The annual release of hay and forage data by USDA that defines the previous year’s hay production and year-ending inventories arrived in email inboxes last Thursday...

With fertilizer currently priced at about $1 per unit of nitrogen, farmers and extension specialists are turning over every rock to try to find economical means of producing forage without buying a lot of nitrogen...

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...

Photo: Eldon Cole, University of MissouriThe symptoms of a bad case of fescue toxicity are well-documented. One symptom — fescue foot — can become more apparent when temperatures drop during the w...

Selecting a grass species or variety for the production of hay or pasture forage isn’t a decision that should be made without some careful thought. In fact, an argument could be made that selecting...

We’ve now turned the calendar to a new year, and this is a good time to take stock of stored forage inventories, knowing that any forage additions at this point can only be accomplished by withdrawa...

Nothing lasts forever — the string of 11 consecutive months with month-over-month alfalfa price gains has come to an end. The November alfalfa price dropped $3 per ton to $210, which was still $46 p...

Somewhere at the intersection of dry hay and chopped haylage you’ll find baleage, and that crossroads is getting more crowded with each passing year...

In his book Sisyphus in the Hayfield: Views of a Berkshire Farmer, author and dairy farmer Walter Howard wrote: “Hay and I start the season as friends...

One year ago, alfalfa hay prices were in an epic stall pattern dating back to mid-2019. The average price for alfalfa hay (all qualities) essentially hovered in the $170 to $180 per ton range for month after month. That situation rapidly changed during 2021 when average alfalfa hay prices soared from $171 per ton in January to $213 in October. The price of alfalfa hay increased every month through October, the last reported month as of this writing. The average price...