Describing an alfalfa field beyond “It looks good” or “It looks bad” has never been easy...

Reflecting back to fifth-grade science class, you might recall that the Earth rotates on an axis of about 23.5 degrees. We live on a planet that is just a little off kilter, so to speak...

Brian Mumm seeded down more than his usual number of alfalfa acres this year. He didn’t need to because he also raises 3,800 acres of high-value row crops with his father, Paul...

No dairy farm looks the same. The same can be said for their perennial forage fields, most notably those with alfalfa...

The COVID-19 pandemic shut down world economies for extended periods and continues to have a long tail. Ramping back up hasn’t been easy as evidenced by production challenges of goods and services...

Widespread conversion of pasture acres to alfalfa is never going to occur, nor should it. It’s not uncommon to see alfalfa as a component of a pasture mix or, in some cases, a primary grazing species...

Alfalfa has always been a crop that is more than happy to tell you when it’s hurting. There’s the distinctive “hopperburn” from potato leafhoppers, a funky looking “shepherd’s hook...

Let’s be clear on one thing: Corn silage is the primary feed source of the dairy industry...

Many hay balers are also straw balers. Wheat straw makes for a no-brainer second enterprise using all of the same equipment needed for hay, only without the anxiety caused by maturity concerns, rain events, slow dry down, and harvest moisture. Often, there’s no need for windrow manipulation, either. Baling good, clean straw is just fun.Most wheat growers are more than happy to sell their windrowed straw to a willing baler, either because it makes for extra income...

When we talk about clovers for haying or grazing, species such as red clover, white clover, ladino clover, alsike clover, crimson clover, and others come to the immediate forefront...