Areas across the continent are beginning to see a new change in traditional hay production. While parts of the country have been utilizing baleage for years, it hasn’t been seen coast-to-coast, so to speak, until recently.

Weed management is a continual challenge for alfalfa producers. More money is typically spent on weed control than on insect or disease management in most years.

The raking step is sometimes taken for granted in the production of quality hay, but how a rake handles the hay can materially impact raking speed, forage quality and profitability.

“We have an excellent working relationship with our customer – that’s crucial to our business,” says Brett Braxton, owner of a custom-forage harvest business in south Georgia.

In a perfect world, wouldn’t it be great to have one machine to handle heavy bucketloads like a wheel loader, stack hay bales taller than a front-end loader, maneuver through tight spaces like a skid-steer loader and tow a trailer at good road speeds up to 25 mph to quickly move from one location to another?

There continues to be a lot of interest in corn silage harvested with a self-propelled forage harvester (SPFH) equipped with an after-market processor having cross-grooved processing rolls set for 2- to 3-mm roll gap and greater roll speed differential than has typically been used (32 percent versus 21 percent).

Birdsfoot trefoil has been commercially available in the U.S. since the 1930s. Every student of forages learns that it is one of the few bloat-free legume options for pastures.

Are you in the market to replace or upgrade hay equipment? When making the decision, one should consider how the new piece or pieces of equipment fit into the “hay-making system.”

After feeding cornstalks, probably the lowest-cost way to feed cattle in the fall and winter is to stockpile forages.