From the Emerald Isle and New Zealand to the Upper Midwest, Dave and Kat Mageean’s journey as dairy farmers has landed them in Michigan where they have established a unique pasture-robot milking system.
The golden grass of the West
With the rare advantage of owning private land in the West, this Utah rancher has improved the conditions of countless grazing acres.
Red clover is often touted as the “wonder legume,” especially where it is interseeded in endophyte-infected tall fescue pastures. Good drought tolerance, excellent seedling vigor, and special compounds that can counteract the effects of fescue toxicosis are just a few of the characteristics that make it shine in grazing systems, not to mention its vibrant red flowers. Photo by Mike Rankin
Friedrichsen Managing Editor
PEOPLE
PEOPLE may enter our lives for a second, or they may stay for a season, but I believe every time our paths cross another, it’s for a reason.
This comes to mind as I recently said goodbye to a dear co-worker. Like the corridor of many of our careers, one door closed for her as another door opened, and it was time to start a new chapter. Though not an author of this magazine, every article that has been published here for the past five years has been made better with her thoughtful edits, and I’ve personally benefited from reading her own writing, especially in my understanding of the dairy industry.
She’s more than my now former co-worker. She’s a good role model. She’s a great friend. And as someone who brightened our office, served the community, and has been an active participant in many organizations, she has been my best example of what it means to grow where you are planted. I didn’t realize until I hugged her goodbye that I would miss her so much, but it’s a testament to her character that I will have so much to miss.
In putting together this issue, I couldn’t help but notice that people seem to be a common theme. Not just people, but humans, and some of the experiences we share beyond those in pastures and hayfields.
Take the article opposite this one, for example, about the holistic nature of soil health. The intricacies of nutrient cycling and soil biology analyzed from the ground level is something that is discussed in every installment of that column. But until we zoom out, we can be oblivious to the role soil plays in the health and prosperity of humankind. Paul Harvey summed it up in even fewer words when he said we owe our existence to the top 6 inches of soil and the fact that it rains.
Or consider the column on page 10. The author of this article compares the decisions and careful management we implement in our feeding systems to his ability to be an influential parent to his young kids. I would argue that his analogy extends beyond growing forage and growing children. Despite our efforts, and regardless of the outcomes, it’s about where our hearts lie in our life’s work and relationships with loved ones that truly matters.
Even the research highlighted in the Alfalfa
Checkoff column on page 22 introduces human food consumption to the alfalfa production conversation. The lead scientist attributes early memories and a personal connection to plantbased foods as the inspiration for her nutrition study. Regardless of the type of project, it’s reassuring that people on the research side of the science-and-practice equation have individualized interests in hay and forage that tethers them to their areas of expertise.
People are always the focus of the farms featured in every Hay & Forage Grower magazine. This time, we bring you the story of a young couple who met halfway around the world from their respective home countries and put down roots on a Michigan dairy to make their dreams a reality. A more bittersweet beginning to a Utah rancher’s story pays homage to his late wife whose delight in his achievements was a light onto his purpose. And then there’s the Midwest custom harvester who — in navigating the headwinds of business and family — has learned to find silver linings in the struggles.
The human experience is both unique and universal. Everybody has a different story to tell because every story has a unique combination of characters, setting, plot, and emotions. At the same time, it’s pretty amazing that we have the ability to empathize and resonate with the universal highs and lows that happen as a result of being human. Both are to be acknowledged, and both are to be cherished.
That’s what I’m taking away from this issue, as well as from the farewell to my friend. Whether it’s an obvious bond or one that takes a little more digging to discover, there’s potential to connect with and learn from each person who enters our lives or simply appears on the subsequent pages. In doing so, we also connect with and learn more from ourselves.
As readers, I hope you can find a similar tie to the authors, researchers, and farmers who so willingly share their thoughts, knowledge, and stories. Likewise, I hope you can find a deeper appreciation and understanding for why you do what you do as hay and forage growers. •
Amber
Soil health is human health
SOIL health is the ability of soil to function. The eight vital functions of soil are to provide physical stability; produce plants and food; supply water, nutrients, and plant-growth promoting compounds; cycle nutrients; store carbon, nitrogen, and other essential nutrients; protect water quality; filter elements to avoid toxicity; and serve as a reservoir of biodiversity. These are essential ecosystem processes that benefit humankind.
One of the soil functions of widespread interest to country and city dwellers alike is providing a firm foundation, either for growing plants or for the variety of buildings that we house our livestock, harvested grain, or families in. Firm foundations are also metaphorically important to sustain ways of living. Figuratively speaking, standing on good ground can lead to good outcomes in our daily lives. Therefore, achieving exemplary soil health condition on your farm could be considered a foundation for sustainable living, hopefully in more ways than one. Let’s explore a bit more of these similarities between soil health and other aspects of human and community health.
Rhythm of reciprocity
At the core of soil health is the foundation to support plant growth through photosynthesis, the miraculous process that energizes life on Earth. Plants can be eaten to sustain our lives. Plants can produce fibers to clothe us and to shelter us from the harsh elements of nature. Plants transform energy from the sun into organic molecules that feed a diversity of livestock species, wildlife, insects, and countless microorganisms. Plants require soil and soil requires plants. Soil isn’t truly living and fully functional without plants, which not only take nutrients from the soil but also give back organic-rich molecules that create the cycle of life within it. We, too, must learn the rhythm of give and take in our relationship with the soil. A one-way extraction from the soil is not a melody that will sustain itself
for very long.
Taking from the land without giving something back has not just temporarily denuded the land, but ultimately destroyed civilizations. Consider the fall of the Roman Empire as an example, in which land was exploited, leading to its collapse, along with other contributing factors. Sustaining land productivity requires us to nurture its life-giving functions. By fostering the vital functions of soil, our agricultural landscapes and communities will be better able to withstand the invasions of climate change, political strife, and moral subversion.
The biochemical basis of photosynthesis is the conversion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into simple sugars in plants that can be metabolized and transformed into various usable products. Nonstructural carbohydrates and protein may be desirable traits of forages to feed livestock, but the diversity of plants in our world can also provide joy in the form of soft cotton socks or that first sip of morning coffee. Plants are also the precursors of a crusty bagel topped with cream cheese, strawberry-topped ice cream, and the steaks and sausages served during a gathering with family and friends. How much better all of these good gifts from the soil will be when we appreciate the delicate balance needed to sustain the process of the farmer who nurtured the land, to the hands of the people who prepared the food, to the divinity of life on our home planet.
Connected by carbon
Carbon is the element that is intermingled in all of life. From the carbon dioxide absorbed by plants, to the carbohydrates in food that fuels our daily duties, to the return of organic residues to soil that are processed by microorganisms into soil organic matter, carbon is the currency of life.
Yes, carbon is in the pages of the books you read, as well as the gadgets you use to get information. Carbon does not act alone, so all the other elements on our planet enter the web
of life in necessary and dynamic ways. Whether your life is on the farm or along the edges of the city, carbon is fueling your activities. Striving to keep the delicate balance becomes our stewardship role. The health of soil depends on your ability to make good decisions about how much carbon will be returned to the land and how soil is managed to enrich the life that comes from it.
The big picture
Life on earth is indeed interconnected, and caring for the soil to achieve outstanding soil health conditions on your farm is possibly one of the greatest acts of love you can give to your fellow citizens. With modern industrialization of agricultural food and fiber supplies, our actions at a local level are impacting greater stretches of our planet than ever before. Consider where your food was actually grown and processed. Consider where crops produced on your farm might actually be consumed by humans or livestock around the world. Consider the plastic items you buy and what the fate of those plastics might be in hundreds or thousands of years. Consider the water you drink and how it got there.
Soil is an integral part of the cycle of life. Soil gives us food and fiber. Soil takes our wastes and cycles them into basic elements, allowing for new life to emerge. Consider the Bible passage of John 12:24, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” We give back so that life can be better. Soil is the medium by which we can practice this ritual on a recurring basis, whether that be daily, seasonally, annually, or generationally. •
ALAN FRANZLUEBBERS
by Mike Rankin, Senior Editor
Cows at Annie G’s Dairy are given access to new grass every 12 hours. Consumers can purchase their milk through a unique on-farm vending machine.
HAT happens when a Michigander meets an Irishman . . . in New Zealand? At least in one case, and there may only be one, a unique grazing dairy called Annie G’s springs up just outside of a city better known for wolverines than cows.
Kat (Lambarth) Mageean grew up on a farm originally purchased by her great-grandfather in 1924. Her father operated a conventional dairy, building both a milking parlor and freestall barn in the early 1970s. Kat went off to college, became a veterinarian, and eventually found herself practicing veterinary medicine in New Zealand. On an arranged date, she met Dave Mageean, who was from Ireland and working in the island country on a custom silage crew while also trying to break into the artificial insemination business. A year later, the two were married and moved back to Kat’s
family farm near Ann Arbor, Mich.
Dave and Kat bought the dairy herd from her parents and slowly started to buy the land. In 2017, the couple’s experiences in New Zealand and Ireland prompted them to convert the conventional dairy into a grazing operation.
“My dad and neighbors thought we were nuts, but we had a lot of good statewide mentors and our own experiences to fall back on,” Kat related during a visit to their farm last summer.
In addition to a goal of grazing their herd, Dave and Kat also wanted to milk with robots, so they built a new freestall barn equipped with two automated milking systems that sits near, but not on, the original farmstead. This was
a labor-saving decision as Kat was still working off-farm as a veterinarian.
A blank slate
Although the couple had learned a lot from their overseas experiences, they are quick to acknowledge that the climate in Michigan is different, and you can’t just take a New Zealand system and model it here. Still, having come from a background where grazing, pasture rotations, lanes, and fencing comprised the normal mode of operation, there wasn’t a steep learning curve for Dave from those perspectives during the farm’s makeover.
