Articles About Some of Vermeer's Customers and Friends
Contract Feed Production Arrangements
Fertilize Fescue for Fall Forage
Controlling Hay Quality Starts With First Cut Timing
Late-Cut Hay Carries Price Tag
Hay Buying and Selling
Hay - What to Look for When Buying/Selling.
Courtesy of Farmers Hotline Southern Edition. By Jimmy Shane
Harvest Alfalfa On Time
Predicting the best time to harvest alfalfa is important to dairy farmers, who need high-quality forages for lactating cows.
Hay Drying Tips
Without purchasing additional equipment, the most important factors that can reduce drying times is the width of the swath and swath density.
Exactly How Much Does It Cost to Keep a Cow?
You might be surprised to know that it really doesn't matter what your reason is for having a cowherd; instead what does matter is, "are you making money doing it?"
Storage Method Affects Quality of Big Bales
Researchers from Michigan State University studied dry matter loss and quality changes in large, round alfalfa hay bales stored on wooden pallets for six to nine months under four different methods.
Advantages to Making Round Bale Silage
Every season, farmers are faced with less than ideal weather conditions to put up their hay. Silage baling can help take the weather out of your haymaking, so you can harvest at higher nutritional levels, and keep it in the bale.
Wrapper Economics: Herd Size and Waste Levels are Key Payoff Factors
Fred Knop relates how hay producers are still looking for ways to cut costly losses that occur beyond the dry round bale. For many, this involves getting a feel for hay ensiling, using a new generation of bale wrapping machines.
Alfalfa Producers are Advised to Cut It Close
As haying season approaches, alfalfa producers are advised to cut as close as 1 inch. Leaving 3- to 5-inch stubble height is common due to rocks, pocket gophers or lodging, but harvesting alfalfa at a lower stubble height will increase the forage yield.
Angus Association President Makes His Cows Work for
Lawrason Sayre, president of the American Angus Association and owner of Waffle Hill Farms, a purebred Angus seedstock farm in Churchville, MD, packed his luggage more than five decades ago, leaving the family homestead near the Chesapeake Bay to attend Yale University's School of Engineering.
Cattle Producer Impressed by Speed, Appetite of Vermeer K-Baler
Dean Hansen learned about farming while growing up on his dad's farm. Instead of participating in sports after-school, he'd go home and join his dad in the fields. "I really enjoyed it."
Export Markets Demand More Oat Hay
Oat hay is in demand both domestically and in the export markets. Oat hay is a good source of forage when harvested in the boot stage. It is often used as a cover crop when sowing alfalfa. Oat hay is also being planted in parts of the Winter Wheat Belt including Kansas, the Wheat State. Prices for wheat have declined making it a less attractive crop to these High Plains farmers.
Leading Seed Stock Producer Hails Auto-Weave, Bale Kicker
Dave Nichols grew up on his father's farm - a cattle feeder operation - and was used to hard work, dirt and sweat. When he was 11 years old, it was his job to sit behind the pickup and tie the wires on the baler. In those days, Nichols' farm consisted of 160 acres of farmland on the rolling hills of Adair County, Iowa.
Mechanically Conditioning Alfalfa Hay

Alfalfa is called the "queen" of forages because it provides high levels of energy, protein and nutrients for livestock. Unfortunately, not all alfalfa is equal in feed value. There are many factors which enter into producing high quality alfalfa.
This article is provided by the K-State Research & Extension, Agricultural Library

New Forage - 'Fenugreek' Variety Aimed at Cattle Industry
Western Canadian producers will have a new forage crop in their arsenal next spring - fenugreek, an annual legume with diverse environmental and economic potential.
Not All Hay is the Same
Have you had your horses turn up their noses at a load of hay that seemed exactly the same as the one before it, maybe even coming from the same fields? The reason may be the time of the day it was cut.
Sampling Hay and Standing Forage
The objective of forage sampling is to obtain a feed value estimate of forages that will be fed to livestock. Forages may be sampled as hay or standing pasture.
Stage Set for Alfalfa Weevil Onslaught
Still Baling at 89!
At 89, when someone starts talking about replacing some of their equipment, you figure they're probably talking about hearts, hips - maybe livers. But for Kermit Hillyer of Hastings, Iowa, that's not what he meant at all. The 89-year-old Hillyer was talking about hay equipment.