In March 2016, Progressive Forage published a story on a biocontrol nematode that looked promising for control of the alfalfa snout beetle. This is a follow-up report on the progress of that enterprise.

In January, the National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance (NAFA) is kicking off the first-ever Alfalfa Checkoff – U.S. Alfalfa Farmer Research Initiative. The new checkoff is a farmer-funded investment in alfalfa-related research to help drive innovation and profitability in the alfalfa industry.

Harvest season has wound down, but hay markets have not yet heated up heading into the final month of 2016. Here’s a list of factors (some naughty, some nice) impacting hay producers and marketers as winter approaches.

Wisconsin dairy producers are increasingly adopting a practice that makes economic and environmental sense: They plant oats in early to mid-August and either allow cattle to graze them through late November or harvest the crop in early November for later use.

A number of universities and other organizations compile yield data from annual crop variety field trials. Crops tested varies by state. Data may be useful for seed and crop selection for the coming year. Check these websites for results in your area.

Rock River Laboratory Inc. has released a breakdown report of lab results for mycotoxins in the 2016 harvest (Table 1), and it isn’t pretty. The breakdown includes percentages of mycotoxin breakdowns including aflatoxin, fumonisin, ochratoxin, vomitoxin, zearalenone, mold and yeast.

Cash rent as a percent of farmland price sometimes is used as a benchmark for determining the appropriateness of a cash rent level. Over time, cash rents as percentages of land prices have declined, with declines corresponding to decreases in returns of interest-bearing financial assets. Until interest rates increase, cash as a percent of land price likely will remain at historically low levels.

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) recently released data on 2015 U.S. certified organic forage production and sales in the U.S.