Alfalfa plan

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LimiMan

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Hey guys, I have an issue that I will be facing later this year. It has to do with my dads 100 acres of bottom ground. Right now he is leasing it out but the guys lease ends early this year and before he leases it back for another 3 years, I need to know what you guys think about my plan.

First, this is great bottom ground for alfalfa, its been out of alfalfa for about 10-13 years, mostly just wheat, the guy thats been leasing it was just running stockers on it, also there is 60 acres of good costal bermuda that I would have to use too. Anyways, the lease payment would be $5000 a year. I have all the equipment to put the alfalfa in but I dont have the Baler,rake,swather,etc...

I've got the money to make the first years lease payment but I'am still going to need 12-$14000 to get the alfalfa established.
If I borrowed the $12000 for 3 years and add the lease payment, then I would have an annual payment of around $9500. After three years the borrowed money would be paid back and I would just have the $5000 to pay for the lease.

But, if I were to get someone to cut,bale the hay on halves or something like that,could a guy make enough annually to pay $9500? Hopefully it will rain.
 
Looking at your info, I have no idea where you live and what your climate is. It is kind of hard for anyone to give advice to someone who may be 1000 miles away.

The 60 acres of coastal is going to cost you another $3K in fertilizer if you go dry fertilizer. You should get at least 200 bales off of it, if it is any good at all. Depnding on your climate, you could make as many as 400. If you are baling on the halves, you are giving up a lot of money. Why go alfalfa if you are not grazing? Are you planting that on the other 40 acres? If so you may consider rotational grazing and hay production.
 
I guess location would help :oops:
I live in SW Oklahoma, I will be running cows on the 60 acres of grass.
 
Maybe this is a dumb question but why are you figuring 12-14k to get the alfalfa established on only 40 acres?? Here again I'm presuming the 60 acres of bermuda are part of the 100 acre tract, or no?? I realize depending upon what type alfalfa you plant you can spend up to $6.00 lb for it (but there are many good quality alfalfas for half that cost).
 
If I was going to plant alfalfa today I'ld jump on the roundup ready stuff. It would probably run around $60-75 per acre for the seed and the technology fees.

dun
 
Sorry for the miscommunication. There is a total of 160 acres, 100 of it is going to be for alfalfa and the other 60 is in bermuda grass.
 
dun":1fxf5a9w said:
If I was going to plant alfalfa today I'ld jump on the roundup ready stuff. It would probably run around $60-75 per acre for the seed and the technology fees.

dun
Howdy,

I did jump on the Roundup Ready Alfalfa. So far it looking great and working good so far. Spring 06 planted. Northern Virginia, 20 acres. WL-355RR
The main reason I got in on the RR stuff, was, this field is staying in this for along time.... The previous alflalfa was going good for 8 years.. 2 years out into corn and now back to alfalfa. When we combined the corn, the USDA just approved the RR variety.

100 acres of alfalfa could produce some good income. The main point might be for you to find a buyer for that production. Silage, large sqaures, small squares, rolls. It really depends on what the end result is going to be.
 
You are in SW Okla. You will have a lot of trouble selling alfalfa into Texas Down here it is horse feed and your area has blister bugs. To many horse people have either experienced the horrors of horses dying from eating alfalfa that was exposed to blister bugs or have heard the stories.Z
 
You can get blister beatle insurance on first cutting fairly cheap and sell it as gauranteed blister beatle free. Blister beatles arent really hard to control.

Incidently, does anybody actualy know anybody first hand that had a proven case of a blister beatle death. Seams like its a scapegoat for everything and everybody knows somebody who knows somebody, or thier vet told them, etc, etc, etc.
 
dun":2n47dtic said:
If I was going to plant alfalfa today I'ld jump on the roundup ready stuff. It would probably run around $60-75 per acre for the seed and the technology fees.

dun

What is your experience with the roundup ready stuff?
 
Stocker Steve":2nfc7uye said:
dun":2nfc7uye said:
If I was going to plant alfalfa today I'ld jump on the roundup ready stuff. It would probably run around $60-75 per acre for the seed and the technology fees.

dun

What is your experience with the roundup ready stuff?

None, but it has to beat wicking glyphos a couple of time each cutting.

dun
 
dun":1rjasj5t said:
Stocker Steve":1rjasj5t said:
dun":1rjasj5t said:
If I was going to plant alfalfa today I'ld jump on the roundup ready stuff. It would probably run around $60-75 per acre for the seed and the technology fees.

dun

What is your experience with the roundup ready stuff?

None, but it has to beat wicking glyphos a couple of time each cutting.

dun

What is "glyphos"? Do I have that up here?

Michele
 
mitchwi":15b0q0lq said:
dun":15b0q0lq said:
Stocker Steve":15b0q0lq said:
dun":15b0q0lq said:
If I was going to plant alfalfa today I'ld jump on the roundup ready stuff. It would probably run around $60-75 per acre for the seed and the technology fees.

dun

What is your experience with the roundup ready stuff?

None, but it has to beat wicking glyphos a couple of time each cutting.

dun

What is "glyphos"? Do I have that up here?

Michele

Generic roundup

dun
 
3MR":1739xgxo said:
You can get blister beatle insurance on first cutting fairly cheap and sell it as gauranteed blister beatle free. Blister beatles arent really hard to control.

Incidently, does anybody actualy know anybody first hand that had a proven case of a blister beatle death. Seams like its a scapegoat for everything and everybody knows somebody who knows somebody, or thier vet told them, etc, etc, etc.

http://www.rainbow1ranch.com/

Susan Fuque is a good friend/competitor of ours and less then two years ago lost six of their top broodmares to blister bugs. It came out of Oklahoma and from the same man she had been buying alfalfa from for nearly ten years. She gets her hay out of Colorado and Wyoming now.Z
 
dun":mzjma4pu said:
mitchwi":mzjma4pu said:
dun":mzjma4pu said:
Stocker Steve":mzjma4pu said:
dun":mzjma4pu said:
If I was going to plant alfalfa today I'ld jump on the roundup ready stuff. It would probably run around $60-75 per acre for the seed and the technology fees.

dun

What is your experience with the roundup ready stuff?

None, but it has to beat wicking glyphos a couple of time each cutting.

dun

What is "glyphos"? Do I have that up here?

Michele

Generic roundup

dun

Whoops!! question Dun.... do you do this with your alfalfa fields? and maybe we;re doing something wrong, but we've never done this with an alfalfa stand. We fertilize after 1st crop, but that's it... we do rotate our alfalfa fields at approx 8 to 10 years, with corn, unless any winter freeze has happened, and we do it sooner....but as the field deteriorates, it mainly just gets "grassier"- some weeds, but not overly so.

Sorry if I hi-jacked....

Michele
 
Fortuneatly we don;t do alfalfa here. In the desert it was all irrigated and when the alfalfa got about a foot tall we went through with a wiper and wiped the weeds above the alfalfa. That way it was dead and basically gone by the time it was cut. Super phospate after each cutting.

dun
 

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