2025 Forage Year in Review and What's Next

In this episode of AK Podcasts, Mike Donaldson, Brett Mortensen, and Jason Alsum discuss the forage year of 2025, exploring the challenges and successes in hay production, corn silage trends, and innovations in livestock nutrition. The conversation highlights the resilience of farmers, the impact of global markets on the hay industry, and the importance of adapting to changing agricultural practices. The guests share insights on the current state of the dairy market, the effects of winter kill on alfalfa, and the advancements in Silo-King products that aim to improve efficiency and reduce carbon loss in farming.

To get in contact with either Jason or Bret here are their emails:

Jason Alsum: Jason.Alsum@agriking.com

Bret Mortensen: bret.mortensen@agriking.com

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Transcript

Chris Radke (00:01)
Welcome to AK Podcasts, where we explore science and nutrition behind livestock care management with the best and the brightest in the business. I'm your host, Chris Radke, part of the Sales Department here at Agri-King. And with me today is the Director of Field Services and a member of the sales management team, Mr. Mike Donaldson. Mike, how you doing, buddy?

Jason Alsum (00:09)
you

Mike Donaldson (00:20)
Very good, Chris, very good. How's your week been going?

Chris Radke (00:23)
⁓ wonderful. ⁓ I know we don't want to particularly time stamp it, but Thanksgiving's around the corner, which is one of my favorite holidays. we're getting excited in my household.

Mike Donaldson (00:33)
Well, this, this, this episode is not a bad thing to timestamp actually Chris, because we wanted to do a, a wrap up of the forage year that 2025 represented. it, you couldn't do that very well in July, but in late November, things are with the exception of some of our areas, California, the South, we're kind of done for the year. It's a good time to take a look back and see just.

Bret Mortensen (00:35)
you

Chris Radke (00:48)
That's true, that's true.

Mike Donaldson (01:01)
what the year was like as far as forage production. And to do that, we've got two returning guests to the AK Podcast. ⁓ Jason Alsum and Brett Mortensen are with us. So give us a little bit of a rundown on each of you. We'll go ahead and start with Brett. Give ⁓ us a biography as much as you want. And ⁓ after that, we'll go to Jason.

Jason Alsum (01:07)
you

Bret Mortensen (01:25)
Excellent. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, I'm Brett Mortenson. I live in Idaho. I work primarily in the Pacific Northwest with all of our people here. ⁓ Hay is my world. Dry hay specifically is the world I come from. Did a lot of exporting before I came to Agri-King and now get to work with a lot of those same producers and producers throughout the Pacific Northwest. ⁓

That's my background.

Mike Donaldson (01:56)
Perfect. Well, Jason, tell us what you do at Agri-King and a little bit about yourself, please.

Jason Alsum (02:02)
Thanks Mike. It's it's an honor to be with you guys again today and I appreciate you reaching out. It's always fun to chit chat a little bit and to wrap up a harvest season is fun thing to do. I've, I grew up in Wisconsin, born and raised, ⁓ and have served Agri-King, ⁓ in this area for 16 years ish. ⁓ so yeah, I'm part of the team, ⁓ that also works with people all over the country. So.

I do get to hear a little bit about how the harvest went in other parts of the country as well. So I'm on the sales management team. my part of my purview is out West. I'm ⁓ working on California right now and they're always harvesting out there. So I don't know if we're wrapping up or starting or what, but ⁓ it's cool to be involved in different parts of the world. So yeah, excited to talk about it with you.

Mike Donaldson (02:54)
Well, that's wonderful. But what I thought we'd do is start with just kind of a wrap up for your respective areas. What kind of year was it? I'm sure some of your areas had great growing season and then some of the places you work might not have been so good. ⁓ from, you know, from Jason's perspective, a lot of what he touches is going directly into animals on a farm. And from your perspective, Brett, as you talked about us earlier this year,

⁓ the aspect of the hay markets where so much of what you're working with isn't really for home consumption, if you will, it's winding up somewhere else. So let's start again with Brett and give us a rundown of how things went this year out in the Northwest.