“It was nice in the beginning because I was starting with a blank slate from the standpoint of how I wanted to set up the lanes and paddocks,” Dave said in his still present Irish articulation. “But I still lost a lot of nights’ sleep thinking about how I wanted to construct lanes so that the cows could get back to the barn to visit the robot at any time, but yet I could still move machinery down lanes if I had to.
Essentially, I
Mike Rankin
set it up in blocks, so if the cows were in one block, I could operate in a different block without disturbing their grazing or trips to and from the barn,” added the amiable dairy farmer.
“There were things we did intentionally that worked out, but there were also things we did unintentionally that worked out,” Kat related. “All in all, we’re really happy with the set-up we have now.”
Thinking back, Dave noted they did make one big mistake when converting to a grazing system. “We seeded all the pastures down to alfalfa and timothy. It was the recommendation of my nutritionist at the time, and it was a disaster. To mitigate that situation, we killed the alfalfa after the first year and seeded a pasture mix along with additional perennial ryegrass and red clover.”
In the pasture-robot milking system, the 85-cow, mostly Holstein herd isn’t “fetched” for milking; they come into the barn and go back out on their own. The cows are given new grass every 12 hours at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m.; however, with each switch to one of the 28 paddocks on the farm, they will be guided in a different direction from the milking barn by the automated gate system. Often, paddocks are split in half with polywire. “We can do a 21-day rotation quite easily,” Dave noted. “Heifers often graze behind the cows in a leader-follower system and calves, which are raised under the watchful eye of Kat, are put out on pasture once they are 5 to 6 months old.”
When the cows are on pasture, they average about 2.5 milkings per day. That average moves up to 3.8 milkings
per day when the cows stay in the barn during the winter. “The lure of new grass is the driver that gets cows back to the barn to milk,” Dave explained. “Some of them will try to get back out before getting milked, but the automated gate doesn’t let that happen. You’d be amazed at how fast the cows learn the system,” he added.
These days, Mageean interseeds about 20 acres of pasture every year in March with a mixture of ryegrass, clover, and tall fescue, using a 10-foot Lilliston no-till drill. This past year, he tried a 10-species mix of cool-season grasses, legumes, and forbs on a couple of paddocks to see if he could improve season-long production.
“I like to clip all of our pastures by June 1, usually after the second rotation through,” Dave noted. “Once grasses head out, they are not going to be eaten, and I don’t want to see those brown, poor-quality plants standing out there all summer.”
Need for winter feed
Being in Michigan, the Mageeans still have a fairly long nongrazing season that requires the need for stored feed. “Our grazing season begins in mid-April and ends about mid-October, although the heifers may stay out a little longer,” Dave said.
In addition to his pastureland, Mageean also has 60 acres of dedicated hay ground that is harvested either as baleage or dry hay four to six times per year. Baleage fields consist of alfalfa, ryegrass, and red clover while the dry hay comes from fields seeded with soft-leaf tall fescue, late-maturing orchardgrass, and a little timothy. He also grows 60 acres of corn for silage
that is stored in a bunker silo and helps keep cows fed during the winter. From time to time, he also grows some cereal grains that are harvested as forage. During the nongrazing months, cows are fed a total mixed ration. Hay and baleage quality are critical to Mageean. “I’m one of the first ones to cut in the spring, and I always cut based on grass maturity. After that, I gauge my cutting time based on the alfalfa. Everything gets cut at a 4-inch height. When making baleage, I try to have bales wrapped and stacked within an hour and a half of baling.”
The next steps
With the grazing-robot milking system pretty well perfected, the Mageeans, who are now also raising two young children, Annie and Angus, are moving on to the next step in their long-term plan. “We always knew that we would need some sort of niche market to milk 100 cows and survive, even though I worked off the farm as a veterinarian,” Kat shared. “We wanted to sell product direct to the consumer.”
The Mageeans recently built a Grade A milk processing facility near their current barn that is equipped with a pasteurizer and self-serve milk vending machine (milkbot.net). Beginning last summer, the general public can stop and fill the provided bottles with milk from the farm’s totally A2 milk-bred herd. It’s the first such vending machine in the U.S., although several are in operation in Europe. Different flavors of the nonhomogenized milk are also offered.
“We built the facility big enough so that we can expand to making more products in the future,” Dave said. “Kat does all of the required milk testing and has developed a marketing plan. We are really excited about this new venture.” Based on their Facebook page (Annie G’s Dairy), so are their customers. •
Dave and Kat Mageean are building a sustainable dairy model for the next generation. They’re pictured standing in front of their new milk vending machine.
A pipeline runs from the barn to a Grade A milk processing facility. The barn houses freestalls and two milking robots.
Cows enjoy a mixed-species pasture from spring through late fall. During winter, they are fed a total mixed ration and housed in freestalls.
Mike Rankin
Mike Rankin
Morgan Oliveria
A different kind of walk
IN LAST month’s column, I had talked about where the best place in the U.S. to be in cow-calf production might be. I had made the comment that if my only ambition were to be in the cow business, I never would have left Missouri. So, why did we leave Missouri?
I grew up a flat-land Illinois crop farmer. When I was 15 years old, I went to Colorado and Wyoming camping with two of my older brothers. I immediately fell in love with the Rocky Mountains. Hiking a rugged high-country trail or along a flowing mountain stream was my idea of being in heaven.
A good number of Hay & Forage Grower readers probably own one or more of my books about pasture and grazing management. What most don’t know is my real writing interest does not lie in those particular books. Since I was a teenager, I have dabbled in fiction writing as well. I have written several hundred pages of an epic fantasy novel. If you don’t know what that means, think Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, that writing direction stalled out about 40 years ago as professional writing tasks took priority.
When I was 20 years old, I knew exactly who I was and what I wanted to do in life. That was to live in the Rocky Mountains and write stories. In between writing stories, I envisioned myself hiking on high, rocky ridges.
Like so many other people, I had a dream, but I got married, had a family,
had a professional career, had a successful grass farm, and did a host of other things along the way. All of that was good. I have had a truly wonderful life. I would like to believe that I have helped a couple generations of fellow graziers to be more successful, profitable, and happier in life.
Like so many other people, something called “mid-life crisis” struck me in my mid-40s. I came to the realization once again that what I really wanted to do in life was to live in the Rocky Mountains and write stories. Hence, the move to Idaho.
We have lived in Idaho for almost 21 years now. I have hiked thousands of miles and climbed numerous mountains. Among my goals for 2024 were to hike over 300 miles with net elevation gain over 100,000 feet. I ended the year at 321 miles and 112,000 feet elevation gain. It was the first year I had exceeded 300 miles hiking. That pushed my goal for 2025 to 350 miles hiked with 125,000 feet elevation gain.
As this column goes to press, I am 69 years young. I am not fully retired, but I have greatly reduced my travels away from home and the work I do within the grazing industry. I am looking for more days on the mountain in these later years of my life, with fewer days on the road. I would like to settle into writing my novel again. I am not sure if that spark can be rekindled, but I need to give it a try.
For those reasons outlined above, this is the last column I am writing for Hay & Forage Grower. I want to thank Mike Rankin and his staff for the opportunity to share my thoughts and views with you readers over the last five or so years. It has been a good gig in my view. I hope you think so as well.
As a few of you may know or, at least, now suspect, I also write poetry.
I will leave you with the simple farewell thought, which can be found at the bottom left of this page. •
HIGH AND LONELY PLACES
Through high and lonely places, we try to find our way Back to a trail we once knew on another day. Some days when the wind blows chill and cuts us to the bone, Those high and lonely places are coldest when we walk alone.
Some days the sun shines warmly over barren rock and stone, Then these high and lonely places are the best we’ve ever known.
Steer fiber digestibility in the right direction
S MY kids approach their teenage years, I’ve realized my ability to influence their habits from a fatherly perspective needs to evolve. During their toddler years and into grade school, telling them “no” generally meant their request or demand wasn’t going to happen. As they’re getting older — and wiser — they’re learning how to subvert my “no” response and achieve whatever it is that they want.
My wife is skilled and experienced in early childhood development and education, so I’m learning how to be a great dad from her as our kids grow up. I think I’m at the point where I need to pivot from being a disciplinarian to a bit more of a leader and coach in parenting. I don’t mean that I’m going to let up as a dad, but I can see myself channeling my energy into a coach-like approach where I aim to steer my kids in their thoughts, words, and actions. We’ll lean into our faith as well, praying for direction as we look to His
guidance to steer us on our path.
As we turn this discussion around to forage, the point here is to lean into a steering mindset. With forage, we cannot dictate the phenotypic outcome at the end of the harvest season. Factors outside of our control influence the crop. Mother Nature exerts her incredible will and affects crop yield and quality. Crop disease or insect pressure may also impact the crop beyond our control. Even so, we can steer and influence the crop, much like I can steer and influence my kids. There are levers we can pull before and during the growing season to positively affect forage quality and fiber digestibility.
Consider the following options to move the needle forward with fiber digestibility in hay, haylage, and corn silage crops — at least on a relative basis within the season. Ultimately, the growing environment will push the entire crop higher or lower in quality. Seed genetics: Genetic and phenotypic outcomes are those due to
either genetics or genetics plus the environment. The amount that genetics influence fiber digestibility ranges; however, I remember Joe Lauer showing me some genetic reliability data from the University of Wisconsin corn hybrid evaluation program detailing that neutral detergent fiber digestibility (NDFD) is quite heritable.
Lauer showed that high-ranking corn hybrids came out on top in terms of fiber digestibility more times than not, relative to other hybrids when grown in different years or locations. Take this mindset to the field as you choose your hybrids for corn silage, and ensure fiber digestibility is included within your hybrid selection index.
