Michigan

Scratch Your Classic Iron Itch With 3 Old Tractors That Still Steal the Show

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:18:11 GMT

Today’s tractors are jam-packed with GPS guidance and autosteer, sensors and camera arrays and LED lighting packages. Operators sit comfortably in air-conditioned cabs with built-in mini fridges full of cold drinks and responsive computing displays at their fingertips.

The whole deal gives the look and feel of a rolling mission control/home office on wheels and, quite frankly, many new tractor cabs are probably a whole lot nicer than your average home office.

There’s clearly no going back to the bare-bones, analog tractors with rigid metal seats and open air cabs Dad and Grandpa ran, but many of today’s farmers have cultivated an enduring affinity for the classic farm workhorses of yesteryear.

If you consider yourself among the legions of classic Iron Heads, check out this trio of recent Tractor Tales segments for a quick hit of some of that sweet, sweet farm machinery nostalgia:

Rebel With a Cause: The Ex-Pat Tractor That Wasn’t Supposed to be Sold in the U.S.

Southern Michigan farmer Nicklas Totzke might just possess the ultimate classic tractor trump card: a well-conditioned 1947 Empire 90 that Machinery Pete says is one of only about 380 known to exist today.

Totzke’s prized red Empire was originally shipped overseas to help rebuild bombed-out Eastern Europe farming villages devastated by the Axis blitzkrieg campaign during World War II. He says the spartan red machines are pretty “light duty” and were built with mostly Jeep Motor Company components — produced at the time by Willys-Overland and Ford Motor Company — and were used primarily to pull old horse drawn equipment.

Totzke says about 1,000 to 1,200 of the export-only machines reverse immigrated back to North America, ending up on farms across Canada and here in the U.S., which is how he ended up with his beloved Empire 90.

The Farmall 230 That Dutifully Trudges on in Pennsylvania Dairy Country

Pennsylvania dairy farmer Ed Thiele will never forget the day his father proudly test drove a brand new Farmall 230 around the streets of Butler, Pa. That impromptu dry run must have gone well, because today that same candy apple red beauty with the iconic pewter white IH hood ornament resides in his machinery shed near Cabot in Butler County.

“It’s been in the family ever since,” Thiele says, adding that if a fire were to set its sights on his treasured machinery barn, Dad’s classic Farmall — not the high-priced, expensive modern tractor he uses on his dairy operation — would surely be the first tractor he’d run into the flames to pull to safety.

While the machine today is semi-retired it can still run an auger, Thiele notes. The old tractor is in such good condition you can hardly tell it’s been chugging along for nearly seven decades at this point.

“Back in the day it had a sickle board mower on it, we raked hay with it, pulled silage wagons with it; we did everything with it when I was a kid,” he adds.

Wait, Machinery From the 80s Is Considered Classic Now? Well Then, That Makes Me Old

At one point in time, the John Deere 4840 tractor, at 180 hp, was the largest and most powerful row crop tractor in the manufacturers stable of farm machines. Illinois farmer Chad Jacobs says his 1982 edition represents the final swan song for the model itself, before Deere’s more advanced, new 4850 took its place in 1983.

Jacobs acquired the classic tractor to preserve his grandfather’s memory and heritage. Grandpa picked up the tractor out of necessity, right after tearing up the draw bar in his 4020 hauling manure.

“This is what was sitting on the [dealer] lot; it has 2,800 original hours on it,” Jacobs says. “We still drag a lot of wagons around, so it’s a wagon puller now.”

Jacobs farms with his brother, and the pair are working to teach the next generation of Jacobs progeny about the family farming legacy, passed down over all those rides in Grandpa’s trusty 4840.

“As far as me sitting in here and pulling wagons with it, it just brings back memories of my grandpa,” he says. “I think he’d be very proud of the fact that it’s still being used.”

For more classic Tractor Tales, head over to the @FarmJournal YouTube channel to watch archived segments, or follow Tractor Tales on X @TractorTales . New episodes of “U.S. Farm Report,” where new Tractor Tales segments debut, air every Friday afternoon on Farm Journal TV.

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Southern Rust Set To Take Big Bite Out Of Midwest Corn Crop?

Wed, 27 Aug 2025 21:06:37 GMT

If one picture is worth a thousand words, then the video Iowa farmer Dan Striegel shot last week must be worth thousands more. In the video, Striegel is shown harvesting a field of emerald-green corn enveloped in a cloud of orangish-red southern rust.

“We were just getting that field opened up, and I looked over and saw that dust boiling up out of the chopper, so I shot the video,” Striegel says.

Southern Rust? Never heard of her.
What Cheer, Iowa. USA. #pftour25 #harvest25 pic.twitter.com/tiIsUc2CHl
— Dan Striegel (@djsinseia) August 21, 2025

To date, Striegel’s video has garnered more than 48,000 views on X, formerly Twitter.

“We’re in southeast Iowa, Keokuk County, and I think the southern rust is as bad here as it is anywhere,” Striegel adds. “Every field you walk in, if you’re wearing a white T-shirt, you’ll come out of there red.”

A Red Path Of Disease Mars The Midwest

Expect to see more red T-shirt-clad farmers walking out of cornfields across the upper Midwest, based on what the Crop Protection Network (CPN) southern rust map is showing.

The CPN continually updates its online, interactive map showing the counties by state where southern rust infections are confirmed. Now, in late August, the counties look like red steppingstones. They form a checkered path from southwest Michigan through northern Illinois and Indiana, into southern Wisconsin, across all of Iowa and nearly two-thirds of the way across Nebraska. Eastern South Dakota is also lit up with a string of red counties, as are parts of southern to central Minnesota.

The amount of southern rust present in the upper Midwest is worrisome to Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist. In severe cases, the disease can wipe out 45% of the yield potential in a field, according to the CPN.

“At most, one in 10 growers in northern Iowa and Minnesota have seen the kind of southern rust some of them are seeing this year,” says Ferrie, who was working last week with corn growers in both states.

“It was a problem in probably eight out of every 10 fields I was in, and they’d all been sprayed at least once,” he says. “Minnesota has a corn crop that’ll knock your socks off – yield potential of 250, 270. I encouraged every grower to spray their field a second time except for two fields. One had been knocked down by hail, and the other had a hybrid that was clean.”