Bret Mortensen (03:41)
Excellent. Thanks, Mike. Real mixed bag. Kind of a roller coaster ride throughout the season of highs and lows, which is not completely uncommon, but at different times, and depending on the area, there were times where a lot of real high quality stuff was getting put up, whether it was alfalfa hay or grass hay, had some really nice crops. And then kind of towards the end, it really

Mother Nature decided to remind us she was in charge and had a lot of untimely storms. ⁓ And so then it was, I would say from mid late summer, depending on where you were at in the Pacific Northwest, know, including Idaho, Utah, even Montana, Wyoming, ⁓ you might've gotten real lucky and put up some real high quality stuff. And you might've got that, that, hey, what we like to call washed.

Several times it was really clean before it got put in whatever it was because it got got washed and then washed again and washed again and washed again. So in fact, there was ⁓ August we had it wasn't real widespread, but Montana really had some devastating hail ⁓ that just wiped out some absolutely gorgeous fields of of alfalfa. Even like 24 hours, the hail the the hail was still standing.

Mike Donaldson (04:40)
Hahaha!

⁓

Bret Mortensen (05:09)
You know, it hadn't melted, gone away and, and, that's pretty devastating. That'll just shred the hay and makes a real mess. So, we were all across the board and, and there was enough good hay put up for some guys to feel some optimism in a real tough time to be optimistic. So that was good. It was, that was, there was some positives there. And the one thing about it, these, these

Jason Alsum (05:35)
you

Bret Mortensen (05:38)
hay farmers out here are incredibly resilient and tough. was talking to somebody this morning and the comment came up of, people feeling, is the general consensus the sky is falling because we're in a couple years of real bad hay market in the West. And amazingly, it's not that the general feeling is not the sky is falling doom and gloom, terrible.

really resilient people who are the general consensus is, okay, what's, what's our next move? How do we, how do we move forward? How do we write the ship here? How do we make things happen and go in the right direction? So pretty, pretty impressive group of individuals we have putting up hay out here and, and, ⁓ yeah, they're, they're getting kicked in the shins pretty hard, but, not a real negative vibe to it. So pretty remarkable.

Mike Donaldson (06:34)
that's,

that's wonderful. I, I, it sticks in my head on your first Podcast, a couple of things that you said that just kind of make me smile. The, you talked about there being years that anything, anything that couldn't outrun the Baylor and that strings would go around, there was a market for that. Everything was good. And then there's years that, you know, just, you know, just not that way at all.

Jason Alsum (06:49)
you

Mike Donaldson (07:01)
What are some of the, I mean, you mentioned the movement in some ways back to small squares being more of a factor. We won't hold you to anything, but what is a general overview of what's led to the hay market not being so good?

Jason Alsum (07:06)
you

Bret Mortensen (07:21)
⁓ a variety of, of other markets that aren't good. The export market is, is really poor right now. not to turn it into a global economy lesson, but it's the global economy is pretty tough. And, and, ⁓ you know, in the export market, we, we rode a really big wave on the, the China exports for a few years. It was, it was.

Jason Alsum (07:24)
Thank you.

Bret Mortensen (07:51)
A ginormous wave. Well, that that wave has crashed and. And I'm not a real surfer guy or anything, but I've been under a few waves that beat you down into the sand and wash you around, and we're kind of in that. And and the big question is how will that export market really end up? It is really hurt a lot of exporters. There's a lot of exporters who have.

Mike Donaldson (08:02)
Hahaha.

Bret Mortensen (08:17)
of closed facilities, even gone out of business, some big ones. And so that demand for the hay has really, really decreased. Then in the West, the dairy market, not seeing real high prices there. There's been some struggles there. so from the dairy standpoint, their purchasing of hay, they've been a lot more cautious.

