When making a several-hundred-thousand-dollar investment with a piece of machinery, we typically do our homework. You can probably share stories of test-driving self-propelled forage harvesters or tractors, prior to investing hundreds of thousands in the machine.

When making a several-hundred-thousand-dollar investment with a piece of machinery, we typically do our homework. You can probably share stories of test-driving self-propelled forage harvesters or tractors, prior to investing hundreds of thousands in the machine.

Coming off a couple of years of adequate to excessive rainfall throughout many dairy forage growing regions across the country, feed hygiene is an increasingly scrutinized forage quality item.

Lignin in corn silage and forage has been compared to the rebar in concrete, providing the structural integrity and strength to hold the road or driveway together. This added strength is great for your driveway, but added strength in forage fiber corresponds to limited digestion and energy potential per pound.

Approaching Christmas in 2019, there were still fields yet to take off as high-moisture corn, snaplage or earlage – and even corn silage, if you can believe it.

When asked for several years what I viewed as “normal” in production agriculture, the reply was often something to the effect, “Extreme volatility in dairy and beef margins (per hundredweight) is our normal.”

Similar to a crime scene investigation unit, nutritionists often seek out evidence pointing toward a causative factor when troubleshooting. In some cases, the herd symptoms and challenges are odd, and contributing factors are not very easy to sort through even for well-seasoned consultants.

The growing season from East to West coasts the past year has been somewhat like stock and futures markets. Several months of (early season) conditions and expectations changed markedly in a matter of a few weeks. To quickly recap, parts of the western U.S. continued to experience dry conditions through the growing season.