I just returned from south central Missouri where repeated heavy rains have left hayfields and pastures in a bog-like condition

Decade ago, genetically modified (GM) alfalfa was commercialized. The occurrence of feral alfalfa populations along roadsides and in natural habitats is widely recognized

One chance per year. That’s all you get. There are no do-overs — no country club mulligans. That one chance refers to the proper timing of making first-cut alfalfa, and given the price of other

It’s been well-documented that alfalfa yields have not improved at the rates seen in other agronomic crops over the past 50 years

Just as roast beef and mashed potatoes make for a natural combination on dinner plates, corn silage and alfalfa are brought together in most lactating dairy cow rations

Perhaps no other issue garners more attention from alfalfa growers than the moisture level of the crop in the windrow

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), are more frequently being used for applying pesticides on farms for crop protection

Companion: noun; one that accompanies, is closely connected, or serves another. Though often associated with a person, in the alfalfa world, companion is typically associated with a cereal grass crops

If it’s true that fiber digestibility has a greater impact on milk production than the digestibility of any other feed component, then the road to greater feed efficiency and higher milk production

For many Western alfalfa growers, rodents fall into a major pest category right along with insects, diseases, and weeds

The current drought in the West has likely had no greater impact on other agricultural entities than on alfalfa, according to Dan Putnam, the longtime extension forage agronomist

Alfalfa growers in the western U.S. are very aware of how important it is to have adequate irrigation water to produce a crop

It was an easy sell . . . well . . . kind of. As an extension agent in one of the biggest dairy counties in Wisconsin, the large majority of farmers I worked with had corn-alfalfa rotations with

Should I go for maximum yield or maximum quality? For generations, alfalfa growers have wrestled with this quandary

Alfalfa’s high yields and forage quality make it a premier forage worldwide. If anything about alfalfa could be improved, most growers would want to extend stand longevity

“One of the major factors negatively impacting harvested alfalfa forage quality is leaf loss,” asserted David Weakley, director of forage research nutrition for Forage Genetics Internatinoal

As the final days of August tick away, there is the realization that alfalfa plants will soon begin to downshift

How often have you harvested a beautiful field of alfalfa or a newly established stand of a high-quality variety of alfalfa, only to find out later that the lab test results were only average?

One of the rituals here at the W.D. Hoard & Sons Company is that the editors of each magazine proof copy from all the other magazines. This being the case, I read a lot of articles on the care of

Measuring forage yield has never been easy, at least compared to weighing grain crops off the combine. During my university extension days, I spent many years dragging around heavy pad scales, one per