And more hand to mouth, they're not buying huge volumes. ⁓ So it's really just several markets that are down. The economy being a little tougher, that affects things like the horse market, the retail market is affected. People don't have as much ⁓ fun money and they're not buying as many small

Jason Alsum (08:53)
you

Bret Mortensen (09:15)
bales and things like that in that retail market. kind of every market other than the beef market, which is good and strong, but they're still having to play their cards just right. so every market that is purchasing on the Alpha Alpha, they've got some struggles of their own. So there's no extra money to go out, buy large quantities.

By the best, know, one thing we've seen is, is, ⁓ everybody kind of has been a little more reserved than what they're willing to purchase and, the quality weren't, we're maybe a little tighter on the quality we'd like to purchase. So all things point to just tighter, tighter purse strings to go out and purchase that. Hey, one thing we, those of us that spend a lot of time on the road in the West.

You watch hey My wife worries more about me crashing because I see a nice little hey go by then then then a nice car going by But it's really interesting Those those trucks are not real busy right now and and they'll go in waves and spurts and and so There may be a few weeks where where there's a run on hey You see a lot of volume going up and down the road and then it's pretty pretty

Jason Alsum (10:19)
you

Mike Donaldson (10:22)
Yeah

Mmm.

Bret Mortensen (10:42)
sparse for a while. really interesting just from a on the road perspective of seeing the Hago, it's pretty tight.

Mike Donaldson (10:52)
And Jason, you don't have to sit there like you're in a school lecture. You feel free to chime in here. ⁓ I'm curious, Brett, ⁓ you talked about in your first Podcast, was absolutely blew my mind that it literally is more expensive to get hay from Idaho to the coast and go onto a ship than it is for the time that it is on a ship going to Asia. that, referenced the world economy.

Is that a bigger piece of the fall off in exports or is China growing more of their own feed or is it some other variable altogether?

Bret Mortensen (11:36)
Again, I think it's multiple factors there. It's really interesting. I just spoke yesterday with a friend of mine who went over to France to the World Alpha Alpha Congress here last week. I was just quizzing him on what was the global feel from people. He said there was a big push on drying hay, like methods to dry down hay commercially. ⁓

because everybody's trying to figure out how to get something that's marketable. Some of those places, it's real hard for them to put up dry hay. And so how can they do it and dry it down and then ship it? And some of those places have an advantage over the U.S. as far as just their geography and being able to reach some of those export markets. They're a little closer to them, but they can't put up the kind of hay we put up. people are, everybody's kind of looking for

A way to get a marketable product and and it's going to be interesting to see where it all lands because even here in the West people are are looking for. OK, what's you hear a lot of this? OK, what? How else can we use more? Hey, the the amount of hay and rations is down the the the requirements of it. You know, people are being a little more free with with what they'll feed. And so how can we do this?

One of the big things at that world alfalfa conference was ⁓ the environmental impact, the footprint value of feeding or of growing alfalfa hay. There's a lot of value there. So people are approaching it from so many different angles of how do we help this market? How do we help alfalfa growers, hay growers?

to be successful and it is covering everything. I have a hay farmer here in my local area who is spending a lot of resources. They're looking at hay as a protein source in human consumption. And there's a lot of direction going there, some real value they're finding, but how is that market gonna take off? How's that going to affect things? Really fascinating.

Jason Alsum (13:55)
You

Mike Donaldson (13:55)
Well,

and I know you're directly involved, not quite so much in California. We'll pin that on Jason in a minute, but you've got some large dairies in Washington and Idaho, sorry, Washington, Idaho, and Oregon from a homegrown forage going into animals standpoint. Can you give us a rundown what the year was like?

Bret Mortensen (14:21)
Actually, ⁓ there were some guys that put up haylage that really had a phenomenal year, maybe record year, that quality was incredible and volumes were really good. We had a pretty good year for growing haylage. Now on the dry hay side, again, it was pretty spotty depending on where you were and the time of the season. There was some really nice hay put up.

that they're going to be able to capitalize on and then some tougher. But those homegrown guys that are feeding their own, they always have the ability to feed some of that tougher hay. So as long as they get some real high quality put up, they're in a pretty good position. I would say those guys that were feeding their own had a really good year. In fact, some phenomenal haylage numbers that we're seeing.

