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...

There are several situations when the ability to seed alfalfa after a killed alfalfa crop might be the desired play. It certainly would be a “go-to” practice for many commercial alfalfa growers...

As many readers know by now, I spent most of my adult life as an extension agronomist in a dairy-dominated Wisconsin county...

Among humans, most communication is accomplished by speaking or writing. However, there’s a whole world of science that studies what is called nonverbal communication...

The problem at Virginia Tech’s McCormick Farm in the Shenandoah Valley was not dissimilar to what many cow-calf operators face — too much feeding of hay and not enough days on pasture...

In May 2014, the average price of alfalfa hay reached $227 per ton, which was a record-high price. That value was obliterated in April 2022, according to USDA’s Agricultural Prices report. The...

Everybody has a nemesis, something that seems to screw up the plan of action more often than not. For the haymaker, that curse-worthy adversary is often cited as rainfall...

Plant maturity is often cited as the primary driver of forage quality. Make no mistake — it is...

The amount of hay in the U.S. haymow continues to shrink and is down another 7% from a year ago. Compared to May 1, 2020, the inventory is down 18% or 3.7 million tons...