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 year a...

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...