Soil fertility: While I still struggle to understand the exact relationship between soil fertility and forage fiber digestibility, I’m a firm believer that substandard fertility will equate to less healthy and vigorous plants. Both macronutrients and trace minerals play a role. Green and healthy tissue in plants will contain more digestible fiber than dying or necrotic tissue. With the 2024 Midwestern growing season as a case study, nitrogen likely moved out of the root zone with excessive rainfall early in the year. The result was that some fields ran out of nitrogen as the season progressed.
Plant health and livelihood suffered, and that likely contributed to substandard fiber digestibility.
Crop protection: While fertility plays a role in plant health, crop protection is also quite important. Genetics influence disease resistance; however, I’m a proponent for additional crop protection practices to ensure plants are healthy right up to cutting and harvest. Talk through crop protection options with your agronomist this year to improve fiber digestibility.
Harvest timing and maturity:
Alfalfa quality decline is a bit more forgiving than that of cool-season grasses as maturity advances; however, the fiber digestibility of both types of forage is tightly correlated to plant maturity. Alfalfa fiber digestibility will gradually move downward as plants bud and flower, whereas cool-season grass fiber digestibility falls off a cliff as the plants transition from vegetative to reproductive stages.
With corn, a warm-season grass, the
decline in fiber digestibility around R5 and silage maturity is a bit less pronounced than cool-season grasses or alfalfa. With that said, corn will drop 3 to 5 units in fiber digestibility as it progresses through the silage maturity stage.
Theoretical cut length: Particle size interacts with forage nutritive value, which I discussed in the January issue of Hay & Forage Grower. The interaction between theoretical length (TLC) and total-tract fiber digestibility in dairy or beef cattle diets is tricky because particle size also influences how fast the feed moves through the cow’s digestive tract.
Shortening up the TLC can expose more surface area in forage for fiber digesting bacterial attachment. The bacteria need to attach before digestion starts, so in some cases with challenged forage, a shortened TLC can help tip the scales toward slightly improved NDFD.
Forage preservation: The best prepped forage can fall apart if not
preserved effectively. Heat damage in hay or ensiled forage can tie fiber and protein together, creating a less digestible product. Poor preservation can also contribute to antinutritional contaminants such as mold, yeast, or undesirable bacteria. Experience tells me that these antinutritional contaminants will affect the rumen’s sensitive fiber digesting bacteria and depress fiber digestibility in cows.
By leading with a steering philosophy, higher fiber digestibility can be achieved by considering the management areas covered here. While the year-end forage outcome may be wild like my kids, trust that we can make an impact. •
GOESER
The author works for Rock River Lab Inc., the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is a consultant with Cows Agree Consulting LLC.
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Sorghum-sudangrass versatility
S PART of annual crop rotation systems, sorghum-sudangrass has become more widely used by dairy and beef producers who are looking for moderate to good-quality forage with good yield potential when managed properly.
For sorghum-sudangrass, effective management to encourage fast growth encompasses several aspects, such as avoiding planting on low, poorly drained areas; ensuring a soil temperature above 60°F at planting; planting at a depth of 0.5 to 1 inch, depending on soil type; and a good soil fertility program. Forage quality of sorghum-sudangrass is primarily driven by fiber content, digestibility, and sugar content, with low grain and starch content even at advanced maturities.
Harvest management is the main factor of forage quality that farms can modify to optimize sorghum-sudangrass feed value needed for intended animal groups. It also has a large effect on yield across multiple harvests, which each typically yield 1 to 2 tons of dry matter per acre, whereas a single harvest can yield 4 to 8 tons of dry matter per acre, depending on growing conditions. However, harvest frequency is typically determined by the land base needed for sufficient feed production and the costs of production rather than the potential use in specific animal rations.
Quality differences
Harvest management affects sorghum-sudangrass quality similar to other forages with higher fiber and lower protein content as plant maturity advances. In the case of sorghum-sudangrass, though, we are either talking about a single harvest in the late summer or early fall or multiple harvests during the growing season (two to three cuts in most regions).
A single harvest is optimal if farmers are looking for low- to moderate quality forage for use in dry cow or bred heifer rations. Taking multiple cuts when the crop reaches 3 to 4 feet tall provides forage that better fits in rations for young heifers and lactating cows. In fact, this forage is likely best suited for
Table 1. Forage quality of sorghum-sudangrass harvested once or multiple times
Figure 1 . Potassium content of sorghum-sudangrass forage harvested once (data from 2019-2020) or multiple times (data from 2020)
mid- to late lactation cows due to high fiber content.
Based on data from central Wisconsin, single-harvest sorghum-sudangrass has lower crude protein (CP); less neutral detergent fiber (NDF), likely due to some grain fill and sugar accumulation; lower neutral detergent fiber digestibility (NDFD); and lower total digestible nutrients (TND) compared to when it is harvested multiple times. The use of a brown midrib (BMR) trait significantly improves NDFD and is recommended if farmers are considering using the forage in lactating cow or young dairy heifer rations.
Table 1 is from two sites with varying
soil textures. Forage grown on the site with sandy soil had 2% to 3% lower CP than forage on the site with heavier silt loam soils, likely due to nitrogen leaching from the root zone. Ash content is also expected to be greater for sorghum-sudangrass harvested multiple times due to greater mineral levels, especially potassium, so it would not be advisable to include those in close-up dry cow rations.
Single-harvest sorghum-sudangrass had much lower potassium (K) and is more suited for dry cow rations. Sorghum-sudangrass harvested in October after a killing frost ranged from 0.4% to 1.5%
twice each
season, forage had 1.5% to 4.5% K, with much higher K for the first harvest due to being less mature and having lower yields. Potassium fertility (0 to 500 pounds of K 2 0 per acre) does affect forage K, but it seems to be less critical to forage quality than harvest management (Figure 1).
How to harvest
When using a single harvest, sorghum-sudangrass can be tall (8 to 10 feet) and stemmy, which likely necessitates chopping to avoid significant refusals of long stems at feedout. As for timing, it is recommended to take the single harvest at one of two times. Do so either in late summer to early fall during an opportune warm and dry spell to allow two to three days for wilting, followed by chopping, or wait for forage to mature until it is 30% to 40% dry matter. Then, either direct chop sorghum-sudangrass or cut, wilt, and chop the forage.
In some instances where planting is
delayed, or if a photoperiod sensitive variety is used, a killing frost may be needed to initiate dry down if farmers want to direct cut. The use of a conventional hybrid without the photoperiod sensitive trait can help expedite harvest since it should be at soft to hard dough stage by early October. Selecting a hybrid with the dry stalk trait could also help reduce moisture at harvest.
For multiple harvests, it is recommended to take the first cut when the crop reaches 3 to 4 feet tall, or approximately 45 days after planting. Then, allow approximately 30 days between harvests. If the first cut is delayed, this can reduce subsequent growth and forage yields. Also, raising the cutterbar to 6 inches will encourage faster regrowth compared to leaving only 3 inches of residual.
In 2023, we were able to take three harvests from plots for the first time at our Hancock, Wis., site. This was thanks to well-drained soil, well-timed harvests, and excellent growing con-
ditions. We usually target late July for first harvest, late August/early September for second harvest, and possibly third harvest in early October, with each harvest based on crop height. Regrowth after the first cut can be rapid due to ideal growing conditions in mid-summer, so ensure adequate fertility is available for fast growth with separate nitrogen applications for each harvest. On the other hand, a third harvest really depends on warm growing conditions going into early fall, with that cutting having less capacity for regrowth. Instead of taking the third harvest, some producers may decide to terminate the crop and establish a winter cereal grain forage in early fall. •
by Amber Friedrichsen, Managing Editor
WENTY minutes from everywhere. That’s what Carol Johnson said it felt like living in the-middle-of-nowhere Rush Valley, Utah.
The city girl turned cattlewoman took farm life by the horns when she married Darrell Johnson in 1983. She championed her husband’s cattle operation situated around the small mountain town just south of the Great Salt Lake, and she supported his innovative efforts to eradicate invasive species on the dry rangeland of the Beehive State. Carol was eager to tell anyone and everyone about ranch life and raising cattle, including friends, neighbors, and the cashier at the grocery store 20 minutes down the road.
Darrell is the fifth generation of the Johnson family to ranch in Rush
Valley after his great-great-grandfather was the first permanent settler there in 1856. Since then, Darrell, his father, and now his sons, Ed and Brian, have expanded the original 10-acre homestead to a grazing system that encompasses nearly 7,000 acres within a 10-mile radius — most of which are privately owned.
Owning such a large percentage of private land is a rare occurrence in the West, as most ranchers predominately graze public land with permits from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Nonetheless, the Johnsons have leveraged their extensive land ownership to convert encroaching juniper and sagebrush into permanent pastures of productive grass.
“My dad always used to say he didn’t know why his great-grandfather didn’t keep going or stop sooner,” Darrell joked about the fickle environment.
“But it’s been good to us, this valley.” Likewise, the Johnson family has been good to the valley. Darrell has collaborated with range specialists and researchers over the years to administer prescribed burns and improve his forage management. Because of his efforts to bolster a better use of the challenged land base, the affable 82-year-old has also been recognized as a regional winner of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Environmental Stewardship Award and with the Leopold Conservation Award from the Sand County Foundation.
But perhaps Carol was the biggest cheerleader and greatest advocate for the experimental solutions at Johnson Ranch before she passed away in 2022. It’s her memory and eternal admiration of the operation that Darrell reflects on as he looks forward to the family’s sixth and seventh generations
This rancher’s
carrying on the ranching legacy in Rush Valley.
Resolving to reseed
Johnson Ranch is classified as a juniper forest. The evergreen tree that is commonly found on dry plains has an ever-growing geographical range. What’s more is juniper is equipped with a vigorous root system and a bad reputation for choking out desirable forage. Despite its role as a feed source and wildlife habitat in many ecosystems, sagebrush has also become a problem species across Johnson Ranch and throughout the Intermountain West, especially at lower elevations.
