Q. How is the 2008 production season going for your operation?
“This is the first year we have ever had to replant our bottom areas three times.

Expect each new year in the hay business to be either a short hay year or a long hay year.

Why rake? Before baling hay, raking is necessary for two reasons:

Pierce, Nebraska alfalfa producer, Bernie Wrede, has been cultivating western alfalfa and serving as a supplier for dairy farms in the eastern and southern United States for 18 years.

Large round balers are one of the most economical hay production systems because of low labor requirements.

Some caution is needed to prevent damage to established alfalfa fields from summer manure applications. The potential to damage alfalfa crowns, injure plant tissue due to salt toxicity, overapply nutrients or even transmit disease should be considered.

I was juror number twenty-four. There were a couple of us who had the audacity to state on our questionnaire that we had obtained a four-year degree from a college or university.

There’s not a whole lot of positive things producers can say about the current feed prices, but it has caused some feed sources often considered “alternative feeds” to get a second look.

Any stockman will tell you that hay trucks don’t really run well until there is snow on the ground. Or so it seemed by the timing of the orders for hay.

It’s going to be a wild ride. That is the only thing I am sure of for the hay market for the next couple or three years.