Growing clover or alfalfa seed ?

[Stocker Steve]

Some of the old timers raised their own clover, and sometimes you see a pull type "set up for clover or alfalfa" combine on retirement auctions. Seems simple enough. ;-)

Do you see anyone still doing this today ? Do you have any idea on what an average clover seed yield per acre is?

 

[millstreaminn]

The guy I bought my farm from harvested Birdfoot Trefoil seed with an old AC pull behind combine. I think he said he only needed to change the screens to do it. If I remember correctly, I thought he said he got 40 pounds off of 3 acres. He told me this 30 years ago, so my memory may not be correct. I know it has nothing to do with clover seed yield, but its the best comparison I have.

 

[Nesikep]

We have one of those Allis pull behind combines.. the pickup is a whole 40" wide! We've never done clover or alfalfa, but we have done sainfoin, and we got about 400 lbs off a 1/3 of an acre! I just seeded 3 acres in pure Algonquin alfalfa so that if the opportunity arises, I can get seed from it there. I'd expect FAR more seed off it, or it wouldn't pay to do it at all, I would figure if you had a good stand of alfalfa and it set good seed, you should get a couple hundred pounds per acre... you certainly should get more than your sowing rate!

Around here we're so hot and dry the management for seed harvesting is a little different than most other places, I found I get better alfalfa seed set if I cut a first cut early, then it comes up more uniformly. The past couple years we've been direct combining the Sainfoin, this year we're going to swath it... see how that works out for us.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Kura clover seed and Reeds Canary grass seed are some of the hardest to find. I got tired of asking for them, so I asked if they (the seed company) would buy them. They were very open to this.