Rather than work around these infringing shrubs and trees, Darrell decided to work against them. He started renovating rangeland to crested wheatgrass when he acquired land as a
young rancher in the 1970s. By prescribing burns and chain-pulling juniper and sagebrush out of the ground, he prepared seedbeds and established crested wheatgrass with an aerial seeder.
Allen Rasmussen is a retired extension range specialist from Utah State University who helped conduct prescribed burns at Johnson Ranch, which, at the time, was a practice that had yet to be accepted in the area. Nonetheless, Darrell was eager to take a chance on the novel approach in effort to propel his grazing operation toward higher production.
“What makes Darrell unique is his willingness to try and do things most people wouldn’t do,” said Rasmussen, who later worked as a rangeland specialist at Texas A&M’s King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas. “We need people who are willing to step out and think about things differently like he has.”
crested wheatgrass has alleviated compaction and erosion issues across Johnson Ranch. The fibrous root system of the perennial forage softened the soil structure of the dry, pavement-like dirt surrounding sagebrush and juniper. This ultimately regenerated the rangeland into a grass watershed, unlocking access to natural springs the moisture-hungry shrubs and trees had suppressed.
“When we changed to a grass watershed, it made a huge
Darrell Johnson is the fifth generation to ranch in Rush Valley after his great-great-grandfather settled there in the 1850s.
Seeding the introduced species instead of a native grass also received speculation, but crested wheatgrass has proven to be a robust forage that not only outcompetes juniper, sagebrush, and cheatgrass, but is also a prolific feedstuff for cattle.
Rasmussen noted forage yield only averaged 50 pounds per acre in some areas at Johnson Ranch before burning and controlling invasive species. After crested wheatgrass was established, average yield per acre soared to more than 1,500 pounds.
“When you go from 50 pounds to over 1,500 pounds of forage, that is huge for your carrying capacity,” Rasmussen said. “Crested wheatgrass is very competitive for that environment. You can seed native grasses, and they can be good, but they are harder to manage and not as competitive.”
This competitive edge comes from the superb seedling vigor and excellent drought tolerance of crested wheatgrass, which is critical in the semi-arid climate that receives only 12 to 16 inches of rain per year. Rotating livestock through divided pastures has also seemed to enhance its stand persistence, earning it the colloquial title of “The Golden Grass of the West.”
“We’ve made a lot of improvements over the years, but the grass is the backbone,” Darrell affirmed.
In addition to its grazing merits,
difference in the springs. We used to have two permanent springs, but now we have several that we have developed to run water into troughs,” Darrell said. “If you control the water — stock water and springs — then you control the grazing.”
Instead of hauling water to different fields or directing it down a pipeline from the top of the mountain, the Johnsons now use solar-powered pumps to carry spring water to troughs across their operation. Some water travels a total of 4 miles away and up 1,150 feet of rise from one spring to a stock tank in a distant pasture.
“We talk about the success of the grass in the pastures, but it’s also about being able to have a good supply of stock water,” said Brian, who returned to the ranch after moving east to work in the welding industry for a few years as a young adult. “It’s allowed us to use country where otherwise there is not a way we could have grazed it.”
Grazing for days
Crested wheatgrass greens up in early spring and stays productive into the fall. By padding either shoulder of the grazing season and having sufficient yield and quality throughout their rotation, the Johnsons have shortened their hay feeding to about 90 days a year.
“Nine months out of the year, the cows are used to a steady diet of crested wheatgrass,” Brian said. “It can be really green or really dry, but the cows adapt and do extremely well.”
The father-son trio adhere to a tight calving schedule in March and April.
resolve to reseed hundreds of rangeland acres to improved varieties of crested wheatgrass has been a decadeslong endeavor that will benefit future generations of his operation in northern Utah.
Then, the herd is turned out to crested wheatgrass pastures by early May.
“The crested wheatgrass is the secret to our calving success,” Brian asserted. “We get that spring moisture and the grass really turns on and greens up, so we can turn those cows out and get them bulled up.”
Getting bulled up — or rebred — is quicker and more effective when cows have access to abundant forage compared to sparser range that previously covered the landscape. From here, the Johnsons continue to move cows to higher elevations as the grazing season progresses, arriving at summer pastures seeded to intermediate varieties of crested wheatgrass that are better suited to the growing environment.
Their private acres don’t stretch as far up the mountain as some public leases do, and Brian admitted the higher ground has potential for better quality forage because of the elevation. However, grazing those acres comes at the cost of transportation. That’s one trade-off of owning private land the Johnsons are content with.
“A lot of guys will go up to higher elevations in the forest because it’s a lot better feed in the summer,” Brian said. “We just don’t have access to that, but we also don’t have to do the trucking. We basically open the gates and just move cows up the mountain.”
“The only time our cows get on a truck is when they go to town to be ground up for hamburger. We do everything on horseback around here,” Darrell chuckled.
The Johnsons typically forward contract calves through an auction in Snowbird, Utah, in mid-July, depending on
SALTON SUPREME
the cattle market.
By the first of October, the herd returns home where the calves are weaned and delivered to buyers six weeks later. Meanwhile, cows continue to graze nearby pastures. Crested wheatgrass begins to dry out and turn brown, but the forage supports cows’ nutritional needs until the Johnsons start feeding hay in the winter.
A bright future
Despite some technological advancements at Johnson Ranch, the family still does old-fashioned farmwork by hand. Moving sprinkler pipes in irrigated hayfields, for example, is a necessary evil on the operation, but the Johnsons have learned to withstand water availability that fluctuates with snowpack levels in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In dry years, they may come up short on homegrown hay and buy more bales than what was budgeted for. In wet years, it’s all hands on deck to move sprinkler pipes more frequently to take advantage of the abundant moisture.
Darrell was the captain of this irrigation crew well into his 70s before delegating the task to his grandchildren who live close by and some local kids who are eager to help. He is pleased to see that the responsibility and discipline required of ranching has shaped these youth into hard-working young men and women.
“They can drive, run the skid steer, and they know what it’s like to get up at six o’clock in the morning and move sprinkler pipe,” Darrell said. “We’ve certainly raised good kids on this ranch.”
In addition to raising their kids and running the ranch, Ed and Brian also work off the farm. The older brother is a vocational ag teacher while the younger is an engineer — both jobs are about 20 minutes from home.
Maybe Carol was right when she said Rush Valley was 20 minutes from everywhere. But traveling that distance is a small price to pay for the lifestyle and values that raising kids and cattle there has instilled in the family. Her encouraging spirit and affinity for progressive range management was a light onto the operation that will continue to shine for the next generations, just like the persistent growth and conservational benefits of crested wheatgrass — the golden grass of Johnson Ranch.
Doubling your baling pleasure
S WE get ready for the upcoming hay season, numerous engineers have been hard at work to give us the first true new development in the small-square business in a long time. I normally don’t get too involved with the different manufactures, but in this case, there are only two to discuss. The newest innovation I’m referring to are balers that can make two, two-tie bales at once — the Grady Twin Pak SB 2XR and the Hesston by Massey Ferguson SB.1436DB.
The Grady baler has now been acquired by John Deere to be distributed through their network of dealers. This agreement started back in 2023 and is available through select dealers in both two-tie and three-tie configurations. The original versions, developed by Mike and Jason Grady, were available in New Mexico and Arizona in 2018 and 2019, but with this acquisition by John Deere, the production of these is sure to skyrocket.
The new player to this market is Massey Ferguson with their new release of the SB.1436 DB at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif., and the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Ky., last month. These new balers will be out and running in 2025 in small numbers, but full production is planned for 2026.
Let’s compare what we know about the two units. Both are similar in their overall design, and both are inline balers with 90 plunger strokes per minute. Each have a wide pickup with the hydraulic lift being the only main hydraulic requirement from the tractor. Both balers have self-contained hydraulic systems for bale density and real bale chute functions. Each of the two balers uses star wheels to set the bale length and trigger the yoke and needles to tie the bales. This is where most of the similarities end.
Expect improvements
The Twin Pak was originally very simple with few electronics, which I think can be a good thing, but as all manufacturers do these days, Deere is incorporating ISOBUS and bale data into the machine. Down the road, I
think you can expect bale tagging and weight data being stored on Deere’s operations center. This is something they are already doing with their largesquare balers and could be helpful to customers who sell their small-square bales by the ton. The Twin Pak has a scale mounted in the rear on the righthand side.
The Twin Pak has a big appetite and can operate at speeds of over 6 miles per hour (mph), but speed is also required to keep the prechamber full in lighter windrows and to maintain a uniform flake size and length. The four or six knotters all work together on the same yoke and tie together just like a large-square baler using Rasspe knotters. This is one of the key differences I noticed between the two balers.
Same, but different
Massey Ferguson’s SB.1436DB uses the same knotters as the Twin Pak, but each side of the two-tie bale work independently of each other. Each side of the baler has its own star wheel and independent yoke and needles. According to company representatives, this will lead to more consistent bale lengths in all windrow conditions, which I think is true. The length of bale, its density, and flake size can be set on the monitor of
the 1436 DB.
When used in conjunction with the integrated scales, the 1436 DB has an auto-bale feature that allows the baler to adjust to varying conditions throughout the day. You can set your desired bale length and weight, and the baler’s on board computer will adjust the density setting compared to the bale weight it’s producing. The 1436DB is available with scales that weigh both bales and also an integrated inoculant system that can be controlled from the baler monitor.
Both balers are recommended to run with a 150 PTO horsepower tractor for the two-tie balers, though the three-tie Twin Pak does require a little more. I, for one, am excited about these two new innovations in the small-square business. The small-square baler market has basically gone unchanged for over 70 years. The biggest question is what are these balers going to cost?
I hope everyone has a great spring and good start to the 2025 haying season. •
The author is a managing partner in Elite Ag LLC, Leesburg, Ga. He also is active in the family farm in Rutledge.