Mike Donaldson (15:13)
Now this is probably very unfair because I'm going to ask Jason things in a minute that he's already gotten to hear you answer. So, you know, I can't help that, but it's not cause I love him more. Is there any buzz in your world? One of the things I've picked up a little bit through the Podcast and just working through the Midwest that the aspect of BMR corn silage going away is leading to some people looking at, okay, what am I going to do in a world without?

Chris Radke (15:21)
Yeah.

Mike Donaldson (15:43)
BMR, was that enough of a factor in your world for corn silage that it is a discussion point?

Bret Mortensen (15:51)
I

Jason Alsum (15:53)
you

Bret Mortensen (15:54)
I would say in the West a little bit, not enough that it impacted ⁓ decisions yet. A lot of thought going into it. I don't know what your thoughts are, Jason. You're probably a little more connected to that.

Jason Alsum (16:09)
You know, the BMR discussion is, it's been out there a long time and in my circles, lot less guys using BMR over the last couple of years. for agronomic factors, for different things. They found other varieties that have better agronomic factors and better tonnage and still give them the digestibility. ⁓ So yeah, some guys are going to have to make some decisions. But I think as nutritionists,

We have wanted BMR more than the farmer has wanted BMR. so, boy, I would say in my circles, BMR has gone down to maybe 20, 30 % of the farms are using a true BMR. They've gone to different hybrids already. So is it earth shattering? No. Is it a discussion? Yeah, there's some guys who are going to have to make some changes. But no, it's been less of an issue than you think. And that's maybe why it's going away.

Mike Donaldson (17:08)
Yeah, it's, it's, it's, don't, one of you guys probably knows it right on the tip of your tongue. The percent of corn seed that goes for silage at all is frighteningly low. I mean, it's, it's a wonder that anyone spends any time on hybrid selection from a seed company standpoint, if it's for silage, it isn't very much.

Jason Alsum (17:28)
Yeah, no, think I mentioned that. Yeah. I had that number in our last Podcast. I'm pretty sure it's, 5 % or under of corn seed production actually goes into a silage variety corn to feed animals. That's a small number.

Mike Donaldson (17:43)
That's a good wrap up from out West. Thank you very much, Brett. Jason, maybe dealing with the, especially with the Midwest and the East Northeast. What was 2025 like?

Jason Alsum (17:55)
Yeah, 2025 for most has been a phenomenal year as well. You know, Wisconsin, a little stat, Wisconsin is leading the charge in corn silage. We have 800,000 acres of corn silage or corn acres gone into corn silage. So we're one of the biggest Silo-King. mean, sorry, corn silage is king. You heard that from Joe Sparrow down south, corn silage is king.

I would say California corn silage is king. It's becoming that way in most of the country. ⁓ As acres become more valuable, acres are less available. You can't expand as much, but cow numbers are growing. Guys are leaning on corn silage more and more. ⁓ So yeah, that's the biggest discussion everywhere is how well the corn silage did. then secondarily, they talk about their haylage or their mixed crops or whatever else they made. ⁓

As far as corn silage goes, we hit records here in Wisconsin. And in the Midwest, they say the average was 187 bushels per acre on average in the Midwest. just phenomenal numbers. Tons wise, know, usually the Midwest is talking 18 to 20 tons on an average. They're saying it was 22 to 24 tons. So almost four tons per acre increase in the corn harvest this year.

