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

The challenging winters of recent years have impacted both alfalfa’s persistence and yield

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

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

as agronomists working in the forage and dairy space, we are often in a conundrum over forage moisture and forage dry matter (DM)

We have come a long way in our understanding of fat mobilization in the past decades

The 2019 corn silage crop appears to have potential based upon early sample analysis summaries. However, the key word in this introduction is “potential.”

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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

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

There’s a lot of interest in sulfur fertilization these days. Environmental efforts to reduce air pollution have been highly successful, and much less sulfur is now deposited on cropland via precipitation

Feed costs make up the largest expense on most dairy farms. Forage production and the affiliated cost to grow, harvest, and store forage is a significant portion of the feed costs

When every dollar counts, dairy producers must decide where to invest their time and resources. For some, hiring custom operators for cropwork and manure hauling allows them to focus on the dairy side

Winter grains, primarily winter triticale or winter rye, are growing in popularity. With management backed by research, yields have moved from 1.5 to 2 tons of dry matter

The plant breeders who developed reduced-lignin alfalfa probably didn’t spend much time considering its use in alfalfa-grass seedings

During our careers, we’ve had the privilege of seeing not just one, but several new plant genetic technologies dramatically change the crop production landscape