hay in today’
“When the last bale comes off the field, the fertilizer truck is loaded and ready to roll,” said Clayton Geralds, a Munfordville, Ky., farmer who bales nearly 150,000 small square bales per
Perhaps nothing in the forage production cycle is more aggravating, disheartening, disappointing, or sometimes frightening than a new forage seeding that just never develops. At worst, it means an ent
In a recent study, where we sampled alfalfa that was standing, after mowing, after raking, and in the chopper wagon or bale, 71 percent of the change in forage quality was related to leaf content
Applying manure immediately after alfalfa harvest opens up windows of time for manure application not available with most annual crops, and it expands the acreage base for nutrient management pl
Upon reading the title, your thoughts probably first moved to something along the lines of “You’re not kidding; it always rains right about the time I get the chopper (or baler) grease
A dearth of public dollars to support alfalfa research was the emphasis behind the National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance (NAFA) instituting a new alfalfa checkoff program
The author is an assistant professor in the department of biology at Utah State University. Alfalfa stem nematodes are not new pests to alfalfa but the problems associated with their presen
Alfalfa growers would not be happy to see a field riddled with large diseased areas as in the accompanying image. But, who would have ever imagined that a military surveillance tool
Many do not understand what fall dormancy really is and its value to alfalfa growers. Fall dormancy is the ability of alfalfa to grow tall in the fall. It is measured by determining plant
The beauty and curse of a biological system is that we always play the averages and probabilities because very few things happen 100 percent of the time. For any given question there are
For those in areas of the country where winter actually exists — real snow with drivable lakes — you’ve been looking at brown or white alfalfa fields for several months. All of that is