Double balers will offer an opportunity to improve efficiency on the commercial hay farm.
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ANNUAL LESPEDEZA: the forgotten summer wonder forage
by Greg Halich
NNUAL lespedeza is a warm-season legume that has been largely forgotten about in the past half-century. In 1919, two improved varieties of annual lespedeza were introduced: “Kobe” from Japan and “Korean” from . . . you guessed it . . . Korea. Both varieties produced significantly more forage than the common variety introduced in the mid-1800s, and they were quickly embraced by livestock farmers in the lower two-thirds of the eastern U.S. Annual lespedeza’s primary adapted range corresponds quite well to the Fescue Belt, but it is also found roughly 100 miles to the south, north, and west of the region.
The time period from 1930 to 1950 proved to be the high-water mark for this warm-season legume. The Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station estimated that nearly 6 million acres were being grown in that state in 1938, and Kentucky estimated that 5 million acres were being grown in The Bluegrass State that same year. The Kentucky officials claimed annual lespedeza was the most common forage crop planted at that time (USDA, Circular No. 536, 1939). Although detailed records are hard to find, it seems that these usage levels persisted for around a decade, then started to decline in the 1950s.
Annual lespedeza will germinate and start developing in early spring, but most of its production occurs in June, July, and August — perfect timing to help counter the summer slump. “Feeds and Feeding” (F.B. Morrison 1939) and the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 416 (1935) stated it is as high or higher in feed value for cattle as alfalfa or red clover. Dairy farmers in the Fescue Belt relied on it quite heavily due to its quality and ease for making hay.
As with most forages, annual lespedeza grows best in highly fertile soils, but it is unrivaled where fertility is poor to fair. According to the USDA Farmers Bulletin No. 1724 (1934), “Lespedeza will grow on almost any type of soil. It does well on the sandy loam soils of the Coastal Plain, the clays of the Piedmont, and the limestone soils of Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.” I have found poor drainage is about the only situation it doesn’t do well on.
A slump beater
These days, the most common way to use annual lespedeza is overseeded into cool-season pastures just like clovers. The key to seeding into an established sod is to target stands that are not overly vigorous. Therefore, stands that only produce well with fertilizer are prime candidates for annual lespedeza. Lespedeza will improve these soils over
Annual lespedeza can help bolster summer pastures, especially where fertility is lacking.
time and eventually work itself out of a job. At some point after fertility has been restored, grasses and clovers will out compete it. Think of annual lespedeza as a “bridge” legume when used in perennial pastures.
My favorite way to use this legume now is in a specialty pasture, essentially as a stand-alone summer annual that is double-cropped with winter annuals. This system was used extensively during the 1930 to 1950 period. On good ground, where annual lespedeza is not competing with an established sod, the production can be absolutely incredible from mid-June through early September. In the 1930s, the Kentucky Experimental Station estimated that on soils of medium fertility, 1,000 pounds of liveweight per acre can be grazed from June to October, while better fields could often carry twice this amount (USDA Circular #536, 1939).
Regardless of whether you are using it in perennial pasture or as a pure warm-season stand, having 20% to 35% of a farm in annual lespedeza will help balance out the forage supply since most of its production comes in July and August. Other summer annuals can produce more biomass but not necessarily more usable biomass for grazing. Sorghum-sudangrass is a perfect example. Its quality can go from good to poor in about a week, and you will typically lose a significant amount of the production while grazing. Conversely, the quality of annual lespedeza declines slowly over a three to four week period starting around mid-July. It gives you much more flexibility in utilizing it compared to any summer annual that I know of.
Annual lespedeza is also an inexpensive crop to plant. Seeding 10 pounds of seed per acre at $2.50 per pound and custom broadcast seeding at a cost of $7 per acre with no added fertilizer or herbicide puts the total planting cost at $32 per acre. With sorghum-sudangrass, you will likely have $25 to $30 per acre in seed, $20 for no-till drilling, and $50 to $75 in fertilizer for a total cost of $95 to $125 per acre.
A lost legume
During my extension meetings in Kentucky, I often ask who uses annual lespedeza. Usually, in a group of 30 to 40 farmers, one or two hands will go up, and they are typically some of the
Greg Halich
oldest in the group. Occasionally, no hands go up.
So, given all the advantages previously discussed, how is it that annual lespedeza has been largely forgotten about?
One reason is that the increased usage of commercial fertilizer and lime starting in the 1950s led to a shift to other forages requiring higher fertility levels, such as alfalfa and most of the productive grasses. A shift toward confinement feeding at this time, especially on dairies, meant there was less need for balancing the seasonal forage supply and forage demand. Thus, higher yields from alfalfa or red clover, even though most came in spring and early summer, were seen as superior to 2 to 4 tons of annual lespedeza per acre on the same ground where almost all came during the summer slump.
However, in the last two decades, there has been a significant shift back to more balanced year-round grazing. Given how well annual lespedeza fits that grazing model, it is still surprising more farmers aren’t using it.
Or is it?
From my perspective, the main reason that annual lespedeza is not making a resurgence in popularity is simply because it is not being promoted, or more accurately, its use has been largely discouraged. Read just about any contemporary publication that mentions this forage and you will see phrases describing it as “lower yielding.”
It may be low yielding on poor soil but will likely outyield anything else in those same fertility conditions. With good fertility, I have seen pure stands of annual lespedeza produce 3 to 4 tons per acre of dry matter available for grazing during the heart of the summer and then allow for winter annuals to be available for grazing in late winter and early spring. Another impediment to its resurgence is that there is considerable misinformation regarding seeding and establishment. A typical recommended rate is 25 to 35 pounds of seed per acre, but my experience is that this is an overkill. I consistently get good to excellent stands broadcasting 8 to 12 pounds per acre. Possibly, seed used to be much cheaper on a relative basis, and thus the higher rates were seen as insurance. I do not know for certain, but with current seed prices, you want to optimize, not maximize.
A typical recommended seeding date is February to March. When first start-
ing to use lespedeza, I seeded in February or early March as instructed. Some years I would have good stands and some years poor stands with not many stands in between. Unfortunately, it took me quite a few years to figure out what was going on. Annual lespedeza is a warm-season legume and has almost no frost tolerance once it develops its first set of true leaves (past the cotyledon stage). It will take a light frost, but temperatures around 28°F to 30°F will kill the seedlings.
If you broadcast in February and have a string of three to four days with highs in the 50s, say in early March, most of the seed will germinate. In Kentucky, the odds we will not have a hard frost from that point onward are slim to none. In situations such as this, the lespedeza stand would be wiped out. I now do not start seeding annual lespedeza until around mid-March and try to finish by early April but would not be afraid to broadcast up through mid-April. Adjust this window based on your growing season compared to central Kentucky. In researching for this article, I came across the following from USDA Farmers Bulletin No. 1724 (1934), which backs up my experience: “In North Carolina and Tennessee, lespedeza is usually sown during February and March, and in Kentucky and Virginia, during March and the first half of April. Seed sown early may germinate during a period of mild weather, and later the young plants may be killed by freezing temperatures.” This was in the 1930s when Kentucky had real winters and likely had few stretches in late February and the first half of March when temperatures were in the 50s that would stimulate early germination of the seed.
A possible final reason we have not seen a resurgence is that annual lespedeza seed rarely comes inoculated. Inoculation is likely not necessary on pastures that have recently had the legume, but when introducing the forage back after 50 to 70 years of absence, it is cheap insurance. The correct inoculant is one for the cowpea-peanut family. Reseeds itself
Based on the experience of a few farmers I know in Missouri, you can get two hay cuttings in a normal year on a pure stand if you get the first cutting by mid-July, when it will likely be around 15 inches tall, cutting it high enough to leave stubble with some leaves on it. In this situation, it
is often possible to cut and bale the lespedeza on the same day due to the low-moisture levels in the leaves. Whether pasturing or haying, it is a good practice to manage lespedeza stands so that they will set seed. In central Kentucky, Korean lespedeza will start setting seed in early September, with Kobe about two weeks later. Resting the lespedeza once it does this, or allowing at least a couple weeks growth after cutting for hay, will typically result in a natural reseeding. By late October, the seed should be well developed, and you can graze what remains.
Annual lespedeza has been a largely forgotten forage, and I hope that changes. But there are a few of us who are using it extensively and have come to appreciate its many advantages. I can’t imagine an easier warm-season annual forage to both establish and manage. •
Alfalfa has potential as a human food ingredient
Hay & Forage Grower is featuring results of research projects funded through the Alfalfa Checkoff, officially named the U.S. Alfalfa Farmer Research Initiative, administered by National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance (NAFA). The checkoff program facilitates farmer-funded research.
IF JO Heuschele has anything to do with it, alfalfa might soon find a new role as a nutritious human food ingredient. Her Alfalfa Checkoff project titled, “Alfalfa Value-Added Characteristics: Screening Cultivars for Biochemical Compounds,” explored alfalfa’s potential as a source of essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients for humans.
“I’ve always been interested in plant-based food,” said Heuschele. “As a child, my family foraged for wild plants. My relatives always said these plants were nutritious, but specific information on nutritive values was limited and still is. If alfalfa or any plant is to be utilized as human food, then that plant needs to be assessed for nutritive and antinutritive potential.”
JO HEUSCHELE
Funding: $93,215
The research is part of an ongoing effort to better understand the nutritional value of plant-based foods and their applicability to human diets. Before alfalfa can be used as a human food source, a thorough analysis to assess both its nutritional value and any potential antinutrients that could pose a risk to health is needed.
The objectives of this project were to measure nutrient profiles from three commercial alfalfa cultivars and two soybean cultivars to compare valueadded characteristics that would affect future market potential and screen 50 lines for two value-added traits important to either current or future market potential.
