Hay
Obsessing over rain, or the lack of it, is a skill every farmer has mastered. Here are 20 phrases you’ve likely muttered more than once.
Protecting your hay’s quality and value doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be monitored.
The equipment builder is adding to its lineup of crop harvesters with two new forage choppers — the first completely new silage management machines from Deere since 2019.
Two new tech-packed forage harvesters are coming to the North American market, and a group of specialty crop-focused tech companies announce new capabilities and development partners.
Running a dairy farm is tough work. But for Lorraine Thiele of Cabot, Pennsylvania, it’s also a canvas for creativity.
About 45% of U.S. corn production acres and 36% of the soybean ground are dry. The western Corn Belt needs moisture, in particular. A big, wet snowstorm could help, says Eric Snodgrass.
The 2025 lineup debuts this week at the National Farm Machinery Show, Feb. 12-15, 2025, in Louisville, Kentucky.
Total hay production in 2024 was up 3.3 percent year over year and combined with May 1 hay stocks up 46.6 percent over 2023 levels. Total hay supply by 7.9 percent compared to year earlier levels.
The 2024 World Forage Analysis Superbowl marked the 40th anniversary of the contest rewarding the quest to produce quality forages
Freshly baled hay with more than 20% moisture will heat up and actually reduce the energy level of the hay.
Weeds can reduce the quantity and the stand life of desirable forage plants in pastures and hayfields.
Hay is a high-dollar dairy investment, so it’s important to assess quality to make sure you get what you’ve paid for, and that your rations are formulated with accurate numbers.
With the start of the new year comes the setting of resolutions for personal habits, behaviors and practices. Dairies can and should do the same for their operations. Here are six places to start.
Tightening profit margins behoove growers to pay careful forage options, micronutrients, plant health and productivity. Partnering with agronomists, nutritionists and dairy advisors is an important piece of the puzzle.
Key finding: Increasing population is key to increasing tonnage. In addition, narrow-row silage production increased tonnage without compromising quality as measured in milk tons per acre.
With tightening margins, higher feed cost and more attention to environmental consequences, there are opportunities to refocus on just how much or how little protein is needed to sustain high production and returns to the herd.
One strategy used by Midwest dairy managers in 2009 when feed prices were high and milk prices were at record lows was feeding more forages.
You can reduce the risk of a hay fire on your farm with these tips
GPS-guided auto-steering has not caught on as fast for dairy farmers as it has for their corn and soybean brethren who farm tabletop-flat prairies. But that’s changing, as pioneering dairy producers try to squeeze every advantage out of this constantly evolving technology.
In Florida, the old joke is that farmers measure corn silage yields in tons per acre and forage sorghum yields in board feet. But new, highly digestible brown midrib (BMR) varieties of forage sorghum change all that.
With fall just around the corner, now is the time to think about applying fertilizer to perennial forages.
The most important number to review on a forage analysis is the ADF or NDF content of a forage on a dry matter basis, not crude protein.
There are steps farmers can take to get the hay up quickly and reduce the potential for rain damage.
Whether your sampling square bales, round bales or baleage, it’s important to keep these eight tips in mind in order to get accurate quality predictions.
The agronomic benefits of alfalfa are many and in some areas of the country it is still my preferred legume. However, let us look at what modern improved varieties of red clover bring to the table.