“We manage it as best we can.” That’s the typical response I get from livestock producers, beef or dairy, when I ask them about bloat issues from their pure or nearly pure legume pastures, espe...

The all-hay and alfalfa hay price averages both moved significantly higher during April based on USDA’s most recent Agricultural Prices report released last week. The all-hay price hit $162 per ton...

Every farmer has done “it.” That “it” is to walk a new forage seeding field that just never developed. There is nothing more disheartening than a newly seeded hayfield or pasture that for one...

Rain is both a blessing and a curse to the haymaker. On the one hand, water in the form of rainfall or irrigation is needed to maximize yields and perhaps even quality. However, an untimely rain that delays a harvest or, even worse, falls on cut forage can kill any chances of harvesting a high-yielding, high-quality crop.Whenever visiting a farm, one of the questions I routinely ask is “What’s your biggest challenge producing hay?” You would think the answer would...

Consumer sales and profits generally spike dramatically during the last two months of the year as the Christmas season is accompanied by a flurry of gift buying and giving — for better or worse. Acco...

If you’re one of those hay producers who has stuck it out through a period of lower prices, take heed because times are changing. On the heels of USDA’s Prospective Plantings report that predicts...

“Do you want to fly with me and check out the crops?” That was the question I got more than 25 years ago from a fertilizer dealer in my county who also had his pilot’s license. I had never flow...

There are some people you meet in life whom you’ll never forget, nor do you ever want to. For me, count Ted and Patsy Hughes in that category...

Herbert Hoover received plenty of accolades prior to his presidency for a wide range of humanitarian efforts. He was overwhelmingly elected as our 31st president in 1928...

Webster defines the word unique as “being without a like or equal.” I wasn’t searching for unique when I first called Mike Stefan last fall; I was just looking for a commercial hay farm to visit...