By Larry Hawkins, PAS I guess maybe it is just being old, (and my fractured syntax), but the reference is from a song by Peter, Paul and Mary (in 1962 – seems like yesterday!) Where have all the flowers gone? Yes, especially in the Upper Midwest and NE, we may soon or perhaps already are wondering, what happened to our alfalfa? The combinations of little snow in some areas, dry conditions and Continue Reading
Grasses — The Roots of Regenerative Agriculture
by Larry Hawkins, PAS The benefits of alfalfa roots are well known and understood. This article will be about the benefits of the roots of both cool and warm season grasses. With the emergence of Regenerative Agriculture, grasses play an important and almost necessary role. We will look at grasses and their root systems and especially their ability to increase and improve organic matter I Continue Reading
Forage Shortage
by Larry Hawkins, PAS 2021 has a brought some good news, but a problem is looming for dairy farmers in some parts of the country. I am referring to forage shortages before new crop can be harvested and cured. If you see that you will be running out of corn silage before your usual March 2022 silo opening time, here are a few things to consider. How Corn Silage Changes During Continue Reading
Efficiency – Everybody wants it!
By Larry Hawkins, PAS It seems in these times everybody is talking about being more efficient. We want to spend less time and money getting things done. For many, the pandemic solved a big problem. Getting to work became a lot more efficient. Instead of spending 30 minutes or an hour fighting rush hour traffic and then another 15 or 20 minutes finding a parking spot, the commute Continue Reading
The World of Warm Season Annuals: Sorghum, Sudan, Millet, Oh My!
By Daniel Olson, Founder of Forage Innovations The world of warm season annuals is a new one for many farmers and so is the terminology associated with them. In this article, I will try to define some terms and characteristics of different annuals. Sorghum, Sudangrass, sorghum X Sudan, and millet. Probably the most common of these three is sorghum. We will be focusing on forage types, Continue Reading
Fresh Forage, not your Father’s Green Chop!
So, what is “Fresh Forage”? It might just be a new name for “green chop”, but it is really much more than that. Fresh Forage refers to an actual balanced-in forage ingredient for high-producing dairies. It was covered in one of Daniel Olson’s (lead forage specialist with Forage Innovations) earliest Zoom discussions during the new way to interact with you during Covid 19, but Continue Reading
Clover, The Forgotten Forage
by Larry Hawkins, PAS Ever since the genetic engineering scientists have been working to improve alfalfa, they seem to have forgotten about a legume forage which already has the traits they are trying to achieve with the exception of Roundup Ready®. Reduced lignin and condensed tannin are the two traits that were targeted to address the shortfalls of alfalfa. The lower lignin is already in the Continue Reading
Comparing Apples to Oranges: The attack on Better than BMR
by Larry Hawkins, PAS Whenever a trend-setting new technology arrives threatening to upset the apple cart, the forces which are being disrupted (in this case “Big Corn”) attempt to muddy the waters to maintain their highly profitable dominance. Such is the case with Forage Innovations’ Better Than BMR (BTBMR) system. Competitive hybrid companies with a lot to lose are pecking at the edges of Continue Reading
Forage Innovations Knows Great Forage
Forage Innovations Knows Great Forage by Larry Hawkins Obviously, the best way to determine a great forage is to feed it to your cows and see if the energy corrected milk (ECM) goes up. When the forages to compare are scattered all over the USA, the way to judge great forage is by submitting samples to the World Dairy Expo’s Forage Analysis Superbowl (FASB), the Granddaddy of such forage Continue Reading