I spoke with a good friend of mine from Iowa yesterday that is an agronomist and farmer. He said the southern rust in corn across Iowa and much of the Midwest will take 9 to 12 bushel/acre off corn yields on average from what his team and himself are seeing. pic.twitter.com/Ad1VJ9oQBg
— Captain Cornelius1 (@ISU145) August 26, 2025

Hybrids Have Little To No Resistance To Southern Rust

A combination of early-season moisture, heat and wind formed the perfect storm for southern rust this season, allowing the disease-causing fungal spores (Puccinia polysora) to move from southern climes up to the Midwest, according to Kurt Maertens, BASF technical service representative for eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

“We’ve seen it all – southern rust, tar spot, northern corn leaf blight, gray leaf spot. Our corn has been inundated with all these fungal diseases, and we started seeing them early,” says Maertens.

If there’s a silver lining to southern rust, it’s that it does not overwinter in corn residue like tar spot does. But like tar spot, southern rust takes advantage of hybrids that have no built-in resistance. For many growers, that was an Achilles heel this season.

“When you’re dealing with a 117-day hybrid like they grow in southern Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky, you don’t grow corn that doesn’t have good southern rust resistance, because they deal with it every year,” Ferrie notes. “When you move to Minnesota, and you’re planting 102- to 95-day corn, you’re probably not going to find hybrids with southern rust resistance.”

Striegel says that was true for his neighbor’s cornfield, which he custom chopped for silage. “That field had two hybrids in it, one was worse than the other, and the field had been sprayed with a fungicide,” he says.

He adds that he also sprayed his own cornfields with fungicide, but they are still inundated with southern rust.

“We’ve had southern rust before, and it’s not usually something we have to worry about, but this is really bad,” Striegel says. “I’m standing on my deck looking at the cornfield next to my house, and you know, all of the leaves from the ears down in that field are covered with it.”

Southern rust is real in eastern Nebraska. Fungicide 3 weeks ago, 2nd app today with some potassium acetate pic.twitter.com/WZubU6IBwz
— Trent Mastny (@TrentMastny) August 21, 2025

How Late Is A Fungicide Application Still Worthwhile?

Ferrie says the fields he scouted last week were at late R3 to early R4 and had already been sprayed with fungicide at least once, but the disease was rebuilding.

“Any field where farmers had sprayed two weeks previously, the southern rust and northern corn leaf blight, to a lesser degree, were coming back, especially the southern rust. It was resporating,” he says.

The intense disease pressure from southern rust, tar spot and others have kept fungicide use at high levels this season, despite poor commodity prices.

“Because of that [amount of disease pressure], we have seen increased demand for our fungicides this year,” says Maertens, who encouraged customers to get applications made at the beginning of tassel.

Maertens says he has fielded a lot of questions this summer from farmers, asking how late they could go with a fungicide application and still benefit.

“Our recommendation is to get in front of disease,” he says. “Generally, we stop applications before we get to dent (R5). That’s not to say a later application can’t have some benefit, but our best results have been before infection was able to take place.”

Southern rust is a yield enemy farmers routinely face in the Southeast, reports corn yield champion Randy Dowdy, Valdosta, Ga. He participated in the Pro Farmer Crop Tour last week and said on U.S. Farm Report he believes many Midwest farmers still have time to address disease.

“We need to implore the fungicides, the technologies out there and get after it and protect this crop, especially that crop that still has not reached dent,” he says.

Farm Journal Field Agronomist Missy Bauer likes to see farmers complete their fungicide applications on the front side of dough (early R4). “Once we get to early dent, I think it’s a little more challenging to get the payback consistently, though we’ve applied at early dent (R5), and seen a nice response,” says Bauer, who is based in south-central Michigan.

Under the tough disease pressure farmers are facing this year, Bauer is telling growers to scout fields and evaluate what growth stage their crop is in before they walk away or pull the fungicide trigger one last time.

She adds that farmers need to check the label to make sure the product used is able to address southern rust effectively. She describes these as “Cadillac” products containing the newest chemistry.

“When it comes to some of these diseases, especially southern rust and tar spot, I do believe a little bit of a Hail Mary pass can be effective,” she says. “Will it be as effective as an application you could have made on a more timely basis? Well, no, you could have made more money doing it timely, but you’re still protecting bushels and gaining ROI at the end.”

Ferrie adds that farmers might want to do the late-season fungicide application to keep their corn crop standing until they can put their harvest plan in place.

“Be doing the push test to check stalk quality,” he advises.

Southern Rust/Silage Alert!!

Southern Rust has been aggressively advancing in many fields, especially those without a fungicide treatment. In some situations the plants are shutting down prematurely and plant material is senescing rapidly.

While we typically want to get down… pic.twitter.com/aK3hGgZE19
— Pioneer Troy (@deutmeyer_troy) August 26, 2025

Striegel says some of the farmers around him are heading to fields to harvest their silage corn sooner than later, because of standability concerns. “Some of this corn got planted early, and we had a lot of heat. The crop matured quickly, and the diseases are kind of shutting it down. It’s just dying out, and guys are going to go get it,” he explains.

That’s the strategy Ferrie encourages farmers to use in regular production corn, too.

“Harvest the fields most at risk first. But if a field of corn goes down, go combine the fields where the corn is still standing and come back to that one later,” he recommends.

The reasoning is you don’t want to risk more corn going down while you’re harvesting the field of corn that already has.

“While I was driving through Iowa last week, I kept thinking that if I built corn reels to pick up down corn I’d bulk up my inventory, because I know where they’re going to get used,” Ferrie says, only half joking. “Yes, harvesting corn at 25% moisture is expensive, but down corn will kick your butt.”

Your next read: Revenge Applications: Why They Don’t Work, Cost You Money and Bushels, and Are Frankly Illegal

Used Farm Equipment Swindle Alert: BBB Warns Virtual Vendor Vehicle Scams on the Rise

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 16:49:31 GMT

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning used equipment buyers nationwide about another sophisticated scam involving used farm equipment.

This particular grift, according to a press release from BBB, involved a fake online heavy equipment retailer impersonating a legitimate Missouri dealership, Cook Equipment & Trucking (Marble Hill, Mo.).

Buyers from across the U.S., some even from as far away as California and Arizona, reported losing a total of $223,000 after attempting to purchase heavy equipment and farm machinery through fraudulent websites and Facebook Marketplace ads.

Related: Essential Advice for Safely Buying Used Farm Machinery

Victims say they were “ghosted” after wiring money for equipment that never arrived. The BBB does not say whether the victims were able to dispute the fraudulent charges and claw back the proceeds from the scammers.

