Who doesn't like to save money? Sign up for your MFA membership today and get a $40 discount on your Symposium registration. Click here to take care of your membership and/or registration online. The early bird registration ends Tuesday, February 7.

Still need lodging? Call the Chula Vista at 1-855-530-1706 and reference Booking ID number i84059 ($90 single; $95 double).
Discount rates expire Monday, February 6.

For a sneak peek at what you'll learn at Symposium, check out these upcoming presentations. If you know a topic is just what a friend or neighbor is looking for, share the information via social media, email, or text. For the complete agenda, click here.

Extreme economic volatility among global markets will challenge but also present opportunities, according to the Symposium keynote speaker. Dr. David Kohl, an academic Hall of Famer, earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University, has traveled nearly 10 million miles, conducted 7,000+ presentations, and published 2,500+ articles. He has received 11 major teaching awards while teaching over 10,000 students, and 25 major Extension and Public Service awards. He is one of only five professors in the 100-year history of the American Agricultural Economics Association to receive their Outstanding Teaching Award twice. He received the Governor's Award for distinguished service to Virginia agriculture and was recognized as one of 30 leaders who are the brains behind innovative business management and economic information agriculture uses today. He has been named one of 7 economists and bankers who challenge the status quo. His experience provides a unique perspective into future trends in agriculture. Kohl will discuss population declines, oil and energy needs, weather, inflation, and politics while examining what’s happening in China, Europe, and across the U.S. He will also offer you a Business IQ exercise where you can reflect on what areas in your business you want to continue with and which you want to improve upon. He urges farmers to manage what is controllable and manage around what they can’t control.

What’s been gleaned from research into the fungal disease tar spot, first appearing in U.S. cornfields in 2015, will be presented by Darcy Telenko, Purdue University Field Crop Extension Pathologist. She’ll show how to identify the disease, discuss its spread throughout Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, much of Wisconsin, Michigan, etc. Tar spot likes cool, wet, or humid weather and produces small, round- to diamond-shaped stromata – black structures forming on both sides of corn leaves. Infected leaves can prematurely die depending on severity. She will discuss the disease’s impact on corn grain and dry-matter silage yield and management, including the use of fungicides and research on its use.

Join us for an important discussion about herbicide carryover and herbicide resistant weeds in alfalfa. With his 20+ years of experience in weed management, Renz will help you minimize potential for creating herbicide resistance weeds and avoid problems caused by herbicide carryover. Don’t miss this session if you want to maximize your alfalfa yield potential.

In these uncertain times, it’s important to find ways to not only enhance your revenue streams, but to protect the ones you’ve already established. This session will help you do just that. You will learn about NRCS programs such as EQIP and CSP, which offer financial incentives for farmers who incorporate forages into their operations. You will also learn about the types of crop insurance options you can choose from to protect your investment. Finally, you will learn about how you can use Dairy Margin Coverage and Dairy Revenue Protection to better protect and manage your income. This session is a must for any alfalfa or dairy producer who is interested in enhancing their bottom line through existing risk management tools.

With the increase in N fertilizer costs, you should consider the value of the nutrients your corn crops can utilize after rotating from alfalfa. Coulter has studied many of the benefits of including alfalfa in crop rotations: reducing nitrate leaching potential, soil erosion, and soil organic matter losses while improving soil structure and tilth. Research has shown N fixed from alfalfa boosts yields of corn crops at least two years after rotating from alfalfa, saving on fertilizer costs. You will learn about lessons learned from on-farm fertilizer N rate trials in 1^st- and 2^nd-year corn following alfalfa and which conditions favor yield increases when adding fertilizer N for 1^st- and 2^nd-year corn following alfalfa.

Dr. Alison Duff serves as the leader of the Dairy Ecology Lab at the U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center. Join Alison to learn about the effect on soil health and carbon balance of having alfalfa in a dairy forage rotation. Her research program focuses on how farmland cover and management practices affect carbon balance, ecosystem services, and farm resilience. Don’t miss this presentation to learn more about how alfalfa can enhance your farm’s soil health.