So bunkers are full. is, it has been a phenomenal harvest. The only negative there was some corn rust out there. ⁓ and a little tidbit, the guys that, that sprayed, ⁓ with a anti-fungal spray saw really good results this year. ⁓ one of my large producers, ⁓ did 90 % of his acres. said there was a few fields that didn't get it. And when he chopped in those fields,

His chopper was just full of dust ⁓ covered in that rust color that comes off of the plant. And the tonnage was down a couple of tons per acre. was noticeable. ⁓ So this is a year where guys really saw a payback on doing the antifungal spray. It cut that rust down and really took a stress off the plant and increased the tonnages. So ⁓ yeah, down south.

Even the guys, Pennsylvania, our big segment of business there said phenomenal harvest and not just the tonnages, but the environment. There was no mud. They were able to take trucks in every field. It was just efficient and easy this year. ⁓ So yeah, that was phenomenal. ⁓ When you look at, when you look at Haylage, it was also very good. Wheatledge, guys down.

down in California and in Joe's area down there. Joe said it was a little spotty in some, but again, they got great tonnage on their mixed fields where they're putting the cocktail mix in or their wheatlage was a really good harvest. yeah, overall, it was really good. So then my last question, last statement, I checked into some of the reports on the toxins.

if corn silage is our biggest one and you know toxins are always around ⁓ and it's just how many you're going to have and that's kind of what I saw in the report there's you know typically 80 to 90 percent of corn silage is coming back with some level of toxins ⁓ in the vomit toxins the the aflatoxins are less maybe 60 to 70 percent are coming back with some but overall the levels were

more of a 3 to 4 percent they aren't in that ⁓ bad area where you're worried where it's you know 6 to 8. So ⁓ the weather in harvest the fact that we didn't have a lot of wet conditions has kept those in check somewhat. ⁓ And that was mainly the Midwest that I did that look for. So yeah really good.

Mike Donaldson (22:10)
It's been a year or two, and now I'm just being curious, but it's been a year or two since the Midwest Northeast had a really bad winter for winter kill in alfalfa. And I know there was a point in Wisconsin where we'd stacked in some areas, we'd stacked three or four years together with it just being devastating. my first question, point of curiosity is you go out to your world, Brett.

Is winter kill in Alfalfa even a thing?

Bret Mortensen (22:44)
Yes. Yeah. And typically, ⁓ it's not so much during the winter, but what we'll see is a thaw and a little bit of a spring warmup. then Mother Nature said, just kidding. And it freezes again. And so if we get some of that thaw, we get some ponding and it freezes over again, then we'll deal with some of that. We actually deal with more ⁓

rodent damage during the winter in some of our alfalfa stands, then some of the, I mean, it just gets to be a real problem. And it's cyclical and this year didn't seem to be as bad, but a couple of years before that, ⁓ real bad problems with rodents and they've caused a lot of problems in that winter months.

Mike Donaldson (23:37)
Well, that's

fast. never, I mean, other than hitting woodchuck holes, I never gave much thought to rodents and hay fields. What are they doing to alfalfa?

Jason Alsum (23:46)
You ⁓

Bret Mortensen (23:47)
the roots,

Mike Donaldson (23:48)
I'll

Bret Mortensen (23:49)
they'll chew the roots off and you know those the gophers and things they'll get underneath to the roots to that low level stuff and then then they're gone. You get the root, you get the plant.

Chris Radke (23:49)
Mm.

Mike Donaldson (24:00)
Bye!

Jason, know where you live has been an area that sometimes has had a lot of trouble. Is that playing a role in slowly changing people's cropping focus towards something like corn silage or small grains?

Jason Alsum (24:21)
Hmm. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I think you nailed it. I don't have the years off the top of my head, but I would say guessing 99 to 2002, we had some really bad, I'm sorry, 99 to 2022. So 20. Yeah. Anyway, those numbers, we had a lot of winter kill and people ran to the cocktail mixes.

