The United States Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (USDA RMA) released several important updates to sorghum crop insurance that will continue to expand sorghum production and empower farmers across the nation. Effective in 2024, the price election factor for sorghum will be at its highest level ever relative to corn; simplifications made to the sorghum silage policy will offer …
Watch this brief interview with Shelby Myers, Grain Markets Intelligence Director from Ever.Ag, as she shares current grain market dynamics supporting more affordable feed availability for California dairies, based on her presentation at a recent meeting in Tulare, CA. Please thank this video’s sponsor afimilk for their industry support.
Some plants thrive even in dry years, while others need wet years to really blossom. It’s no surprise, then, that this year the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Fresno office has received several inquiries about potentially toxic plants and how to deal with them. Even if these species have always been present in the seed bank or on neighboring …
California dairy producers want top quality hay for their cows, but they also want to maximize yields in their alfalfa fields. Watch this interview with Dan Putnam from the UC Cooperative Extension as he shares that the key to finding a happy balance between quality and quantity is in determining the best cutting schedule. Read more about it in California …
Alfalfa has a long history as the go-to feed for farm animals and poultry. Aquaculture has also discovered the power of alfalfa by refining it into a high-protein fish food. But what has not been widely recognized is alfalfa’s importance to the environment. Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory in Mandan, ND, have been studying the effects …
Roughly 9,000 years ago, Native American farmers in southern Mexico began domesticating teosinte, the wild ancestor of modern corn. It would take a while — probably another few thousand years — but their efforts would eventually begin to bear more edible fruit. Whereas the ancient teosinte plant produces hundreds of slender, thumb-length ears with no more than a dozen rock-hard kernels, …
Dairy manure is a natural crop fertilizer, and Texas A&M AgriLife scientists believe they have discovered a way to make sure that the valuable resource stays on crops where it is applied as a fertilizer, and out of waterways, where it is a potential pollutant. Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Tarleton State University scientists are joining forces to develop and demonstrate a biochar-assisted phytoremediation system …
Alfalfa is a major Western crop and an important food source for dairy cattle and other livestock worldwide. Scientists at Washington State University (WSU), the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and partner institutions have identified 10 genetic markers and promising parent varieties that could boost the quality of alfalfa hay, making it more digestible and nourishing. “People don’t eat alfalfa, but …
Compounds produced by sorghum plants to defend against insect feeding could be isolated, synthesized and used as a targeted, nontoxic insect deterrent, according to researchers who studied plant-insect interactions that included field, greenhouse and laboratory components. The researchers examined the role of sorghum chemicals called flavonoids —specifically 3-deoxyflavonoid and 3-deoxyanthocyanidins — in providing resistance against the corn leaf aphid, a …
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Center for Analytical Chemistry (CAC) scientists Bahar Nakhjavan, Nighat Sami Ahmed, and Maryam Khosravifard were recently published in an academic journal after developing an improved method to test for mycotoxin in feed. Their article, “Development of an Improved Method of Sample Extraction and Quantitation of Multi-Mycotoxin in Feed by LC-MS/MS,” details their research …
