Fall 2014 Archives | Midwestern BioAg

Are Your Forages the Best They Can Be?

By: Midwestern BioAg Staff · Forages, Bio-Cal®, Dairy Production, Calcium

After your forages are harvested is a good time for you and your BioAg consultant to evaluate your forage program and your crop ration.
Evaluate Your Forage
It takes some time to evaluate what you have for forages and to what groups of animals they would best be fed. Some dairy producers have had the experience of feeding more alternative annual forage varieties due to the improved crop rotation and soil health. These dairy producers have been pleasantly surprised by the digestibility of their crops if …

Profitable Practices are the Bottom Line

By: Midwestern BioAg Staff · Fertilizer, Soil, Tillage, L-CBF, Nitrogen, Bio-Cal®

What’s profitable?
That’s the question that drives decision-making for Bill Ehrlinger, a southern Wisconsin farmer with 1200 acres of corn and soybeans. He considers the price of purchased inputs not just what he pays today, but also the long-term costs of products and practices, understanding that what he does this year can keep his farmland profitable and productive in the long term.
That’s important to Bill because this farmland has been in his family since his grandparents purchased the home farm over a century ago.

BioCal® in Rotation

By: Leilani Durand · Bio-Cal®, Economics, Crop Yields

As we move forward into fall, it’s important to remember a valuable piece of information—all part of how we got to where we are…
Manage the agronomics
The term “Agronomics” can be misused in many ways, but it all comes down to maximizing the crop yield while maintaining the soil ecosystem.
BioCal^® has been an integral part of many successes we have had at MBA, and you have had as a farmer.

From the Farm of Gary Zimmer

By: Gary Zimmer, Founder · Fall Harvest, Fertilizer, Soil, Tillage, Soil Testing

Dear Farmer/Agribusiness person,

What a beautiful fall, not only is the weather wonderful but these fall colors are incredible. It’s harvest time of a year I’d call ‘not bad’: it sure had its challenges. There was plenty of water, just delivered at the wrong time in the wrong amount.
My son says we need more “good” land. I say we need to do better with every acre we already have. When our range on alfalfa grass blend hay runs from 4 to over 8 tons/acre …

Fall Soil Sampling: To Grid or Not to Grid

By: Mary Pohlman · Soil, Soil Testing

When planning for fall soil sampling there are a number of things to consider. Like a lot of things, it used to be pretty simple. You took your shovel, dug some soil from a couple spots in the field and called it a day. Over the past decade or more, however, we’ve become much more aware of how variable the soil environment can be. We’ve also developed some really powerful tools and technology that can use our soil test data to help us dial in on …