“Most corn is in the ground. Fields that were weather-caused fallow can still produce a very high-quality forage from sorghum. Sorghum is planted after corn because the soil has to be warmer than for corn for rapid germination. Thus, planting after early winter triticale and haylage harvest gets tho...

It’s June Dairy Month once again. Hopefully, that never changes. It’s been an annual reminder of one of the blessings America should be grateful for but find all too easy to take for granted because dairy is always there. Walk into any grocery store and you’ll find an abundance of safe, top quality,...

Maple Wind Farm is inoculating their winter-laying houses with Lactobacillus, a beneficial bacterium, to improve animal health. It’s an on-farm trial in collaboration between the farm and the Land Care Cooperative, a farmer-led group focused on building healthy, water-retaining soils, reducing flood...

On most small farms, the difference between a peaceful night and a pasture full of panic can come down to one thing: a guardian animal you trust with your flock. Predator pressure is a reality for nearly every sheep or goat farmer today, whether the threat is coyotes slipping through fences, neighbo...

Silage technology can help you improve herd health and productivity; however, it’s wise to plan well in advance of harvest, according to Michelle Chang-Der Bedrosian, Ph.D. Chang-Der Bedrosian directs research and development at Animix LLC and presented “Beyond the Basics: Cutting-Edge Silage Strate...

Some farmers look forward to collecting Social Security as part of their retirement, but there are other avenues to boost retirement income. Many retired farmers find themselves wishing they had done more retirement planning for more secure income. Those working through farm transition or succession...

Hello, farm family! Yesterday, an old memory resurfaced from some dusty corner of my mind. It was of my great-grandfather sharpening a hoe on our old foot-powered wheel grinder. Hoes We used hoes a lot on our farm back then. Naturally, we employed them for transplanting seedlings and weeding vegetab...

In a video clip filmed in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a 4WD truck grew mired. Its 60 PSI tires dug deeper and deeper, rendering the vehicle helpless as its operator tried to back away from the mess. The narrator reduced tire pressure to 15 PSI, enabling the truck to easily back out of its sand tra...

Giant farms dominate the dairy landscape. According to Jon Winsten with the Northeast Dairy Business Innovation Center (NE-DBIC), the last 20 years have seen a 63% decrease in the number of farms, but overall milk production has risen by 28% – with massive farms driven to produce more and more milk ...

Nearly everyone looks forward to retirement, and many anticipate collecting Social Security. However, planning is essential. Paula Ledney, Penn State Extension program specialist, retirement planning and business management, explained, “Social Security is a federal program that provides retirement b...

Herbicide resistance is an increasing problem for soybean growers. Resistance leaves fewer tools for operators to combat weeds. Vipan Kumar, Ph.D., presented “Integrated Weed Management Strategies in New York Soybean Production” at the recent Soybean & Small Grains Congress hosted by Northwest New Y...

According to Dan Quinn, Purdue University agronomist, examining corn ears from your fields helps estimate what yield might be. Examining corn ears prior to harvest helps growers visualize how the corn plant was impacted by different factors throughout the growing season, and why their yields may be ...

“Are the PFAS in pesticides contaminating our land and water? Unfortunately, there really isn’t enough research yet to give us a firm answer,” said Faith Cullens-Nobis, an Extension educator with Michigan State University. Despite the lack of a firm answer, Cullens-Nobis thinks farmers need more inf...

What you feed the herd affects both herd health and milk composition. Kevin Harvatine, Ph.D., professor of nutritional physiology and chair in Agricultural Sciences at Penn State, presented “Fatty Acids & Milk Components: Optimizing Milkfat Yield” as part of the recent Herd Health & Nutrition Confer...

The title above sounds like it could be the set-up for a joke: A farmer, a logger and a lobsterman walk into a bar… Instead, this was part of the conference schedule at the Northeast Dairy Management Conference, co-hosted by PRO-DAIRY and the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA) , which too...