“In this study, we assessed alfalfa for human essential vitamins, mineral content, and antinutrients,” Heuschele said. “We compared three cultivars with fall dormancy 4.5 at late bud
stage and soybean forage and meal for traditional dietary fibers, crude protein, total fatty acids, vitamins A, C, E, B1-12, phytoestrogens, saponins, and isoflavones. We found alfalfa contains higher levels of vitamins B9, B12, and K than soybean meal.”
The USDA-ARS scientist then screened 50 genetically diverse alfalfa lines for the same compounds and saponins to determine plant variability. The vitamins had genetic variability, while the saponins did not, meaning alfalfa can be bred for higher vitamin levels, but reducing saponins will be a challenge.
A fortifying ingredient
The key takeaway for farmers is alfalfa has the potential to become a nutritious human food ingredient. Although farmers may not directly benefit from this research in the short
term, the findings open the door for food processing industries to explore alfalfa as a fortifying ingredient. Alfalfa could be used to enrich processed foods with vitamins such as K, B9, and B12. As consumer interest in plant-based foods grows, there may be an increased demand for alfalfa.
One of the biggest challenges Heuschele faced was navigating the gap between applied research, which directly benefits farmers, and basic research, which seeks to understand biological processes. Research that falls between these two categories often struggles to attract funding or interest — a crucial issue for those aiming to transition new ideas into practical applications.
A surprising finding was the low variability in saponin levels among the alfalfa lines. “Saponins are of particular concern to livestock farmers,”
PROJECT RESULTS
• Vitamins A, B1, C, and E were greater in alfalfa herbage than soybean herbage. Vitamins B9, B12, and K were found within alfalfa in higher concentrations than soybean meal.
• W ithin the selected 50 genetically diverse lines, significant diversity was found for vitamin B9, B12, and K. Very little genetic diversity was found for saponin concentrations.
Heuschele noted. “They can negatively impact fiber digestion and contribute to bloat when alfalfa is used as feed. Our study found higher levels of saponins in soybean herbage, challenging the assumption that alfalfa is inherently problematic in this regard.”
Looking ahead, Heuschele is collaborating with animal scientists on formu-
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lating feeds for chickens and pigs using alfalfa as a primary ingredient and food scientists on fortifying processed food products with alfalfa to boost their nutrient content. With further research and development, alfalfa could emerge as an innovative ingredient in both animal feed and human food.
While alfalfa’s potential as a food
ingredient is still in its infancy, its rich nutrient profile suggests it could play a significant role in fortifying diets with essential vitamins. With continued research, alfalfa could transition from a traditional animal feed to a valuable human food source. A full copy of the report can be found at: https://alfalfa.org. •
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WHAT DO THE OCEANS TELL US ABOUT DROUGHT?
by Amber Friedrichsen, Managing Editor
IN 1998 , the average price of gas was $1.06 a gallon. That year, the Denver Broncos won their first Super Bowl, John Glenn took off on the space shuttle Discovery mission, and the “Titanic” was awarded Best Picture at the Oscars. According to Matt Makens, 1998 is also when farmers started a decades-long wrestling match with high-frequency drought. Makens is a meteorologist and atmospheric scientist with Makens Weather LLC based in Colorado. Every year during the CattleFax Outlook Seminar at the Cattle Industry Convention, he shares his predictions for the El Niño and La Niña weather patterns that could take shape throughout the spring, summer, and fall. To do this, he uses historic data and meteorological modeling to create temperature and moisture outlooks based on sea surface temperatures of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) region of the Pacific Ocean. However, at this year’s convention in San Antonio, Texas, Makens added the
Atlantic Ocean to the equation. Many farmers understand that the ENSO can dictate temperature and moisture levels for the season ahead. For example, when ocean waters in this specific spot along the equator are warmer than average, we generally expect El Niño to offer milder and wetter weather in the United States. Conversely, cooler sea surface temperatures push the jet stream farther north and typically welcome La Niña’s hotter and drier conditions across a wide swath of the country.
Despite short visits from El Niño in recent years, Makens has informed attendees of the Cattle Industry Convention of the immediate return of La Niña time and again. In fact, there have been six La Niña events since 1998, five of which have lasted multiple years. So, why does she keep coming back? And why does she keep extending her stay?
Ocean impacts
In addition to the ENSO, La Niña’s appearances largely depend on the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation
(AMO) — in other words, the natural cycles of warming and cooling in the northern parts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, respectively.
By analyzing sea surface temperatures of both bodies of water dating back to 1895 and correlating these measurements with precipitation data and drought patterns during that time frame, Makens illustrated that the nation has experienced more frequent incidence of drought with the combination of a cold-phased PDO and a warmphased AMO, which has been the case since about 1998 (Figure 1).
“These two big oceans like to behave in certain ways for 20 to 30 to 40 years,” Makens said. “Since we are sandwiched between the two, there’s going to be an impact on the states.”
Makens explained the blending of these specific ocean behaviors occurred during the first four decades of the 20th century as well when dry conditions throughout the heartland came to a head with the Dust Bowl in the late 1930s. Intensive tillage and excess soil erosion aside, he compared these infa-
mous drought years to the perpetually dry forecasts plaguing farmers of the present generation.
For the next 40 years following the Dust Bowl, moisture levels across the country made a slow and steady comeback, eventually pointing in the direction of net water surplus by the 1980s. According to Makens, sea surface temperatures shifted their orientation into a cold phase in the Atlantic Ocean during this time, creating an opportunity opposite of the first that largely encouraged wetter weather. As the new millennium approached, though, those sea surface temperatures flip-flopped once again, welcoming another decades-long period defined by a higher rate of drought.
“Since 1998, the oceans have told us that we will be in drought more frequently than not,” Makens said.
It's all a big cycle, he continued. Even though the communication between the two oceans isn’t always clear and sea surface temperatures are extremely slow to change, there has been a pattern of long-term water deficits that morph into long-term water surpluses roughly every 40 years. In fact, the trendline among these peaks and troughs is virtually flat, and it actually boasts a net water surplus in the United States over the past 130 years. Of course, drought is less of a function of how much water we receive, but rather of when we receive it.
The year ahead
If history repeats itself, Makens said the Atlantic Ocean could cool off within the next five years. This would suggest the shift toward more precipitation and moisture available to farmers over the long term. But until the tides change, he prompted producers to expect another dry La Niña year in 2025 given the current condition of the ENSO and provided the following temperature and moisture outlooks.
Today through April: Despite a few cold snaps throughout the Midwest, most of the country has a high probability of experiencing above-average temperatures for this time of year, especially moving into late spring.
The moisture outlook for the same period shows dryness throughout the Southwest and portions of the High Plains. Even though the latter region has received significant snowfall over the winter, Makens purported this won’t translate to enough moisture to offset La Niña’s drought effects.
May through July: The Southwest and West Coast are pegged for a greater probability of high heat in the first half of the summer, whereas Makens said he expects to find cool pockets throughout the Corn Belt. Farther east, his weather maps suggested an 80% to 90% probability for below-average
temperatures in parts of Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia.
In terms of precipitation, Makens had a hunch that the Southwest will see a stronger monsoon season, but it’s hard to predict exactly which states will feel the greatest effects. Most of the Corn Belt and East Coast is slotted for a greater probability of above-average moisture during May, June, and July; however, Makens noted parts of Iowa, northern Illinois, and/ or southern Wisconsin will likely see a flash drought similar to the rapid onset of dry weather experienced last summer. A more predictable dry pattern is expected in many of the states that share a border with Canada, including Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana.
August through October: Looking further into the forecast, it becomes more difficult to determine the probabilities of warm versus cool and wet versus dry. Moreover, Makens stated the long-term temperature and moisture outlooks largely depend on the strength of the monsoon.
After balancing the biases of his meteorological models, Makens said the central and eastern United States presented relatively cool conditions in August through October. A high probability for above-average moisture begins in the Southwest and spans across the center of the country during the second half of the growing season. On the other hand, drought appears to grow farther West as the fall season progresses.
With all that said, La Niña’s bark could be worse than her bite. Even in a neutral year, though, Makens emphasized the overall outlook is drier than last season, making the timing of moisture that much more critical for crop production moving forward. •
PLOWDOWN
PLOWDOWN Brand
ALFALFA
MIX 25%
MIX 25%
MIX 25%
MIX 25%
“Plowdown” alfalfa with your regular alfalfa seed. Expect a hearty yield increase your “new seeding” first year!
“Plowdown” alfalfa with your regular alfalfa seed. Expect a hearty yield increase your “new seeding” first year!
“Plowdown” alfalfa with your regular alfalfa seed. Expect a hearty yield increase your “new seeding” first year!
“Plowdown” alfalfa with your regular alfalfa seed. Expect a hearty yield increase your “new seeding” first year!
“Plowdown” is #9 fall dormancy. It is supposed to winterkill, but has often been known to overwinter for a second growing season!
“Plowdown” is #9 fall dormancy. It is supposed to winterkill, but has often been known to overwinter for a second growing season!
“Plowdown” is #9 fall dormancy. It is supposed to winterkill, but has often been known to overwinter for a second growing season!
“Plowdown” is #9 fall dormancy. It is supposed to winterkill, but has often been known to overwinter for a second growing season!
You could plant “Plowdown” as a one year only crop. Great for a bean crop, for example, next growing season.
You could plant “Plowdown” as a one year only crop. Great for a bean crop, for example, next growing season.
You could plant “Plowdown” as a one year only crop. Great for a bean crop, for example, next growing season.
You could plant “Plowdown” as a one year only crop. Great for a bean crop, for example, next growing season.
Figure 1. Historical drought frequency during cold-phase PDO and warm-phase AMO.
Hoff Farms chops corn for 20 to 25 clients each year, focusing on small and midsized dairy operations.
