Producer Features

Growing alfalfa isn’t as easy as it looks, says Glenn Obermann of Monet, Missouri. “I don’t want anybody to go out and think they can just plant it and be successful.” He ought to know – he’s won the Missouri state hay competition three out of the last five years, and was runner-up the rest of the time.

Progressive Forage Grower Editor Author Mike Myatt (Forbes, Dec. 19, 2012) discussed the difference between leadership training (bad) and leadership development (good).

In the hearts of many young producers is the drive to prove to their predecessors that they have what it takes to lead the next generation of agriculture.

Hinz Farms’ nutrient application system has been a work in progress. Year by year, co-owners Mike and Ben Hinz have tried new tools to increase the efficiency of spreading manure to fertilize the next year’s corn crop. This year, they are using an automated system that varies the ground speed of application based on the weight of the manure as it is spread.

The winning forage at World Forage Analysis Superbowl in Madison, Wisconsin, in the Quality Counts Award (hay/haylage category) was a new low-lignin variety of alfalfa grown by Joe and Alice Berney of Berney Ranch Inc. from Okanogan, Washington.

Heidel Hollow Farm, a fourth-generation family farm in Germansville, Pennsylvania, hosted a tour and equipment demonstrations for the National Hay Association 2015 convention. David Fink, owner of Heidel Hollow with his wife, Sonja, is the 2015 National Hay Association president.