At the recent Western Alfalfa and Forage Symposium, one session included presentations and a panel discussion about GMOs and Roundup Ready® alfalfa.

Read excerpts below from the proceedings from each participant. Then go online to read each complete article, available on the University of California Alfalfa & Forages website.

During my last year of high school, I worked for Don Tobler and his son, Harmon, north of Nampa, Idaho. They had a dairy farm, one of the few I had seen milking Jersey cows.

In that era milk processors had stopped paying the usual premium for the high-butterfat Jersey milk. Holstein cows were added, which caused a need for segregated lodging for the two breeds.

Marketing involves being customer-oriented. It also means listening to buyers and understanding their wants and needs.

Effective marketing of alfalfa begins before production and involves selecting target markets, planning production practices to produce alfalfa for each target market and considering the timing of marketing efforts.

Market demand for high-quality alfalfa knows virtually no bounds.

Livestock producers from one end of the country to the other clamor for this choice forage.

As a result, top-quality alfalfa prices climbed to $240 a ton or more this past season, depending on where you live.

Drought conditions in regions throughout North America have placed a great deal of pressure on cattle ranchers and dairy farmers, particularly in regards to the cost and availability of hay this winter.

In many areas they are faced with a pressing choice: either stretch existing supplies of hay or supplement with additional hay purchased on the open market at inflated prices due to the shortages.