HEADWINDS HAVEN’T STOPPED THIS FORAGE HARVESTER
by Mike Rankin, Senior Editor
FARMING is never easy, but it can be made that much tougher when you’re beginning from scratch. As with many who set their life’s sail toward a sustainable farm business and start with little or nothing, Allen Hoff knows what it’s like to simultaneously fight for a bank loan, operate with and constantly fix older equipment, build and keep a client base, and start a family. Growing up on his parent’s small family farm near Knapp, Wis., Hoff always had his sights set on being his own boss as a custom forage harvester. “I love this business; I’ve always loved this business. I like the challenge and the people,” he said last fall as we circled a cornfield in his chopper. Our sharing of the chopper cab came after a night where he got 40 minutes of sleep because of a silage bagger repair that needed to be made before morning. It wasn’t long after graduating from high school in 2000 that Hoff began
working for a local tractor salvage yard. He bought his first used silage bagger in 2003 and added another a year later, renting both out to area farmers. He eventually would add two more baggers to his inventory and began working for a local custom harvester in 2006. “We laid out about 3 miles of bags in 2013,” Hoff said. “That was our peak year when there were still a number of smaller dairies that liked to fill their own bags.”
When the custom forage harvester he was working for got out of the business in 2016, the young entrepreneur extended himself to purchase a used chopper and three trucks. These days, Hoff runs a 2015 Claas chopper, three silage baggers, three trucks, a silage cart, a Hesston center-pivot mower, and an Oxbo windrow merger from his home base in Glenwood City, Wis.
Smaller farms
Hoff’s custom forage business, operating as Hoff Farms LLC, services 20 to 25 farms, both dairy and beef, and many of those are return clients
every year. Occasionally, he will chop for a bunker or pile silo operation, and on rare jobs will still chop and fill an upright silo. He also helps assist other custom forage harvesters as requested. In the category of unique chopping jobs, Hoff said he has been asked to chop miscanthus, or silvergrass, which some farms use for bedding and construction companies use for mulch. He said it gets chopped in the spring when the plants are brown from overwintering.
“I kind of specialize doing the smaller and medium-sized farms,” Hoff explained. “Some custom operators only want to do a few big jobs, but I enjoy working for a variety of different operations.”
Glenwood City is hardly a “city,” with a population of around 1,200. It’s located in northwest Wisconsin and is known as the “City of 57 Hills.” That moniker offers some idea of the terrain that Hoff often deals with. “We have to cut higher because of rocks,” Hoff noted. “Most fields are small and
Mike Rankin
hilly, so we charge by the cutterhead hour on the chopper. This also helps us avoid having to chop the really bad fields with washouts.” As for the trucks, Hoff said those are charged for by the hour, whether they are moving or not. He encourages his clients to make improvements that will speed up harvest such as trimming trees around field edges and fixing holes in driveways or field roads.
Family matters
In the harvest offseason, Hoff works at a wood shavings company where he does metal fabrication and machinery repair. He is also a regular attendee at the U.S. Custom Harvesters Convention and the Wisconsin Custom Operators Symposium, where he enjoys talking to his peers and company representatives.
Hoff’s wife, Megan, works for a neighboring county’s human services department. The two were married in 2011 and had a son, Leo, in 2019. Hoff describes their son as their “miracle baby several times over.” Megan had
Allen Hoff has a passion for custom chopping. Although it isn’t a path that has always been easy, it’s one he has never regretted taking. “I like the challenge and the people,” he said.
been diagnosed and treated for two different forms of cancer before the age of 26. To add to those complications, she was diagnosed with HELLP Syndrome during her pregnancy, airlifted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and Leo was born premature, weighing 2 pounds, 2 ounces. He remained in neonatal intensive care
for 65 days.
Hoff recalls that spring of 2019 when there was widespread alfalfa winterkill in his area. “I only had one alfalfa chopping job that summer, and that turned out to be a blessing for me because I put 9,000 miles on the car between here and Rochester, which is about a 200-mile round-trip drive.” Today, Leo is a typical 5-year-old boy full of sass and orneriness, according to his proud father.
To be sure, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Hoff and his family. Nevertheless, the young custom operator hasn’t been deterred. “A lot of the medium and smaller dairies in this area are or have gone out of business because of retirement or economic reasons, but I still want to keep growing,” he asserted. “For that to happen, we’ll probably have to expand our geographic service area, but right now, I have a family to think about.”
Even with headwinds, it’s never smart to bet against a young farmer with a passion. Most of those boats don’t sink. •
Mike Rankin
by Jason Banta
Use hay tests to guide fertilization
SOIL test is a good tool, but it only tells part of the forage story. Numerous factors affect the uptake of minerals by plants, and a soil test can’t tell you how much of a nutrient is being taken up or how that may vary by cutting or time of year.
A forage test, or a hay test, is normally taken to primarily evaluate the energy and protein content of hay, silage, or baleage. However, it can be a good tool to also monitor mineral concentrations in the forage and help evaluate your fertilizer program. Are some minerals being applied in excess? Overapplication is costly and, in some cases, can lead to animal health issues, reduced animal performance, and even contribute to death loss.
Calcium and phosphorus
Poultry litter and animal manure can be cost-effective options to apply nutrients to soils that are deficient in phosphorus and potassium. However, most forages have a low requirement for phosphorus. Continuing to apply poultry litter, animal manure, or other sources of phosphorus after nutrient levels build up is not cost effective and can be detrimental from a livestock standpoint. Additionally, if soil erosion occurs, excess phosphorus can move off site into rivers and streams. Looking at the calcium and phosphorus levels from a hay test is a good way to help monitor phosphorus levels.
Depending on the species and seed content of the sample, calcium levels in forage will generally average from 0.2% to 1.5% on a dry matter basis. Legumes will have higher levels of calcium than grasses. Phosphorous levels will average between 0.18% and 0.40% on a dry matter basis.
Just as important as the level of each mineral is the ratio of calcium to phosphorus. One bermudagrass study showed calcium averaged 0.48% and phosphorus averaged 0.21% based on results from over 21,500 samples. This resulted in a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 2.3-to-1.
Excess phosphorus application can result in a drop in calcium levels
and a rise in phosphorus levels, both of which can have negative effects. In most cases when the calcium to phosphorus ratio drops below 1.4-to-1 on a hay test, phosphorus applications should discontinue or be greatly reduced. In severe cases where the phosphorus level is higher than the calcium level, phosphorus applications must be stopped. These high phosphorus levels greatly enhance the risk of milk fever, urinary calculi, and other health problems in cat -
tle, which can result in death. High phosphorus levels in forage can also reduce the absorption of calcium by animals, which can lead to reduced growth rates.
Excess sulfur
Sulfur is a mineral that is needed by both plants and animals for normal growth. Sulfur is often included in fertilizer programs to help boost crop yields. However, overapplication of sulfur likely will not benefit yields and
Hay tests may identify issues in nutrient application and uptake by plants that soil tests cannot.
can have significant impacts on cattle health and performance.
Cattle require a diet with about 0.15% sulfur on a dry matter basis. However, sulfur can become detrimental once levels exceed 0.3% to 0.5%, depending on the diet, animal age, and other mineral levels. If sulfur levels in forage exceed 0.3%, reduced sulfur applications are likely warranted. If sulfur levels exceed 0.5% in forage, applications of sulfur must stop until levels drop. The frequency and rate at which sulfur needs to be applied will depend on rainfall and soil type.
Sulfur levels in forages generally range from about 0.1% to 0.43% on a dry matter basis. Out of a study on more than 50 forage sample categories, bermudagrass hay had the highest average sulfur content at 0.43%. This suggests that sulfur was routinely overapplied to many bermudagrass hayfields.
Luxury consumption
Potassium is a mineral that some forage species may consume in excess. Luxury consumption is problematic because it doesn’t improve yields for the current cutting of hay or baleage and it reduces the amount of potassium available for future cuttings.
Recent hay test results from the first and second cutting of teffgrass illustrate this. Potassium fertilizer was applied during the winter. The potassium level from the first cutting was 3.24% and the potassium level from the second cutting was 1.7%. Potassium levels above 2% in forage likely won’t result in better production.
The rate of potassium fertilizer breakdown and subsequent movement into the soil will vary with rainfall, temperature, and soil type. Potassium breaks down and moves into the soil at a much quicker rate in warm, high rainfall areas. As such, the frequency and rate at which potassium should be applied will vary.
In higher rainfall environments, consider applying some potassium after each cutting to improve the efficiency of your fertilizer program without increasing the total amount of potassium applied for the year.
At major forage testing labs, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and sulfur are included as part of a basic near infrared reflectance spectroscopy
(NIRS) forage analysis. While NIRS is not as good for analyzing minerals, it is sufficient for routine monitoring of macronutrients. If a potential issue is identified, a wet chemistry minerals package can be requested to confirm macronutrient levels and to evaluate trace mineral levels.
The next time you send in a hay test to help develop a feeding plan for your
livestock, consider what it can tell you about your fertilizer program. •
We run out of creek water about June 1, and Macbeth still kicked out the tons. We had to raise the swather to get through it!
We run out of creek water about June 1, and Macbeth still kicked out the tons. We had to raise the swather to get through it!
Of the five meadow bromes on the market, Macbeth is the only one that excels on dryland or low water. A meadow brome will always be your highest yielding grass! Macbeth will have leaves about as wide as barley.
Of the five meadow bromes on the market, Macbeth is the only one that excels on
JASON BANTA
The author is a beef cattle specialist for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension based in Overton, Texas.
*Jerry Hoagland, Seven High Ranch, Reynolds Creek, Owyhee Co, Idaho
*Jerry Hoagland, Seven High Ranch, Reynolds Creek, Owyhee Co, Idaho
*Jerry Hoagland, Seven High Ranch, Reynolds Creek, Owyhee Co, Idaho
• Models for skid steers, tractor front loaders and select telehandlers.
• Pick-up two 4’ x 4’ x 8’ or three 3’ x 3’ x 8’ rectangular bales.
