Hay exports in 2022 totaled 4.04 million metric tons (MT), which was 4.6% below 2021’s record-high level of 4.24 MT. For the fourth consecutive year and the fifth time in the past six years, total U...
Greening spring pastures are generally a welcomed site, especially to those who have been feeding hay all winter. In some cases, those same spring pastures hold the potential for causing frothy bloat...
Farmers and ranchers operate with the understanding that many things are beyond their control despite the best laid plans and management. Market prices, input costs, pests, and diseases are just some...
Cows were made to eat forage. We give them other stuff, but none of it comes under the entrée heading. Everything else is strictly a side dish.Built into this need for forage is the ruminant’s abil...
Winter offers a lot of time for reflection, and for the editor of a hay and forage magazine, a lot of that thinking is devoted to . . . well . . . hay and forage, at least until baseball season starts...
Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over. This is far from an original statement, but no truer mantra has ever been spoken.The western U.S. is in all-out battle over water, and it’s being...
Alan Franzluebbers has been on a mission to better quantify the need for nitrogen in pasture systems. “If you have no nitrogen, then you have no yield,” said the USDA-ARS research scientist, “Bu...
The foundations of plant growth should always be top of mind when striving to get the most livestock production out of your pastures. These foundations include water and sunlight. Plants combine...
Rodents are a major pest of alfalfa and other forage crops. Their control has never been easy given their belowground nature of existence. In alfalfa, rodents such as pocket gophers, meadow voles, and...
Photo: Emma Cotton/VTDiggerScott and Amber Hoyt operate an organic dairy farm in Vermont. Their recent experience provides a warning for others.In reading the January 25 issue of Hoard’s Dairy...