The reported fraudulent transactions include:

$45,000 for a skid steer loader from a buyer in Oak Hills, Calif.
$32,000 for an excavator from a buyer in Hancock, Mich.
$29,500 for a trailer from a buyer in Amanda, Ohio
$29,000 for a trailer from a buyer in Greenville, N.C.
$28,000 for a skid steer loader from a buyer in Eastman, Wis.
$31,000 for an excavator from a buyer in Des Moines, Iowa.
$29,000 for a skid steer from a buyer in Blue, Ariz.

BBB says the real Cook Equipment & Trucking, a small business operating since 2010, confirmed it has no website and is not affiliated with any online sales. The impersonators registered three fake websites, the most recent on July 14, and continue to run deceptive ads on social media.

“Those shopping for heavy equipment and farm machinery online should do their due diligence so they don’t fall victim to a virtual vehicle vendor scam,” says Michelle L. Corey, president and CEO, BBB St. Louis. “If an item is priced well below market value, that’s a red flag.”

To avoid getting swept up in an online virtual vehicle vendor scam the Better Business Bureau offers these tips:

Research the business at bbb.org or call 888-996-3887
Be skeptical of deals that seem too good to be true
Verify the website and contact the business directly
Read all terms and understand refund policies
Use a credit card for added protection
Report scams to BBB Scam Tracker, your state attorney general, the FTC, and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center , and notify the social media platform where the fraud was discovered

To learn more about how to avoid online fraud in the used equipment auction world, check out BBB’s 2024 study on virtual vehicle vendor scams.

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Spray Drone Season Hits Full Throttle: 3 Service Providers Flying Acres and Boosting Yields

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 18:15:49 GMT

Nebraska native Andy Kreikemeier’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing all week, and it won’t go silent anytime soon.

That’s because his former hobby and volunteer side hustle, flying drones for the county emergency response team, transformed into a full-time gig as a spray drone operator. Kreikemeier is one-third of a team of spray drone pilots with business partners Brett Scheiding and Brad Eisenhauer. Together, the three local volunteer firefighters started Infinity Precision Ag, a custom drone application service provider in southeast Nebraska.

The Infinity team is in the crunch of the summer plant health application season, and farmers without access to a Hagie high-clearance sprayer or an aerial application service need the timely sprays these certified drone pilots provide to get their crop across the finish line and in good shape for fall harvest.

The trio is in their sophomore season offering per-acre spray drone application services to farmers, and the group learned “a ton” from last year’s rookie campaign.

“Spray drones are definitely a good tool because they can do a lot of specialized things, and it’s fun to see the old farmers come out and watch these things. They’ll tell me ‘Never in my day would I have thought this was something I’d be using’,” Kreikemeier says. “It’s a fun change, and it works. You can get more precise with your applications, and you get the stuff where you want it at all times.”

The team at Infinity exclusively flies Hylio spray drones, which are manufactured in Texas. Hylio was among the first U.S. service providers – Iowa-based Rantizo being one of the others – to receive FAA approval to swarm , or operate in concert, multiple spray drones in one flight mission. Swarming is exactly how Kreikemeier and his team prefer to operate the mostly automated quadcopters. By operating multiple spray drones together in a fleet, Infinity can cover more acres per hour.

Related: Trump Issues Executive Order Making Ag Drones More Efficient

Kreikemeier says the service requests from farmers this summer are “about 50-50” fungicide on corn applications and insecticide or foliar-applied biological sprays. There hasn’t been a lot of Tar Spot disease pressure in his area yet, but Gray Leaf Spot in corn is something farmers need to proactively spray for.

(Lindsey Pound)

While he won’t go as far as saying the drones are a superior application tool to a large ground rig or aerial application plane, he does see some advantages to using the technology.

“The drones can definitely get the products deeper into the plant canopy — at least that’s what I’m seeing right now,” Kreikemeier says, adding he’s also seeing improved application quality on end-rows and sensitive areas near buffers, streams and rural housing developments. An aerial applicator would usually have to pull up and gain altitude to avoid those obstacles, potentially leaving some spray to drift off-target. But an unmanned drone can stay low and keep blasting active ingredients directly into the canopy.

“Guys are definitely telling me they can see a difference between what the drones have done and what the planes have done,” he says.

From Photographer to Pilot-In-Charge

Drone shots of a drone spraying fungicide on corn field sprayer spray - By Lindsey Pound

(Lindsey Pound)

Over on the East Coast, Joshua Berry got his start in the drone world along the same lines as many early adopters: he built up a custom photography and videography business for years before making the decision to integrate aerial photography to stay relevant.

The first drone he purchased is widely considered one of the “OGs” in the drone world: DJI’s Phantom 1. Berry recalls his aerial photography service didn’t take off right away, but he always knew ag was an industry he wanted to join. The realization came fast and hard that he was facing an uphill battle to make that dream a reality, as his family didn’t own land or have a legacy in farming.

Berry’s big breakthrough came when he started using drones equipped with thermal cameras to help deer hunters locate fallen prey deep in the woods. The service gave him a foot in the door with local farmers – many of whom are avid hunters or at the very least friends with hunters – along Maryland’s specialty ag-rich Eastern Shore.

refilling drone spraying fungicide on corn field sprayer spray - By Lindsey Pound

(Lindsey Pound)

“A guy out in Ohio saw what I was doing and wanted to get into the deer recovery stuff, so he befriended me, and I helped teach him a couple things,” Berry says. “One day he calls me up and he’s like, ‘Yo, have you seen these agricultural drones?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I have my eye on it.’ And he tells me it’s going to be the next big thing.”

Berry started doing research and soon enough he agreed with his buddy in Ohio that spray drones would be his ticket to a career in farming. He ordered a pair of DJI Agras T-40 models and started working on getting licensed to legally apply chemicals.

That took him a few months (today the FAA licensing process has been streamlined), and he was able to start flying and applying midway through the 2024 growing season.

“I did a lot of research and networking before I flew a single acre, so I felt like I set myself up for success (early on),” Berry says. “Even though it was a dry year – dry and hot means there’s not a lot of pressure on farmers to spray – I ended the season with between 2,500 and 3,000 acres. For a guy in his first half of a season, I was happy with that.

