Producer Features

The soil at Table Rock Farm, in Castile, New York, is no longer the same as it was decades ago. Jeffrey Jordan, crop specialist, should know.

The drought of 2012 left many ranchers across the U.S. de-stocking rangeland. Steve and Sheila Grudzinski’s 400-head cow-calf herd in Loup City, Nebraska, on the Split Ear Ranch was among the casualties.

Beginner’s luck is usually reserved for bowling games and slot machines, and is often given the same credence as Bigfoot sightings, but every once in a while, it’s impossible to miss.

2016 was year one in the custom haying business for Allen Hatch, and it went something like this: “I have been running ragged, but I have learned a few things … We have had a setback or two, maybe 12.”

“When we came, there were fences here, but you couldn’t find them. They were buried in the bushes and trees, and we had to tear them out, clean them up, tear out the wire – and most of them were six- or eight-strand barbed-wire fences with hog wire in them. So it’s been a chore.”

When progressive forage growers hear the words “New Zealand,” they instantly think of rolling pastures and intensive grazing management. Those who are also in the dairy industry are likely to think about the volume of milk produced in such a tiny country.