Ask the university experts about how alfalfa yields have improved over the years and you get many different answers, most pointing out the lack of improvement. Several studies have tracked varietal improvement over the years and suggest that genetic gain for forage yield between the 1950's and 1990's averaged only 0.18% improvement per year.  Another University of Wisconsin study looked at research plot yields from 1977 to 1992 and actually saw no trend for yield improvement during that time period.  This does not mean that alfalfa varieties did not improve during this time, but it does mean that genetic gain was not big enough to improve yields relative to weather challenges and more aggressive cutting management that was adopted during that period of time.

An extensive analysis of alfalfa yields was recently conducted comparing the performance of newer varieties head-to-head with the performance of older varieties in the same environments and cutting regimes.  This analysis suggests that, industry wide, traditional synthetic breeding is gaining about 0.34% per year since the 1980's.  This is much better than the gains estimated prior to the 1980's, but is still not very impressive.  However, if you look at how hybrid alfalfa yields have improved since the first hybrid was released to the marketplace in 2001, hybrid alfalfa yields have improved at a rate of 1.15% per year.  Hybrid technology has given alfalfa breeders the ability to increase genetic yield gain faster than they could in a non-hybrid system.

Historic corn yields follow a similar trend.  In the time period from 1860 to 1930 when synthetic corn varieties were in production, corn yields improved a total of only 2 bushels in 70 years.  However, with the introduction of hybrid technology in the 1930's, the trend changed dramatically.  Double-cross hybrid corn improved corn yields 1 bushel per acre per year, and then single-cross hybrids improved corn yields an average 1.8 bushels per acre every year since the 1960's!  Hybrid technology revolutionized corn production in the United States and is now doing the same for alfalfa production.

Read the full article here.

 

   Starting in September, all McDonald's stores in the U.S. will begin using real dairy butter (instead of nondairy alternatives) in their food preparation and serving. You may have already seen signage and promotion around the new Buttermilk Crispy Chicken Sandwich (made with real buttermilk) and McDonald's will be throwing even more promotion behind the real butter launch, with a new ad campaign "Let Us Butter You Up."

   So that's nice and all, but what does that mean for dairy sales?

Estimates from suppliers and McDonald's itself indicate that McDonald's will need 500 million pounds of milk equivalent (and some estimates lean higher-over 600 million pounds). To put this into context, dairy exports are down just more than 500 million pounds right now. So, McDonald's switching to butter has the potential to impact dairy demand as much or more than the current drop in export demand. So it's pretty big news, if we do say so ourselves.

   McDonald's has been a longtime partner with the dairy checkoff, including having on-site checkoff-employed dairy scientists working with them on menu development. Also instrumental in this change has been new and emerging research on the nutritional benefits of full-fat dairy products, led by the dairy checkoff over the past two decades. (This stuff takes a while!)