Related: How Spray Drones Revolutionize Corn Farming, Make Farmers More Efficient and Sustainable

This year, Berry’s acreage will double to about 6,000-7,000. That’s an impressive figure, considering how fields are laid out on the East Coast. This isn’t Iowa, Berry says, where a drone operator can park at an intersection and knock out 300 acres of flat, continuous fields without having to move the truck and tender trailer.

As far as the job mix this summer, he is putting on a lot of single pass fungicide-insecticide-liquid fertilizer applications across a diverse mix of crops. Berry is also hearing some farmers in his area are buying drones themselves and skipping the whole FAA licensing process to spray their crops themselves.

“That’s going to hurt us as an industry, big time. And also, it’s going to hurt the farmers eventually. Even though the enforcement wing of the FAA is almost nonexistent, there is enforcement out there,” he says. “They may not have the manpower (now), but if that changes, you’re going to see these unlicensed guys really start to get dinged.”

Tendering for Spray Drones

The Mitten State is a good proving ground for spray drone applications, says Leon Thelen, agricultural drone application specialist, On Point Application Group (Battle Creek, Mich.).

For one, there aren’t many options for custom aerial application services available to growers like there are in the western Corn Belt. And Michigan farms are often broken into collections of smaller, oddly shaped fields with power lines, tree stands and residential developments nearby. That makes plane applications dicey.

And finally, the state has a diverse crop mix that features a lot of high-value, specialty crops like cranberries, cherries, potatoes and sugar beets. There are a lot of farmers looking to make applications without running over expensive plants with a ground rig.

Related: 7 Expert Tips To Maximize Spray Drone Efficiency

Thelen says On Point Application Group is doing a lot of field border insecticide applications, spot spraying tough weed escapes like water hemp, and putting out full field broadcast applications of fungicides with its XAG P140 spray drones.

One critical aspect of the business Thelen and his team have sorted out over the past few months is tendering. He says the giant, bi-level prefab drone tender trailers you see around the Midwest are good for most operations, but a smaller footprint tender that can fit in the back of an extended pickup is ideal for the type of work he’s doing in Michigan.

“Being that I’ve backed a trailer into a lot of fields, I like lightweight equipment that’s nimble,” he says. “We’ve got a trailer with 1,000 gallons of water and a mix tank that we can leave at the field edge and unhook. Then we have this 200-gallon hot tank with our charging equipment , batteries and everything we can take into the field. This setup works well when you’re working off (irrigation) pivot lanes or back in behind the woods. I like to be close to the field.”

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Yellow Soybeans? Why Weather and Carbon Penalties Are Stressing Midwest Farmers

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:33:11 GMT

A Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) in Michigan says a confluence of weather conditions resulted in a roller coaster ride for soybeans over the first two months of the growing season.

The good news is the plants still have time to catch up and recover on the back-end (if timely rains are consistent), but the early season issue is still causing a lot of growers to hang their heads in utter disgust when they head out in the morning and see large areas of small, yellow soybean plants in fields.

How did this happen?
In southern Michigan, northern Indiana, and northwest Ohio, most soybean farmers opted to plant early. That means the beans were in by end of April. The region then had the coolest average night temperatures in May of the past 14 years, followed by the warmest average night temperatures in June of the past 14 years.

A roller coaster ride indeed.

Missy Bauer with B&M Crop Consulting says that two-month yo-yo spell left the region’s soybean farmers battling the “largest carbon penalty the area has seen in 14 years.”

What is the carbon penalty in farming?

(Darrell Smith)

The carbon penalty Bauer refers to is the process where microbes in the soil come alive as soil temps gradually warm and start breaking down last year’s crop residue. The nutrients are then naturally converted to plant-available nutrients through mineralization.

Bauer says the warm-up occurred so quickly it created a sort of massive explosion of microbial activity in the soil. While that sounds like a good thing, she says it actually resulted in some essential early-season nutrients getting “locked up” in the soil, thus unavailable for plant uptake.

“How many calls did we take this year from farmers saying, ‘My beans aren’t growing right, why?’” says Bauer who also serves as a Farm Journal field agronomist. “We’re seeing the biggest carbon penalty we’ve had in 14 years, and this is a hard carbon penalty. It locked up the beans, and that added stress.”

How can I overcome the carbon penalty?
If you have liquid fertilizer technology on your bean planter, Bauer thinks it might pay off this year by offsetting the carbon penalty and helping beans battle that early season stress.

July is currently trending above average for growing degree days (GDD) in the Lake Erie region, which will help shift vegetative growth a gear or two higher and set beans on a course for canopy close and pod fill.

“Basically, we’re back on track (with beans),” Bauer says. “Maybe we’re just a little bit behind last year, but we had better heat units in May last year, too. Now, we’ve made-up for that GDD deficit heat unit-wise, we’re not quite all the way there, we’re still a little behind, but we’re knocking on average.”

Spray drone treatment for nutrient deficiency in soybeans an option, too
Recently, Kameron Barrow, field operations manager, teamed up with B&M owner and CCA Bill Bauer to address some nutrient deficient yellow spots in the operation’s test plots near Coldwater, Mich.

After tissue sampling the affected plants and finding out the culprit was most likely a manganese deficiency, Bauer and Barrow called up a local spray drone service provider and hired it to spot spray a 5% manganese liquid fertilizer over the canopy of the yellow soybean plants. The drone applied a rate of half a pound per acre of manganese.

“We came in and sprayed on July 10 and on July 15 we scouted and immediately those yellow spots are gone, and that’s only after five days,” says Barrow, adding they also left a nearby section of yellow plants untreated as a check. “This just shows we have access to spray drones now, and we can use the technology to use things we’ve never used to better manage the crop.”

Your Next Read: Put On Your Scouting Hat - Check for Southern Rust in Corn and White Mold in Soybeans

The Sweetest States: Where America Loves Ice Cream Most

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 20:53:24 GMT

July is National Ice Cream Month, and Americans are indulging like never before. But which states truly have the biggest sweet tooth? Recent research from SpinBlitz analyzed Google Maps listings nationwide to rank states by ice cream shop density, specifically the number of ice cream shops per 100,000 residents. Here are the top states who take their frozen dairy treats most seriously.

Top 10 Ice Cream-Loving States

1. Vermont (18.51 shops per 100K residents) Vermont tops the list with the highest number of ice cream shops per capita, and it’s not just thanks to Ben & Jerry’s. The state has a strong dairy foundation and a deep appreciation for small-batch, locally made ice cream. Whether in rural towns or tourist-friendly spots, ice cream shops are a visible part of Vermont’s food culture.

