For Wisconsin dairy farmer Ken Ihlenfeld, applying gypsum on all of his alfalfa ground provides sulfur that’s key to increasing alfalfa yields and quality.

This time of year when the corn planter is parked and hay is nearing optimum maturity, we get calls asking, “What do I pay or charge for a field of standing hay?”

Several considerations should be evaluated prior to making the decision to renovate an existing pasture. In some cases, there may not be an alternative.

We have turned the page on 2015, which was known as the International Year of Soils. Each state has designated a soil with special significance, whether designated for historical, forestry or agricultural prominence.

Bernie Erven, professor emeritus at Ohio State University and owner of Erven HR Services LLC, was a keynote presenter at the annual symposium hosted by the Midwest Forage Association in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, earlier this year.

Sometimes, I wonder if reacting to Mother Nature or man-made errors in judgment are not the most stressful part of choosing a career in farming. While waiting for the rain to stop is fretful enough when the hay is ready, the worry over what to do when it stops raining is even more so. One of those worries is the effect of heat stress on grazing systems.

When it comes to voles, pocket gophers and field mice, forage growers will do just about anything to get them off their property – or at least under control.

We have some effective pesticides, but when do you need to apply them? The answer for many of us procrastinators is 10 days to two weeks ago. Rather than adding to a problem of selection for pesticide-resistant insects, maybe a better plan is to just cut the forage early and then monitor for continued problems.

As their name implies, sugarcane aphids have been a significant pest in sugarcane for decades. These small yellow, gray or tan aphids (Photo 1) feed on the underside of the plant leaf. The host range of these aphids was thought to only include sugarcane, but that changed in 2013.