They ran to putting more corn acres in. mean, was a quick, that was the biggest, ⁓ in my career, the biggest change in, in, ⁓ cropping was after those three years in a row where alfalfa just didn't make it through. And the price of alfalfa seed, you know, went up astronomically during those same times. And they're like, I'm not paying it anymore. And then we have these cocktail mixes come in and a lot of guys ran towards cocktail mixes. ⁓

and they went to more corn acres. ⁓ And I think a lot of consultants out in the field were talking about that. You you can raise corn and go over it one time and harvest, whereas alfalfa, you're going over it four times, all the fuel involved. So we went from a lot of 50-50, 60-40 corn silage diets to, man, 70-30 is really common these days, and they're pushing 80s and

And we have a client that's a hundred percent corn silage. He doesn't grow any haylage anymore. So yes, that has gone a lot that way. And I would point point to those years of winter kill alfalfa that just broke the guys. Like I'm done planting and patching and working well with alfalfa. Now that being said, in the Midwest, we still grow a ton of alfalfa. ⁓ You know, we ran that way.

Mike Donaldson (26:11)
Right, right.

Jason Alsum (26:13)
cocktail mixes got really exciting and guys did a lot of that. Now the winter kill hasn't been as bad. Cocktail mixes don't produce 24% crude protein like alfalfa does. So guys who love their alfalfa in years past have equalized that a little bit. They're hedging by planting some of the cocktail mixes and they can always feed cocktail mixes to

know, heifers or dry cows or whatever, but they're still leaning on alfalfa for producing that ⁓ good digestible fiber and the protein.

Mike Donaldson (26:55)
This was one of the, if you go back maybe four years, I'm not quite sure. We made a significant change in our Silo-King product, largely ⁓ driven by Brett's world. And we came out with a hay specific product, ⁓ very tentative. We'd always been a, only need one bag kind of company. And there was enough demand.

listened, we came out with a hay product, continues to do extremely well. In the last maybe two years plus Jason, you've really led the way into then say, okay, people seem to be able to handle more than one product. What about a corn silage product? And after some really good trial work last year on select farms, that was rolled out this year company wide. And I'm hearing some really impressive things.

with the corn silage products. I mean, as your baby, Jason, talk a little bit about what we've done and what we're seeing.

Jason Alsum (27:59)
Well, it's not my baby. There's a lot of there's a lot of research and development and people behind that charge. ⁓ But really, the market called for it. You know, we we we were answering a lot of the calls of the marketplace. ⁓ Larger dairies have to dial everything in right there isn't room for waste on anything. And a lot of these dairies, you know, we're pushing on us saying,

You know, I don't want a one size fits all. I want a targeted product. And yes, Silo-King hay and the development of that market out west and the development of that product for that market opened the door for us to say, okay, let's look at a corn silage product. And it really has been good. Being able to load that product specific to a crop has allowed us to put, you know, more, more of our good

antioxidants, mold and yeast inhibitors and targeted enzymes into that product. And yeah, we've seen great results. The speed of fermentation has never been faster. know, Silo-King, you know, ferments in seven days versus an industry average of a forage treatment product being double that. And we've seen even faster fermentation on corn silage with that targeted. And then it's the bunk life, right?

So the speed of fermentation captures ⁓ more dry matter retention because of the speed of fermentation, less of the undesirable growth of molds and yeast, ⁓ but the calorie retention. And with that speed of fermentation, we're also just seeing so much better bunk life when you open it up. And that's been impressive, guys. You know, if you can open up feed and leave it sit ⁓ for several days,

I think we were, our last look at corn silage and grain was like 76 to 80 hours without it going up two and a half degrees was the threshold. Once it goes above that, we considered it unstable. So if you can get 80 hours of bunk life without it raising more than two and a half degrees, that's pretty good. So in a nutshell, that's a little bit about the design of that product and what we've seen with results. So excited about that. One more exciting thing I'll share. ⁓

We're ⁓ starting a greenhouse project. We have some space in a greenhouse so we can grow corn year round now. And by doing that, we can study corn year round and study fermentation year round. So excited to continue to move our development forward with that.

