Producer Features

Within 24 hours of the first hay bale hitting the ground, buyers from California were driving to Denio, in northwestern Nevada, to get a look at the hay and talk purchase contracts.

A Midwestern perspective

Daniel Funke, owner and operator of Funke Custom Baling and Hay Sales in Larchwood, Iowa, has been wrapping hay since 2010 – a year he had more ruined hay than good hay.

The hay production industry received new contenders in 2014 when Alforex Seeds debuted the first conventionally bred lower lignin alfalfa variety at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.

For those who know Oscho and Eric Deal of China Grove, North Carolina, they know they are not only great cattlemen, but exceptional pasture managers as well.

What’s a two-bucket gal? A two-bucket gal is a woman who can do two or more things at once: helping on the farm, no matter what the job; wash the family’s greasy clothes; have lunches ready; run the tractor, grain cart or whatever needs running; manage the house; and be the glue of the family.

You don’t get to choose your family, but you do choose how you communicate and work with them. Read one Oregon family’s story.