Aug. 18 2020 There’s an old saying: “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” It’s usually said of a person who has potential that has never been fulfilled. Perhaps no forage species deserves the...
Aug. 18 2020 It’s always interesting to note the variation between regions and farms in regards to how much plant stalk remains in a field following a corn silage harvest. In California, I’ve seen fields...
Aug. 18 2020 The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) recently announced that emergency haying and grazing will be allowed on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres contingent on the current state of drought sever
Aug. 4 2020 As with planting corn or drying hay, so much of the daily grind of growing and harvesting crops is as much an art as it is a science. Nowhere is this truer than when building a silage pile or packing
Aug. 4 2020 Alfalfa hay price holds in JuneThis year has turned out to be an odd and challenging one in many respects. Apparently, a normal hay market trend is joining the plethora of oddities. Alfalfa
July 28 2020 Back in the day, I would constantly correct people when they referred to a “fall seeding” of alfalfa. Fall is simply too late; more correctly, it was, or at least should be in the North, a...
July 21 2020 Let’s face it: When it comes to making hay, the cutter, baler, and forage harvester get most of the glory and attention. But on many operations, there is also the all-important step of raking.Used...
July 14 2020 Who doesn’t like oats? In 1930, there were nearly 40 million acres of oats harvested for grain in the United States. By contrast, the 2017 Census of Agriculture pegged harvested oat acres at ju
July 7 2020 A couple of weeks ago, my neighbor purchased a new push lawnmower and parked his old lawnmower in the front yard by the road. The old model was both leaking and burning oil. “Somebody wil
June 30 2020 While on a farm visit last week, I found myself wandering around the dairy farm’s feed center with camera in hand. I got about 60 feet away from the center face of a bunker silo full of corn silage
June 23 2020 Some forage topics attract debate as if allowing mail-in election ballots was being discussed. One such example that has been around for a number of years now is whether there’s any compelling reaso
June 16 2020 One of the recurring themes we continue to hear these days is in regards to the high level of division and partisanship that currently exists throughout society. As such, the vast amount of land
June 9 2020 When I was in high school, I got a job on a local dairy farm in northeast Ohio. In addition to all of the normal activities that come with working on a dairy farm, my employer also had a sugar bush.&n
June 2 2020 It was actually a sulfur study. I was at Joe’s farm to gather some alfalfa tissue and soil samples from one of his fields as part of a statewide assessment on sulfur fertility. What with fewer indus
June 2 2020 Perhaps the grass is growing fast enough now that the thought of overgrazing isn’t even on the radar. Unfortunately, for many, that situation will change rapidly in the coming weeks. Ask almost
May 26 2020 My wife does most of the cooking at our house. She is more skilled and discerning than I am when it comes to preparing a meal. My rule of thumb is that if you have to mix two or more ingredients toget
May 26 2020 Let’s face it, there are lots of keys to making high-quality forage, but few are more important than a fast dry down. Other than drying, only bad things happen to a forage crop between cutting and...
May 19 2020 Recent Alfalfa Checkoff research may lead to a quick soil test indicating whether farmers can replant alfalfa on winterkilled or terminated acres without it suffering from autotoxicity
May 19 2020 Every forage producer knows that legumes provide a source of nitrogen for grasses that either grow with them or after them. Depending on the legume density, the amount of nitrogen made available can r