2. West Virginia (18.08) West Virginia ranks second in ice cream shop density thanks to a strong presence of locally owned parlors, custard stands and small-town scoop shops. It might not be a headline-grabbing food destination, but the state has a steady, long-standing appreciation for traditional favorites like banana splits, hand-dipped cones and floats.

3. Rhode Island (17.84) Rhode Island earns bronze in the nation for ice cream shop density. Known for regional favorites like frozen lemonade and coffee milkshakes, the state also supports a strong network of ice cream parlors across its coastal towns and neighborhoods. From tourist areas to local main streets, frozen treats are easy to find.

4. Pennsylvania (17.58) Pennsylvania ranks fourth with a diverse ice cream scene that reflects its mix of communities. From family-run creameries in rural areas to innovative shops in urban centers, the state offers a wide range of frozen dessert options.

5. Wisconsin (16.44) Known far and wide for its cheese, Wisconsin also delivers big on ice cream. Known as the Dairy State, it’s no surprise the state is brimming with mom-and-pop scoop shops, custard stands and local brands producing rich ice cream. Whether you’re at a farmstead creamery or a college-town cone counter, Wisconsin’s pride for ice cream shines.

6. Illinois (16.12) Chicago might be the driving force behind Illinois’ ranking, with its booming food scene filled with Instagram-worthy sundaes, small-batch gelato and quirky flavors. But don’t overlook the rural towns and suburbs, where old-school diners and small-town scoop shops keep the classics alive.

7. New Mexico (15.89) The only Southwestern state to crack the top 10, New Mexico might surprise you. But with sizzling summer temperatures and a thriving local food culture, it makes sense frozen treats are in demand. You’ll find shops serving everything from chile-spiked chocolate to cactus fruit sorbet.

8. Michigan (15.79) Snow doesn’t stop Michiganders from indulging. With thousands of inland lakes and summer tourists flooding towns like Traverse City and Petoskey, ice cream is a lakeside staple. From old-fashioned scoops to cherry-studded blends, Michigan’s ice cream culture is powered by nostalgia, local ingredients and a serious sweet tooth.

9. New Hampshire (15.54) New England knows its dairy, and New Hampshire is no exception. This state might not be flashy, but its abundance of seasonal roadside stands, maple-infused flavors and mom-and-pop ice cream stops make it a solid contender. Summer drives through the mountains or along the lakes are rarely complete without a cone in hand.

10. New York (15.35) New York ranks 10^th, where ice cream is as diverse as the state itself. From trendy, creative scoop shops and food trucks in the heart of New York City to time-tested creameries in upstate towns, there’s a flavor and style for everyone. With tourists and locals alike lining up for their favorite cones, New York’s ice cream doesn’t disappoint.

See How Your State Stacks Up in the Ice Cream Race
Whether you’re craving a classic cone or something a little more adventurous, it’s clear that some states really know how to satisfy that ice cream craving. Curious how all 50 states stack up in the great ice cream showdown? Check out the full ranking and see where your home ranks:

Rank	State	Ice Cream Shops per 100,000 residents
1	Vermont	18.51
2	West Virginia	18.08
3	Rhode Island	17.84
4	Pennsylvania	17.58
5	Wisconsin	16.44
6	Illinois	16.12
7	New Mexico	15.89
8	Michigan	15.79
9	New Hampshire	15.54
10	New York	15.35
11	Massachusetts	14.99
12	North Dakota	14.92
13	Ohio	14.90
14	Maine	14.89
15	Nebraska	14.83
16	Alaska	14.79
17	Indiana	14.78
18	Idaho	14.27
19	Delaware	14.05
20	Montana	14.00
21	South Dakota	13.96
22	Hawaii	13.78
23	Florida	13.67
24	New Jersey	13.61
25	Wyoming	13.56
26	Mississippi	13.25
27	Iowa	13.02
28	North Carolina	12.58
29	Texas	12.40
30	Arkansas	12.23
31	California	12.10
32	Arizona	12.09
33	Kansas	11.71
34	Connecticut	11.60
35	Virginia	11.25
36	Oklahoma	10.66
37	Nevada	10.54
38	Utah	10.38
39	Minnesota	10.37
40	Oregon	10.37
41	Tennessee	10.26
42	Louisiana	10.20
43	Georgia	10.00
44	Colorado	9.98
45	Kentucky	9.73
46	Washington	9.43
47	Alabama	9.23
48	South Carolina	8.80
49	Maryland	8.56
50	Missouri	8.44

Be Aware: Dangerous Asian Longhorned Tick Continues Migrating West

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 14:42:46 GMT

The Asian Longhorned Tick (ALHT) poses a serious threat to cattle health. ALHTs carry Theileria, which is a protozoan parasite that infects red and white blood cells. It can lead to anemia and, in some cases, death.

ALHTs are native to eastern Asia, eastern China, Japan, the Russian Far East and Korea but were introduced to Australia, New Zealand and western Pacific Islands. In other countries, it can also be called a bush tick, cattle tick or scrub tick.

In the U.S., ALHT was first detected in New Jersey in 2017. Since then, it has spread to more than 20 states with recent confirmations in Illinois , Michigan and Iowa .

According to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) ALHTs are known to carry pathogens, which can cause disease and may also cause distress to the host from their feeding in large numbers. For example, a dairy cow may have a 25% decrease in milk production after becoming a host.

A female can reproduce without a mate and lay up to 2,000 eggs at a time. This can cause great stress on a heavily infested animal and result in reduced growth and production. A severe infestation can kill the animal from excessive blood loss.

Asian longhorned tick life stages and relative actual size.

(Photos of unfed ticks by Centers for Disease Control. Photos of engorged ticks by Jim Occi, Rutgers, Center for Vector Biology.)

What does it look like?

Unfed ALHTs range from a light reddish-tan to a dark red with brown, dark markings. While the adult female grows to the size of a pea when full of blood, other stages of the tick are very small — about the size of a sesame seed.

Adult females are a grey-green with yellowish markings. Male ticks are rare.

APHIS reports it only takes a single tick to create a population in a new location.

The above photos are of a AHLT engorged (on the left) and an adult AHLT not engorged.

