Producer Features

Focus on high-quality forage, secure a long-term market

Eric Sheffer knew he wanted to make his life in agriculture.

In the north-central Louisiana town of Downsville, Malcolm, Melissa and their son Chase Echols are making their mark on forage quality and production.

Reinventing a person is hard work – and that’s just one person.

At face value, Tim Hall of Hall’s Hay in Idalia, Colorado, is a cross between a hay broker and a hay processor. He buys high-quality alfalfa hay from growers in Colorado and Wyoming and packages it into small bales for the retail hay market in the Southeast.

With a desire to feed top-quality nutritious hay and increase their return on investment, Lars and Ingrid Steunebrink from Kirkton, Ontario, found themselves a new way to dry hay.

Many areas of the West weren’t settled until the turn of the 20th century, so it’s a big deal when Western producers can track their farms and ranches back five generations.