Soy Bean Hay

Progressive Forage Feed

• Shop projects: Rollin’ cornstalks

  It’s a killer on equipment tires. A juvenile delinquent with a hunting knife probably couldn’t do as much damage as cornstalks can. The outer stalk surface really wears on pickup teeth, rake tines, cams, bearings and slip clutches. Yet, although cornstalk baling is extremely hard on equipment, more and more producers are turning toward the practice.

• Alfalfa Checkoff Watch: Research Project: Identifying optimal alfalfa germplasm types and characteristics for compatibility and performance in mixed cropping systems

  This project received 2017 funding from the U.S. Alfalfa Farmer Research Initiative (aka Alfalfa Checkoff). Brandon Schlautman is the lead researcher from The Land Institute on this project. Email Brandon Schlautman. 

• Are your fences up to the law?

  As we enter winter and begin to think about spring, it may be the time of year when many of you check fence conditions to keep livestock in or out of neighboring fields.

• Fertilizer value of hay feeding

  Each bale of hay contains mineral nutrients that come from soil reserves or from applied fertilizer. When fed to livestock, most of these nutrients will pass through the animals and can by recycled for future forage growth.

• Crowd-sourced forage wisdom

  Imagine a contest at a local livestock show where attendees are asked to guess the weight of the prize-winning animal. Nearly everyone will fail to get it precisely right. But what if you averaged everyone’s answers?

• Don’t settle for whatever seed is in stock at the local co-op

  If you are not familiar with binomial nomenclature (the international language for naming plants), let’s clarify the differences between species, variety and cultivar, which are all terms you will encounter during seed selection.