(New Jersey Department of Agriculture)

ALHTs need warm-blooded hosts to feed and survive. They have been found on various species of domestic animals — such as sheep, goats, dogs, cats, horses, cattle and chickens — and wildlife. The tick has also been found on people.

What are the health risks?

APHIS says ALHTs are not known to carry Lyme disease, but they can cause tickborne diseases affecting humans and animals such as:

Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Heartland virus
Powassan virus

APHIS says those diseases have not been confirmed outside of a laboratory setting in the U.S. In addition, U.S. ALHT populations can transmit U.S. Theileria orientalis Ikeda strain (Cattle theileriosis) in the laboratory.

In an Iowa State University release , Grant Dewell, Extension beef veterinarian and associate professor, says cattle affected by Theileriosis will show signs of lethargy, anemia and difficulty breathing. They may develop ventral edema, exercise intolerance, jaundice and abortions.

“Although signs of Theileriosis are similar to anaplasmosis, younger animals and calves often display more severe signs compared to mature cows and bulls,” he says. “Due to anemia from both tick infestation and Theileria, the risk of death can be elevated. If cattle producers suspect either Theileria or ALHT, have a veterinarian collect appropriate samples and submit them to a veterinary diagnostic lab.”

According to an Oklahoma State University press release , under laboratory conditions ALHT is a competent vector of numerous pathogens that can cause disease in humans, including Rickettsia rickettsii (Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever), Heartland Virus and Powassan Virus.

In “ Clinical Infectious Diseases, ” Bobbi Pritt, MD, MSC, with the division of clinical microbiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., reported a human bite that occurred in New York in 2019. She says though the report of a human bite isn’t surprising, it proves the invasive longhorned tick continues to bite hosts in its newest location.

“This is extremely worrisome for several reasons,” she writes. “One reason is Asian longhorned ticks can carry several important human pathogens, including the potentially fatal severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) virus and Rickettsia japonica, which cases Japanese spotted fever. While these pathogens have yet to be found in the United States, there is a risk of their future introduction.”

Also, Pritt says several other human pathogens have been detected in the ticks, but it’s not clear if the ALHT species are able to transmit them to humans. They include Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, Rickettsia, and Borrelia species. Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria.

She warns the organisms are present in states where ALHTs have been found and that it’s possible the tick — known to be an aggressive biter— might be able to transmit Heartland virus given its close relationship to SFTS virus.

How to Tackle Ticks

According to APHIS, various strategies effectively mitigate tick populations on hosts and in the environment.

Regular tick treatments should be effective against ALHTs. Consult your veterinarian or agriculture extension agent about which products to use.
Check your livestock for ticks regularly.
Safely remove ticks from people and pets as quickly as possible. If you think you’ve found an ALHT, seal it in a zip-top bag and give it to your veterinarian for identification.
Habitat modifications can help prevent ticks on feedlots and pastures. This may include mowing grass, removing trees, reducing shade by thinning trees, understory removal and placing mulch barriers.
Apply acaricide using label instructions to tick habitats, such as woodland edges and grassy patches, during times when ticks are most actively seeking hosts. Although it varies by year, ALHTs are generally active from March to November. Consult your state and local regulations for approved acaricides.

“Cattle producers should aggressively control external parasites this summer,” Dewell summarizes. “Insecticide ear tags alone are not enough to control ticks. Consider incorporating a back rubber or regularly applying a pour-on during the summer. Pyrethroid-based products are also available that include a tick control label. If an increase in tick infestations is observed, an avermectin pour-on may be the best intervention.”

Your Next Read: 1,500-lb. Carcasses the New Normal, Not the Exception

Why U.S. Agriculture Needs More AI Investment to Stay Ahead in Global Crop Innovation Race

Tue, 20 May 2025 18:15:48 GMT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key tool in accelerating the discovery, development and manufacturing of new crop protection molecules to fight yield-robbing weeds, pests, and diseases in U.S. farm fields.

The technology helps researchers shorten the discovery window and find new and novel active-ingredient molecules that are much more difficult and expensive to uncover using traditional research methods.

That was among the talking points that emerged from Tuesday’s congressional hearing on AI in farming, held in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology Committee in Washington, D.C.

Related: The New Space Race: Why America Must Focus On AI

At the hearing, key agricultural stakeholders advocated for increasing government investment in AI technology and infrastructure. The group warned Congress that America’s status as a world leader in AI has been usurped by Japan and China, while other rival countries are also gunning for top positions.

Testifying on behalf of U.S. agriculture was Corteva Vice President of Agricultural Solutions Brian Lutz, University of Florida associate professor Chris Swale and University of Illinois assistant professor Boris Camiletti.

“AI is without a doubt one of the most profound technologies ever to be invented,” Lutz said. “We believe there is tremendous opportunity for our government to support and incentivize advanced innovation — including by leveraging the benefits of AI — to benefit American farmers. If we want to win, we need to move smarter and faster than our competition. Corteva believes with the support of our government, we will do exactly that.”

Lutz said researchers at Corteva recently used AI to model how 10,000 different molecules might be used in crop protection, all within a matter of weeks. The Corteva model was able to identify dozens of new potential crop protection molecules that its overworked chemists could not have found otherwise. He said the company is currently testing a handful of these molecules and AI will also play a role in moving the testing phase along more quickly than traditional lab-based methods.

Lutz also told Congress how Corteva scientists have deployed AI technology in its fermentation processes, which the company uses to create what he called “molecules of interest” for evaluation. Over the past few years, Corteva has used AI modeling to engineer various bacterial strains that drive fermentation reactions and optimize reaction conditions, allowing the company to run a manufacturing operation that is as efficient as possible. This application of AI helps Corteva maintain a strong U.S. manufacturing base in the Midwest, Lutz said.

“This is the new face of ag innovation,” he added. “We can accelerate discovery of new classes of crop protection products, like biologicals — nature-based solutions that help farmers grow more food by working alongside traditional crop protection products. With AI, we can begin to predict the incredible diversity of biomolecules and metabolites that are produced by microbes and other organisms, with the goal of unlocking the secrets within plant biology to develop the next generation of safe, highly targeted, nature-inspired products.”

Swale testified to AI’s role in helping researchers on his team find and develop biological-based treatments to combat Asian citrus psyllid, an invasive pest that has left the Florida citrus industry — valued at almost $10 billion just five years ago — teetering on the brink of collapse. Effective synthetic chemicals to manage the Asian citrus psyllid exist, but the regulatory hurdles to get those products onto the market are too high, he said

“We have turned to using AI to help discover chemicals of the natural world because the registration requirements are significantly lower when compared to synthetic insecticides,” Swale said.

