Maximize milk production with quality crops and forages.


May 4 2023
The title of this article may provoke the response: Why in this day and age would a dairy farmer ever consider grazing?
July 8 2022
Crop protection often refers to the field and to agronomy. In agronomy, crop protection can take different forms, including insecticides or fungicides, with both aiming to maintain plant health when c
May 10 2022
Farmers make many critical decisions prior to, during, and after harvesting forages. These decisions directly impact how well forage will ferment and be preserved for future feedout
Feb. 9 2022
Right now, you are likely experiencing sticker shock from looking at nitrogen fertilizer prices in late 2021 compared to the prior year
Jan. 14 2022
Alfalfa is known for its high nutritional value, and that makes it a valued forage source. However, alfalfa is often hindered nutritionally because of the indigestible lignin components
July 12 2021
Research by the USDA Agricultural Research Service at its station in Idaho found higher crop yields where livestock manure had previously been applied
Dec. 10 2020
Corn harvested for silage can be an economically efficient way to attain high per-acre yields of digestible nutrients for feeding dairy cattle. However, silage harvest leaves little crop residue to co
Nov. 13 2020
The challenging winters of recent years have impacted both alfalfa’s persistence and yield
June 1 2020
Alternative forages, such as cereals, warm-season grasses like sorghum, and mixed blends of annual grasses and legumes (sometimes dubbed cocktail mixes), continue to be a consideration for many dairies
March 10 2020
Wars start after several years of struggle and conflict. When war finally breaks out, multiple battles rage simultaneously on many fronts, as people fight for their existence
Feb. 10 2020
as agronomists working in the forage and dairy space, we are often in a conundrum over forage moisture and forage dry matter (DM)
Jan. 25 2020
We have come a long way in our understanding of fat mobilization in the past decades
Jan. 10 2020
The 2019 corn silage crop appears to have potential based upon early sample analysis summaries. However, the key word in this introduction is “potential.”
Dec. 9 2019
From a soil health perspective, small grains may be planted to protect the soil from wind and rain erosion, to reduce soil compaction and penetration resistance, to improve soil porosity and soil water...
Nov. 15 2019
High rainfall totals this past spring, often accompanied by flooding, left many farmers in the Corn Belt, the Upper Midwest, and the Northeast unable to plant corn until well after the recommended time
Feb. 10 2019
The business decision to purchase seed, grow, harvest, and then incorporate reduced-lignin forages into your high-performing dairy diets is more than a nutritional balancing act
Nov. 15 2018
On occasion, growers ask for advice on forage seed mixtures. When growers are considering new alfalfa seedings, their questions focus on what other legume or grass species to add with alfalfa, and how...
Sept. 10 2018
Tree bark and wood are robust analogies for the impact that lignin has within plant cell walls. Lignin is a structural component of plant cell walls, nested within both acid detergent (ADF) and neutral...
Aug. 10 2018
Cows being fed corn silage often tell two different tales when changing from old to new crop silage. In some years, the story is positive with a resulting uptick in animal health and performance. At o
Aug. 10 2018
Wiersma is the alfalfa business manager with DuPont Pioneer. Thomas is retired from the William H. Miner Agricultural Research Institute and president of Oak Point Agronomics Ltd. Soil fertility is an