Despite all my pretenses to the opposite, I wasn’t a real “farm kid” growing up. My parents brought home the bacon, but it didn’t come from the farm. I never milked a cow, but my brother told me to not have a cow when he got my goat. As a kid, I didn’t feed chickens, but I was prone to counting my eggs before they hatched and rarely had my ducks in a row. And, if you asked my mom, my room was always a pigsty.

Whether you want to grow more homegrown feedstuff without increasing acreage, improve soil structure, add organic matter into the ground, increase soil fertility or all the above – cover crops are an effective and quick way to achieve your forage goals.

“Have you ever gone to a company-sponsored producer meeting with one hand over your billfold and one hand over your checkbook, afraid that they [vitamin and mineral supplement companies] would try to squeeze one more dollar out of you?”

A total mixed ration (TMR) is defined as a method of feeding cows that combines feeds formulated to a specific nutrient content into a single feed mix that contains forages, grains, protein sources, minerals, vitamins and feed additives. This method of feeding has been highly adopted since the 1950s because it allows cows to consume a nutritionally balanced meal with every bite. Feeding a TMR has both advantages and disadvantages.

John Deere expands grapple attachments

Continuing to expand its offering of jobsite cleanup solutions, John Deere is introducing the new GS66B, GS72B, GS78B and GS84B scrap grapple buckets and GR72B and GR84B rock grapple buckets into its line of Worksite Pro attachments.