From supply and demand, weather and shipping challenges to distribution of government assistance payments and pandemic vaccines, there was no shortage of issues affecting hay markets and marketers – directly or indirectly – as the new year got underway.

For the first blog of the year, I thought I should include a few jokes – you know, for kits and gaggles. It’s been a tough year, and I think we could all use a few “calfs” (I warned you – watch those puns). I’ve been hearing a lot of jokes about sheep I thought I could share. I started telling them to my dog to test them out, but she’s “herd” them all. I tried telling them to the cows next, but they were just “laughing stock.”

Amid many challenges of 2020, with COVID-19, lockdowns and disruption of supply chains, our livestock still have to eat, and our farmers did not stop working.

Agricultural producers and private landowners interested in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) can sign up for the popular program beginning Jan. 4, 2021, until Feb. 12, 2021.

Organic forages remain a growth market, based on national survey data from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).