Mike Donaldson (30:46)
For a brief moment there, I thought you were going to tell me we had Agri-King points set as available for Christmas this year, but that would be the, they'd have to be green ones though. That's all we could do. Brett, any.

Jason Alsum (30:52)
Hey, why not? If we got a greenhouse, let's grow them.

Bret Mortensen (30:56)
You suppose

Chris Radke (30:59)
You

Bret Mortensen (31:00)
Silo-King would would help those points that is stay pretty longer and who knows Because on the hay side, you know here and Jason talk about the CSG same thing. We've seen so many great results this year You know the the Silo-King hay will help preserve that hay it'll help prevent they the heating there's a lot of things that go into

Mike Donaldson (31:03)
Yeah

Jason Alsum (31:04)
Yeah.

Mike Donaldson (31:06)
Perfect!

Bret Mortensen (31:25)
We still talk about putting hay up, dry hay is still, it's as much of an art as it is a science. And that's where Silo-King can really benefit people too, because it just gives them a little better window with the art that they're drawing to put up a beautiful product. And we've seen some great results with that. Some hay this year, some guys that had some real tough conditions.

And it always scares us, so we really monitor those. And to watch those bails hold temperature, not rise. I I had a guy sit there and say, hey, I've bailed, hay my entire life, 60 years. And everything that I'm watching goes against everything I've learned in my 60 years. This should not be happening. And so, I mean, it's not magic. It's not gonna save everything.

Mike Donaldson (32:13)
you

Jason Alsum (32:14)
you

Bret Mortensen (32:22)
So I'm going to prevent any problems, but man, it is a great tool for farmers to use to help themselves put up a quality product, which in the end, whether they're feeding it or marketing it, it just gives them a benefit and gives them a good leg to stand on there. So we continue to see amazing things with the Silo-King Hay side as well.

Mike Donaldson (32:46)
It's so amazing to watch people come to that conclusion. ⁓ Thankfully we've moved away from people thinking that silages have to heat. You can't make silage unless it heats. And that's not as common a thought as it used to be. But there's still people that don't grasp that that heat is being generated by burning the best stuff first.

If we could train a bacteria to burn lignin, go to it, man. That'd be wonderful. Get that lignin out of there. But that doesn't happen. And whether it's hay that heats or silages that heat, we're burning the very best of that feed in that calorie increase. It's science, but it can sometimes be science that's hard to show people. But man, when they see it, they get it.

Jason Alsum (33:37)
Hmm?

Mike Donaldson (33:46)
They appreciate it.

Jason Alsum (33:48)
Mike, don't get me going. I'm going to jump on my stump here pretty soon, because you're starting to get into my passionate area. But one more thing I'll add to that ⁓ is the carbon loss. And we're in a world today where carbon loss is being monitored, measured, scrutinized. And I don't think that's going away. And it is so good to sit on the Silo-King, Agri-King side, where everything we do

Mike Donaldson (34:02)
Yes.

Jason Alsum (34:18)
is saving carbon. We're working on all these products that have efficiencies built into them to make that animal more efficient, to make fermentation more efficient. And when you put them all together, are helping, yes, we're helping dairymen be more profitable. We're helping them with tools that can cover up some of the problems that Mother Nature may throw their way. But we are also reducing carbon.

that is put out on that farm and that's huge and we're going to continue to lead in that area. We're going to continue to help farmers navigate that. ⁓ But being able to say our speed of fermentation is great for forage but it also reduces that carbon loss.

Mike Donaldson (35:02)
Mm-hmm,

absolutely. Well, Brett, any wrap-up to the wrap-up of the year?

Bret Mortensen (35:09)
No, it's just ⁓ in the hay world, it's been tough, but guys are tough and ⁓ it's going to change. That market will change. always does. There's always ebbs and flows in it. And I think Silo-King Hay is a great opportunity for guys to give themselves the out. There's there's a expense to use it, but it also opens a window for your success and a payback on the end.

