Iowa lost 21 percent of its pasture base from 2007 to 2012, according to an Iowa Beef Center (IBC) publication released last fall and reported by Dan Loy, the center's director, in their most recent Growing Beef newsletter. During this same time frame, the Iowa beef cow herd declined by only 2 percent, significantly less than the national beef cow herd downsizing of 13 percent...

With June comes the onslaught of university blog posts and media releases warning alfalfa growers of the impending arrival of potato leafhoppers. This is done with good reason. In many alfalfa-growing states, the potato leafhopper has the distinction of being its number one alfalfa pest in terms of economic loss. ...

In last week’s edition, we ambled down memory lane and learned how the Hoard’s Dairyman Farm is rooted in alfalfa roots. This week we'll fast forward to the farm as it operates just north of Fort Atkinson...

Mike Rankin here . . . and for the past nearly 27 years, I was the crops and soils agent with the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Fond du Lac County. Previous to attending graduate school at Iowa State and moving to Wisconsin, I worked eight years on a large dairy and grain farm in southern Illinois. Regardless of where the hat was hung, my passion has always been forage crops. Anyone who knows me will tell you that . . . right before or after they tell you I'm...

Typically, a relatively small publishing company doesn't also own and operate a commercial dairy farm, or any other kind of farm for that matter. But such is the case here at the W.D. Hoard & Sons Company. ...