With a growing need for alfalfa, the Peoples Republic of China aims to significantly ramp up domestic production, according to a recent GAIN Report published by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service a...

I’ll admit it — for many years my eyes glossed right over the ash content of a forage sample. That’s not the case anymore.Ash content in harvested forages can have a significant role in animal p...

Never, ever complain or worry about a dry late winter and early spring.We’ve probably all done this and perhaps still do, but more often than not Mother Nature evens the score in May and June...

These articles cover alfalfa variety breeding and characterization, the progression from breeder seed through foundation to commercial seed, some basics of alfalfa seed growing and cleaning, and seed purity analysis, treatment and packaging operations, and labeling requirements for commercial sale and planting...

The author is the technical service manager for Calibrate Technologies. It’s harvest season and high-quality alfalfa is at the top of your mind...

In prior Hay & Forage Grower articles, we covered alfalfa variety breeding and characterization, the progression from breeder seed through foundation to commercial seed, and some basics of a...

Cows aren’t the only creatures that like to eat alfalfa; count alfalfa weevils in that group as well.Entomologists across the U.S. are either filing reports of already severe alfalfa damage from wee...

Here we go — the start of another growing season. In some areas of the U.S., the initial cutting of alfalfa is underway; for others, it is near, while some are just starting to watch the first signs of growing plants.The initial spring cutting of alfalfa can make or break a harvest season. It’s a fascinating study of how forage quality can change ever so quickly, or how it may change at a tortoise-like pace.Why?No cutting of alfalfa grows under the environmental...

It’s that time of year when some hay, livestock, and dairy producers will seek available hayfields to bolster their own forage supplies.When you sit in an extension office as I did for 27 years, the...

In the two previous issues of Hay & Forage Grower, we discussed the breeding and development of alfalfa cultivars along with seed field production...