Learn how to save time and money by utilizing the latest in technology in farm management to help make your job easier and more affordable. On-farm inputs costs are skyrocketing, including wages for employees. Let R2D2 Do Your Work will discuss new advances in technology which hold the potential to reduce labor costs for a host of on-farm chores. Learn about the ease of electronic fencing, the efficiency of robotic bale collecting, the usefulness of remote scrapers and feed pushers and much more. Be sure to join us for this session for new ways to improve your bottom line.

Enjoy a delicious buffet breakfast while learning about MFA and NAFA's recent successes. Join us for the Midwest Forage Association’s Annual Meeting scheduled at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 22. Meeting highlights include the MFA board election, the budget, research funding successes, new crop insurance development, conservation opportunities, new ARS/UW position, and more. As an MFA member, you will also have the opportunity for input into the tasks MFA should focus on for the coming year during our round table discussion. MFA will also announce the winner of its annual Outstanding Service Award, given to reward and recognize significant contributions to the forage industry, and will recognize the winner of a 2022 Pacesetter Award. So, take a moment to quench both your appetite and your mind by attending MFA’s Annual Meeting. Breakfast tickets are reserved for MFA members – not a member yet? Click here.

After an eventful day of educational sessions, walking the exhibit show floor, and networking with industry peers, be sure to unwind at the Symposium’s Comedy of Errors Banquet with headliner Jeffrey Ditzenberger serving as the entertainer. In addition to the opportunity to bid on great prizes in our live and funny money auctions, Jeffrey Ditzenberger will help tickle your funny bone with his unique observations and sardonic wit. With an Alltech sponsored and cash bar social hour beginning at 5:00 p.m., banquet participants will then enjoy our signature family-style meal followed by auctions and entertainment. The Symposium Banquet is the perfect conclusion to a valuable and productive day’s worth of learning and networking.

Don’t miss out on a great opportunity to not only get your hands on great and unique auction items (such as this signed sweatshirt donated by Dohrmann), but to financially support the activities of the Midwest Forage Association and Wisconsin Custom Operators. The Symposium’s silent, live and funny money auctions feature a wide range of unique and useful items on which to bid. Examples of upcoming items include: Customized Milwaukee PACKOUT System (Meyer Manufacturing), Grizzly Cooler & Carhartt Coat (CROPLAN), two $500 CLAAS parts vouchers, Ag-Bag Silage Bag, toy equipment, jackets, and much, much more. All items are provided by our generous Symposium sponsors and exhibitors (companies, if you have an auction item, please let us know). Be sure to check out this year’s great lineup of auction items.

Dr. Randy Shaver will present recent research on the company’s Josilac Combi inoculant at the Inoculant Night session on Monday, Feb 20, at 4:45 p.m. at Chula Vista, Room I. Shaver, Emeritus University of Wisconsin Dairy Scientist, conducted the company-sponsored research. He will discuss findings showing an improvement in starch content on corn silage and ensiled high-moisture corn using a bacterial silage inoculant. It was compared to untreated crop and crop commercially treated with a combination homo- and hetero-fermentative inoculant.

The Midwest Forage Association welcomes its newest sponsor, Josera, a German-based maker of biological silage additives and a pioneer in the agricultural industry for more than 80 years. The company has been producing biological silage additives – homo and heterofermentative bacterial products – since the early 1990s. Its Josilac product line includes Combi and Classic silage inoculants.

Josera expanded its product line to the U.S. (www.josilac.us). beginning in Wisconsin in 2022, initially focusing on the Midwest. The company’s U.S. distributor is Essentials Direct, LLC, based in Fort Atkinson, WI, and its U.S. business representative is George Ferre, DVM, PhD. (gcferre@nazcointernational.com, 720-324-6223).

Join Dr. Shaver and Josera representatives for appetizers and beverages on Feb. 20. Learn about increasing digestible starch, a major contributor to greater energy values in silage and high moisture corn, which is crucial in attaining high feed efficiency and higher returns on investment in high-producing dairy cows and growing beef cattle, according to Josera.