But my wrap up is this, I'm amazed that the guys have kind of been kicked while they've been down and they're still happy to keep going on. And Alfalfa out here in the West is still a player. You hear all these things that we're going to other formulas or formulations and other rations. You know what? We still grow a lot of other crops in the West and hay is a great rotation.

And it helps the overall farm be, be efficient and be productive. So, so the hay side things has been tough, but these guys are tough and everybody's just kind of riding the wave and going, it's, we're going to be okay. And it's going to come back and, and really tough times make tough people and, and things improve through tough times. And that's really what I'm seeing on the hay side in the West.

Mike Donaldson (36:30)
That is perfect. Well, Jason, same basic question, but I think you've even got a little bit of what's new for 26 to tell us about.

Jason Alsum (36:40)
Hmm. Now there's a little bit of that, you know, in wrap up as we approach Thanksgiving, I can't be more thankful. Agri-King is a great company and we get the blessing of working with great people, working in the farming community, the producers from, from hay, livestock, dairy. It, these guys are incredible people. They're constantly moving and innovating ⁓ and helping their business be successful. And to be a part of that.

And to be able to have the 60 years of history that we have in innovation and products that we can support them with. It's just fun. It's fun to help them be better when we get that opportunity and to work with them and see how they're innovating and moving and then doing it along with them. It's just, it's really cool to be a part of it. ⁓ So yeah, we always have research going on. We have new and exciting things coming.

and then we're increasing the technology that we have in our original Silo-King product. So we are always developing and helping, looking to help farmers be more efficient. And as cropping changes and agronomics change and storage practices change, feeding practices change, we have to continue to innovate. ⁓ And it's, again, thankful and blessed to be a part of a company that is constantly innovating.

has great scientists, great people. ⁓ So yeah, we're innovating. We're doing all we can to help the producers.

Mike Donaldson (38:10)
Well, and it's really, really appreciate both of you joining us today. Chris always gives a little bit of a tag. If you like what you see, reach out to the Agri-King Podcast email. If anybody has questions for Brett or Jason, they are also available. ⁓ Go to the website. You'll be able to puzzle through and figure out how to reach out to them with any questions you might have. So no, I appreciate you both very much. It's been a lot of fun. ⁓

More people at a time is definitely a good thing. This is good. So Chris, buddy, what'd you learn today?

Chris Radke (38:45)
⁓ I like kind of a follow-up question. Brett, last time you yourself as a self-proclaimed hay nerd. So could you tell me what is the Global Alfalfa Congress? Give me a minute. You just flew over that concept. I was like, what is this? And you said they meet in France?

Bret Mortensen (38:49)
Yes.

Well,

it was, I think it's ⁓ every few years they have a big meeting and it'll be in various places. The last time it was in San Diego, this time it was overseas. It's really just a conference. Kind all the real hey nerds go there and hang out and strategize and stomp on each other's toes or ⁓ scratch backs. ⁓ But it's really just a... ⁓

Chris Radke (39:22)
officials.

Mike Donaldson (39:22)
you

you

Bret Mortensen (39:32)
I'd say a global strategizing conference. So a lot of international people attend those from all over the world.

Chris Radke (39:35)
Okay. All right.

had no idea such a thing existed, I'm fascinated with that. Thanks. Thanks guys. If you liked what we were talking about, you can find us on just about any of the socials. Please leave us a review on whatever Podcast form you're listening to us on. And we're now on the website nearthebottom at agarking.com. And if you have any follow-up questions, you can email them to podcast@agriking.com. And I will try and put Brett in.

Bret Mortensen (39:48)
Sure.

Chris Radke (40:13)
Jason's email on our this Podcast release so can get ahold of them easier. ⁓ Brett and Jason, thank you so much for your time. You also, Mike, thank you, thank you.

Mike Donaldson (40:22)
Thanks everybody, appreciate it.

Jason Alsum (40:25)
Thanks guys. Have a good day.

Bret Mortensen (40:25)
Thank you guys.