Camiletti leads a team of researchers combining plant pathology, remote sensing and AI to help U.S. soybean farmers overcome red crown rot, a soil-borne disease first detected in Illinois soybean fields in 2018.

Illinois has been hit the hardest by the yield-robbing disease, Camiletti said, and the pathogen is spreading rapidly to Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri. The disease is difficult to detect visually, he added, and once symptoms appear it’s often too late for successful remediation.

“My team uses satellite imagery and machine learning to identify red crown rot hot spots, and we train the models with high resolution multi-spectral data to near-infrared bands and use ground observations to teach the algorithm what diseased plants look like,” Camiletti said. “This technology has real on-farm impact. We are building tools that generate prescription maps so instead of applying fungicides across entire fields farmers can target only the affected areas.”

After key witness testimony concluded, the committee opened the floor to questions from members of Congress. Watch the full hearing via the video embedded below:

Your Next Read: Decode MAHA’s Potential Effect on the Agriculture Sector

Cover Crops to the Rescue

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 18:04:21 GMT

When Don Morse began growing cover crops, one of his main goals was to tackle the growing populations of marestail (horseweed) and waterhemp that defied traditional control measures.

“I can give you a half dozen reasons to plant cover crops now, but weed control was a big reason I started using them at the time,” recalls Morse, who farms 90 miles north of Detroit, Mich.

Application Practices

Today, he uses cereal rye across 3,100 acres of corn and soybeans.

Between Labor Day and Oct. 1, Morse aerially seeds cereal rye into no-till corn and soybeans. That timing allows for good stand establishment before winter.

He prefers aerial seeding over the use of a ground rig. “We have a really good aerial applicator with a great skill set, and I think that’s what makes it work so well,” he says.

For seeding, he uses 75 lb. of cereal rye per acre. The seed runs about $12.50 an acre, and the aerial application costs about $16 per acre. He adds that for a ground rig, the seeding cost runs about $12 an acre.

In the spring, he no-tills soybeans into actively-growing cereal rye. In no-till corn, the cover crop is terminated prior to planting.

“I don’t want the rye to get any higher than my knees on corn ground, or we start getting a nitrogen penalty,” he says. “If you haven’t used cover crops before, I’d start with them in soybeans as there are fewer potential concerns.”

Iowa State Extension encourages farmers to evaluate the length of their growing season before planting rye. Longer is better for weed management.

Reduced Herbicide Use

Lance Dobson, who farms near Lexington, Mo., says he is using cover crops, primarily, cereal rye, across 100% of his acres now.

“We saw an opportunity with the cover crops to take advantage of some of that forage through cattle,” he says. “It’s also helping increase the nutrient cycling and soil health along the way, and helping us build another cash crop through the cattle.”

He expects additional benefits with cover crops from a reduction in inputs, going forward.

“We’re reducing our synthetic fertilizer use with cover crops and building organic matter,” he says. “We’re (also) able to do a one-pass herbicide on our soybean rotation — a $20 herbicide pass, excluding application costs. So that’s what we’re kind of moving towards.”

Cereal rye is helping Morse pull back on herbicide rates as well.

This past spring, on 400 acres of no-till soybeans, he left metribuzin out of his preemergence application, though that wasn’t his original plan. Wet conditions kept him out of the field until just before the soybeans emerged.

He did opt to make a post-herbicide application in the field, though few broadleaf weeds were present.

“Probably only half of that field really needed the post application,” he says. “I was tempted to not apply anything, but I wasn’t that courageous.”

Based on the positive results this year, he anticipates using less metribuzin on his 2025 soybean ground.

In a similar vein for corn, Morse says he has cut 4 oz. of mesotrione out of his herbicide program and has seen no negative consequences.

“We’ve been getting improved weed control, and now it looks like we’re going to be able to cut some herbicide use, so this is making financial sense,” he says. “We’ll keep watching and evaluating our weed control to see how far we can go with it.”

Your Next Read: How To Boost Your Sustainability Efforts By Aerially Applicating Cover Crops

Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Will Not Run for Office in 2024

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 16:20:18 GMT

The House Ag Committee’s chairman seat flipped from Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) to Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa) this term, following Republican’s taking control of the House.

The Senate Ag Committee looks to also have a leadership role change within the next two years, as Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) announced on Thursday she will not pursue re-election in 2024.

“Inspired by a new generation of leaders, I have decided to pass the torch in the U.S. Senate,” she said in a press release .

As the first woman to be elected for Senate in the state of Michigan, Stabenow says her years of “blazing trails and breaking barriers” in her home state are what brought her to the Senate floor in 2001.

But these final two years might prove the most important of all her time in office.

“For the next two years, I am intensely focused on… leading the passage of the next five-year Farm Bill, which determines our nation’s food and agriculture policies. It is also key in protecting our land and water and creating jobs in our rural and urban communities,” Stabenow says.

Upon her exit from office, Stabenow says she will “begin a new chapter” of serving Michiganders outside of elected office, while also spending time with family.

More on policy:

House Speaker Vote Could Extend into Coming Months
Policy and Payments: What Producers Can Expect in 2023

Planter Set Up Can Add Dollars To Your Pocket

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 02:14:32 GMT

Farm Journal Associate Field Agronomist Missy Bauer recommends taking a couple of days yet this winter to give your planter a comprehensive check-up, for that reason.

“Every 1,000 ears per acre is worth 5 bu. to 7 bu.,” she says. “It’s pretty common to pick up several thousand ears per acre as a result of good planter setup, and that can result in significant additional revenue.”

In the video, Bauer reviews some of the critical parts of the planter that you’ll want to evaluate. If you’re interested in learning more details on how to get your planter ready for spring, consider attending the planter clinic Bauer and her team are hosting in March.

You can get more details here:

https://www.bmcropconsulting.com/events-2/

Michigan Burglar Holds Homeowner Hostage for Glass of Milk

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 05:36:16 GMT

When a resident of Ovid, Michigan, called the police to report suspicious activity around his home early Labor Day morning, he did not expect his milk carton to be the only item robbed.

While on the phone with Michigan State Police, the homeowner was approached by a man outside his patio door. Breaking the glass door and entering the home, the criminal suspect assaulted the resident, later holding him at knifepoint, according to abc57News.