• Features five bolt-in spears with useable length of 40.5” and four upper balance spears.
By Corey A. Geiger
Former Hoard’s Dairyman managing editor
Explore the development of America’s Dairyland with this pair of books showcasing stories from the 1800s and 1900s.
Building on the storyline established in On a Wisconsin Family Farm, 34 more narrative nonfiction short stories explore a family’s farm succession and story as a rural community prospers in mid-20th century America’s Dairyland. Over 80 historic photographs illustrate stories about farming, family, co-op creation, and much more.
This narrative nonfiction collection of 31 short stories takes the reader back in time to the turn of 20th century as a cast of characters builds farm life in pioneer America. Read about how Wisconsin became “America’s Dairyland,” a family farm was passed through generations of women, and rural communities grew out of the people that settled there. The 77 restored photographs illustrate the people and places of the day.
Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference
June 5 and 6, Dubuque, Iowa
Details: fourstatedairy.org
International Silage Conference
July 21 to 24, Gainesville, Fla.
Details: conference.ifas.ufl.edu/silage
Wisconsin Farm Technology Days
August 5 to 7, Bear Creek, Wis.
Details: wifarmtechdays.org
Farm Progress Show
August 26 to 28, Decatur, Ill.
Details: farmprogressshow.com
Husker Harvest Days
September 9 to 11, Grand Island, Neb.
Details: huskerharvestdays.com
National Hay Association Convention
September 24 to 27, Frankenmuth, Mich.
Details: nationalhay.org
World Dairy Expo World Forage Analysis Superbowl
Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, Madison, Wis.
Corn silage entries due July 10
Hay crop entries due August 21
Details: bit.ly/HFG-WFAS
HAY MARKET UPDATE
Hay exports had a steady pulse
Total U.S. hay exports to major markets in 2024 were virtually unchanged after experiencing a more drastic decline the previous year. According to the USDA, alfalfa hay exports were down slightly due to lower demand. This was balanced out by stronger demand for grass hay. With that said, the current climate of the export market shows little impact on domestic hay prices, especially for Western producers. The prices below are primarily from USDA hay market reports as of mid-February. Prices are FOB barn/stack unless otherwise noted. •
BALING WITHOUT COMPROMISE
KUHN offers the most efficient and versatile range of fixed and variable chamber round balers available on the market. These round balers ensure consistent, perfectly shaped round bales and produce exceptionally high bale densities even in the most demanding conditions.
No matter if you’re baling dry hay, corn stalks, high-density baleage or anything in between, KUHN round balers are ready to work for you.
The Hesston by Massey Ferguson® SB.1436DB small square baler represents the next legendary innovation from the brand that knows hay best. With improved capacity and throughput, this small square baler doubles your output while reducing your time, labor and fuel costs. With its SimplEbale® control system ensuring unmatched bale consistency and marketability, and heavy-duty components designed for maximum uptime, it delivers premium results with less labor. Built on Hesston’s legacy of pioneering excellence, the MF SB.1436DB is the ultimate solution for efficiency, performance, and profitability in modern hay production.
Plant health and livelihood suffered, and that likely contributed to substandard fiber digestibility.
Crop protection: While fertility plays a role in plant health, crop protection is also quite important. Genetics influence disease resistance; however, I’m a proponent for additional crop protection practices to ensure plants are healthy right up to cutting and harvest. Talk through crop protection options with your agronomist this year to improve fiber digestibility.
Harvest timing and maturity:
Alfalfa quality decline is a bit more forgiving than that of cool-season grasses as maturity advances; however, the fiber digestibility of both types of forage is tightly correlated to plant maturity. Alfalfa fiber digestibility will gradually move downward as plants bud and flower, whereas cool-season grass fiber digestibility falls off a cliff as the plants transition from vegetative to reproductive stages.
With corn, a warm-season grass, the
decline in fiber digestibility around R5 and silage maturity is a bit less pronounced than cool-season grasses or alfalfa. With that said, corn will drop 3 to 5 units in fiber digestibility as it progresses through the silage maturity stage.
Theoretical cut length: Particle size interacts with forage nutritive value, which I discussed in the January issue of Hay & Forage Grower. The interaction between theoretical length (TLC) and total-tract fiber digestibility in dairy or beef cattle diets is tricky because particle size also influences how fast the feed moves through the cow’s digestive tract.
Shortening up the TLC can expose more surface area in forage for fiber digesting bacterial attachment. The bacteria need to attach before digestion starts, so in some cases with challenged forage, a shortened TLC can help tip the scales toward slightly improved NDFD.
Forage preservation: The best prepped forage can fall apart if not
preserved effectively. Heat damage in hay or ensiled forage can tie fiber and protein together, creating a less digestible product. Poor preservation can also contribute to antinutritional contaminants such as mold, yeast, or undesirable bacteria. Experience tells me that these antinutritional contaminants will affect the rumen’s sensitive fiber digesting bacteria and depress fiber digestibility in cows.
By leading with a steering philosophy, higher fiber digestibility can be achieved by considering the management areas covered here. While the year-end forage outcome may be wild like my kids, trust that we can make an impact. •
ROOTED IN ALFALFA.
HIGH-QUALITY FORAGE WITH NUTRITIONAL & REGENERATIVE BENEFITS THAT KEEPS ON GIVING, STAND AFTER STAND.
GROW MORE & YOUR ROI PROTEIN
The National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance (NAFA) is a voice for alfalfa farmers across the country. Being the ultimate regenerative crop, alfalfa gives back to the environment. Known for its nitrogen-fixing abilities in crop rotations, this perennial crop, with its deep root structure, helps farmers sustain their land for years to come. Alfalfa also gives back to the farmer by providing a high-quality forage for their livestock.
JOIN THE REGENERATION NATION MOVEMENT TODAY. LEARN MORE AT: REGENERATION-NATION.ORG
JOHN GOESER
The author works for Rock River Lab Inc., the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is a consultant with Cows Agree Consulting LLC.
360-V Alfalfa will ALWAYS Test Premium (five)
If you knew the breeding of this alfalfa you would buy it immediately! EliminateBuy$3.75/lb.Direct!the Middlemen!
We are a non-GMO seed house! Never a positive hit for GMO
It is common knowledge that you can cut heavier 1st and heavier 3rd or 4th cuts with a class 5 alfalfa, but they usually die out in colder areas. Not so with 360-V!!
This unique variety has an unbelievable winter hardiness rating of 1!! (The highest W.H. rating available!)
A bigger haystack of 3rd or 4th cutting will make you more money.
HERE”S WHAT GROWERS ARE SAYING: (More testimonials available on our website)
“The best stand ever. Best alfalfa we’ve planted in 15 years. No rain from May 15-June 20 and we still made 5 ton with 4 cuts. 180 RFV, dries quick, holds traffic, fast recovery.”
John Martin - Williamsburg, IN
We cut 360-V at 25 days! RFV is testing at 170-185. Our 5th cutting was knee high.” Dean Cammes - Darlington, WI
360-V is a very heavy yielder. We did 5.4 ton for the season. 3rd cutting was heavier than 1st or 2nd. 360-V yielded considerably more than our Pioneer variety. Scott Bigger - Rockville, IN
“360-V has leaves at every inch of the stem, and the stem is very fine. Best alfalfa we have ever planted!” John Fiereira - Cotta & Fiereira Custom Farming, Stockton, CA This alfalfa has a disease package worthy of the worst Wisconsin diseases!! We grow seed in an area that forbids GMO Alfalfa by Law!
Stem Nematode HR
SHORT ON WATER ?
Two
Alfalfas
in One
Plant On Dryland
On the Market since 1979 (and still unbeatable)
We are a non-GMO seed house! Never a positive hit for GMO
Plant If Your Pivot Only Pumps 400gal/
Never a Report of Winter Kill
360-D
Greenway Alfalfa
This Alfalfa has been called a tetraploid anomaly by alfalfa breeders. On the market since 1979, and being improved twice, It remains the highest yielding, low water alfalfa on the market!
HERE’S WHAT GROWERS ARE SAYING: (More testimonials available on our website)
When Planting Dryland Alfalfa always use coated seed! (Let us prove it!)
I swathed the 6 year old 360-D and could barely get through it. I had to shift two gears lower than the adjacent Pioneer variety. Buck Richards for the Lapp Ranch - Hay Center, NE
"360-D outyielded the Pioneer variety by one third! The average yield in our area is about 3.8 ton. 360-D yielded 5 ton. 360-D will be our rst choice in varieties." John Yoder - Hutchinson, KS
"In the future we will plant all of our dryland and part of our irrigated acreage to 360-D. It is a very aggressive variety. With this variety we can now plant our higher, thinner, drier soil!"
Treg Fisher - Beaver City, NE
"We planted 360-D in an irrigated pivot that was very short on water. Side by side was a pivot with normal water. The 360-D yielded with the well irrigated adjacent eld! No di erence in yield!"
Ryan Telford - Richfield, ID
“Our area has been in drought for several years. Everyone here is short on water. We only pump 400 gal. on 120 acres. That’s why we plant 360-D. Under that short water we still yield near normal and the quality is excellent because we plant 35 lbs/acre.”
Alan Greenway Seedsman
Over 50 Years Experience
Greenway Seeds Caldwell, ID
Alan Greenway
208-250-0159 (cell)
208-454-8342 (message)
Dan Sawyer - Clarendon, TX
√ Will produce AT LEAST 80% of crop with 50% of water
√ Will produce a subsequent cutting after water is gone
√ Plant on dryland/ guaranteed to out yield Ranger or Ladak
*
√ Plant under pivots that only pump 400 gal/
√ Plant on elds that have only early season creek water
√ Plant under end guns on pivots
√ Plant in the late fall with your dormant seeded grasses
*Plant in your pivot corners. Two ton bonus per acre per year.