Holding the resident hostage, the criminal suspect proceeded into the kitchen, robbing the man’s refrigerator by stealing a glass of milk.

When officers arrived on the scene, the suspect fled the home, leaving only an empty glass and a startled homeowner. Making his way through wooded areas and swamp land, the suspect was eventually tracked down by K9 units and taken into custody.

Later learning the suspect attempted to steal the resident’s vehicle from the home prior to the invasion, police charged the suspect with home invasion, felonious assault, malicious destruction to a building, and attempted auto theft. Dairy theft can also be added to this list.

To read more about other dairy crimes, check out these stories below.

Is It Safe To Spread Manure This Winter?

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 05:22:51 GMT

Vermont, Iowa, Maryland, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin: what do all these states have in common? These states all have winter manure application bans established (different conditions exist within each state). So, “Is winter manure spreading allowed in Michigan?” Yes, and Michigan State University Extension recognizes that the proper timing of manure spreading as well as the rate of application allows for maximum nutrient retention within soils all while protecting water quality resources via limiting nutrient losses during runoff events.

Spreading manure in the winter can be quite beneficial (and necessary in some scenarios) for livestock and cropping operations, but this practice is not without its environmental risks, especially if manure is not properly managed.

According to the literature review article Winter Manure Application: Management Practices and Environmental Impact from the North Central Region Soil Health Nexus , associated risks of winter manure application include:

Increased runoff of manure nutrients and contaminants due to the spring thaw if manure is applied in late winter
Soil productivity decrease and local water bodies are impacted as these manure nutrients and contaminants runoff

Risks aside, when properly applied, manure that is spread in the winter can:

Decrease the size and number of manure storages needed on the farmstead
Allow farmers to spread manure when logistics make sense for them
Reduce the amount of compaction on the soil due to the spreading equipment running over compressible soil

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development ’s (MDARD) Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) have developed a helpful information guide to help farmers determine if their manure spreading habits are a risk to environmental quality.

There are five questions in this guide that look specifically at:

Manure storage capacity
Slope and drainage of fields
Weather forecasts and seasonal conditions
Amount of snow on the field
Type of manure being applied

Each question has a “risk-o-meter” that is color coded from green to red allowing farmers to visualize whether their spreading habits are at a high or low risk.

Winter Manure: A Hot Topic in Cold Weather

Additional resources and tools that are available to help farmers evaluate (on a field-by-field basis) the risk of winter manure spreading include:

MDARD Right to Farm’s Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices for Manure Management and Utilization
MDEQ’s Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permit requirements
The Manure Application Risk Index

More information on these resources can be found at the Michigan State University Extension News article “ Resources available on winter spreading .”

With a good understanding of the benefits and risks associated with winter manure applications and access to available resources from Michigan State University Extension and the MAEAP Program, farmers are better equipped to make decisions on the right source of manure, rate and timing of application, and correct placement. This also allows farmers to meet their cropping system goals of increased production, increased profitability and enhanced environmental protection of Michigan’s waters and approved sustainability.

Michigan’s Hay Supply is Back

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 21:27:41 GMT

Michigan’s hay supply is rebounding after some tough years.
By: Jerry Lindquist, Michigan State University Extension

Hay production in the State of Michigan was off by 43 percent in the year 2012 according to the USDA’s Crop Production Summary, mainly because of the drought that occurred in that year. In 2013, the rising price of corn, soybeans, and other grains led many producers to plow under hay acres and plant grain crops reducing hay acres in Michigan by almost 5 percent over a two year period.

In spite of the drop in acreage, the Michigan hay supply has recovered and is poised to enter into surplus territory in 2015 according to Michigan State University Extension field educators. The total production of all Michigan hay in 2014 was 2.1 percent higher compared to 2013, which was 36 percent higher than the 2012 drought year. Much of this 2014 increase was because of additional acres coming back into hay production as 95,000 acres were seeded to hay in 2013 and 90,000 in 2014.

The production of hay is only part of the story for this surplus forecast in 2015. The demand for hay appears to also have been weaker in 2014 and may soften even more in 2015. Beef cattle numbers are at fifty year lows and are projected to start increasing gradually over the next few years. The lowering of grain prices also provides an economical alternative feed source that can replace some hay in the diet for many hay consuming animals. This spring also revealed a noticeable supply of hay being carried over on Michigan farms, adding to 2015’s supply. All of these factors are expected to soften demand in 2015.

At the mid-point of the first cutting hay harvest, it appears that an abundant supply of hay is being harvested. Substantial spring rains have fallen in most regions of the State and first cutting yields, which are the largest harvest of the summer season, are good to very good. Soil moisture will help to push the second cutting crop which could make it an above average harvest as well. The only determent to the spring hay growth for some farms has been late spring frosts that injured some alfalfa and grass growth in the Central and Northern Lower Peninsula. But this injury in the end will have minor impact on the overall hay supply.

The market price for low quality round baled hays remains soft; in some locations below the cost of production, with relative feed value (RFV) hays of less than 100 ranging from $70 – 90 per ton. Some prices of these hays are even lower as sellers are cleaning out their left over 2014 hay and dumping them at weekly livestock auctions. The alfalfa/grass mixed round baled hays over 100 RFV are selling in the $80 – 110 range. These hay types when made in a small square bale form are selling for $130 - $180 per ton, mainly because they can be transported more economically, and because so few farms make small square bales.

The better quality alfalfa mixed hays, 125 – 140 RFV, are selling for $125 - $165 per ton with no rain, and the premium quality alfalfa dairy hays over 150 RFV with no or little rain are going for $160 -$200 per ton mainly in small or large square baled form. In Michigan and the Mid-West, it is hard to find premium quality alfalfa hays selling for over $200 per ton. The primary buyer of these hays is the dairy industry and with milk prices being depressed, dairy farms are adjusting their rations budgets accordingly.

These prices will likely change as the hay harvest continues over the rest of the summer. Those wishing to advertise hay for sale, wanting to buy hay, or just wanting to check on current hay asking prices may go to the Michigan hay seller list . The listing sponsored by the Michigan Forage Council and Michigan State University Extension carries a constant list of producers with hay for sale in Michigan. The listing is free and open to everyone. For more information contact MSU Extension educators, Jerry Lindquist at 231-832-6139 or at lindquis@anr.msu.edu , or Phil Kaatz at 810-667-0341 or at kaatz@anr.msu.edu .