Newbie question on growing alfalfa

[Phil2]

Hopefully this isn't too overly asked an answered.

The last 3 summers I've planted about 7 acres of pearl millet to use for winter hay. After cutting it last year I took a leap and seeded it with alfalfa. It went in decent, caught a few rains (would have liked more), and looked decent going into winter. Between our crazy winter (multiple 80 degree swings in temp, very little moisture) and a possible (likely) amount of operator error on my part this spring was rather thin in about half the field. Thin enough that I wasn't sure it'd ever be worth messing with or if I was going to end up over seeding grass into it this fall. COOP I get my fertilizer from encouraged me to hold off on putting down the recommended lime, p, k, and minerals until I new what it was going to do (nice guy, looking out for me, likes to laugh at what I'm doing next). We got a couple rains and it started looking a bit better but not a lot so I went ahead and threw good money after bad, drilled in more seed at half rate and sprayed it for weeds.

Weeds are dead, field looks like there might be more there than I first thought, and my seeds are popping up. We did catch a gulley washer that covered the new growth back up and then 3 days in a row of frost (record low temps for this time of year) but it seems to have taken it ok and I've got rows a sprouts again.

What next? Do I go ahead and put the recommended fertilizer down now or wait until after the first cutting? When do I plan on cutting? Will I need to let the stuff that survived from last fall flower out and go to seed to let the stuff I drilled this spring catch up?

Any advice is appreciated.

Phil

 

[skyhightree1]

i have tried for years on the alfalfa I gave up and am sticking with tried and true means to feed cattle and in my area thats orchard grass and fescue and clovers.

 

[Phil2]

if this goes bust on me, I doubt I will ever try planting it again. Just too high cost if/when it fails. The ground had a decent stand on it shortly before I purchased it so I know it can be done (at least by someone who knows what they're doing). Between higher tonnage than my pasture grass gives me, better feed value for the horses, sheep and calves, and higher resale value if I end up with too much or get rid of the critters it seemed worth a shot.

I do have to admit though that I can't look at pictures of your pastures any more, gives me too many sinful thoughts. ha

Phil

 

[skyhightree1]

While I would love to raise alfalfa but the cost justification of it not working just doesnt make sense to me the seed is too high and from what everyone has told me your yield will decrease each year and there is a need to constantly keep overseeding pretty heavily ky31 orchard are cheap here so thats what I will continue to fool with. I wish you luck with the alfalfa. When raising livestock best to keep cost low as possible and still make a quality bovine you can be proud of and alfalfa was not going to keep my cost down at all and drove my aggrevation up. I will post a pic of all the alfalfa I have growing out of about 100 lbs of the stuff.

 

[skyhightree1]

It is much easier to raise this


than this

 

[NWMoAngus]

SE Neb is probably very similar to us here in NW Missouri, near St. Joe. First thing on alfalfa is to soil test. Most soils are too low in ph and will need lime applied. Alfalfa also needs excessive rates of P and K annually to produce three to four cuttings yielding 3 to 4 tons per acre. However, you mention applying more seed to thicken up the stand. Alfalfa can not be inter seeded into an existing stand as the mature plants put out a toxin that kills alfalfa seedlings. My best luck was planting the alfalfa in early to mid August after harvesting wheat. Spring planting alfalfa is pretty dicey. Too much weed competition and more chance of a hard washing rain taking out the stand. Also use a cultipacker after planting. You can use a no-till drill or cultipacker planter, but just spreading it on the surface blended with dry fertilizer followed by several passes of a cultipacker works very well.

 

[Phil2]

Thanks for your reply. Your area should be very similar to mine, slightly more rain and less clay I'd guess but fairly close. I neglected to mention that I have been running annual soil tests and amending for the last 3 years with alfalfa in mind while planting millet to get something from it until in the mean time. PH is still a little a little low (6.4 this spring), P & K came back with basically maintenance recommendations. I'd read and heard your point about the alfalfa toxicity in established plots but apparently this really only starts taking affect after the last year. Everyone I spoke to assured me that planting the same 'type' of seed into it would be fine since we had only put it down last fall. So far, it looks like they were right. What I've put down this spring is popping up nicely and what was planted last fall is now budding. I'm set to have it cut and bailed this next week, weather permitting, so I should have a better idea how things are working out after that.

I do have a question on yields though. I've often read 3-4 tons/acre for a good stand of alfalfa, is this meant on a per cutting basis or a per year basis? I'd assume per year? So roughly a ton/acre per cut with first cut being the highest yield?

thanks again,

Phil

 

[hurleyjd]

Hopefully this isn't too overly asked an answered.

The last 3 summers I've planted about 7 acres of pearl millet to use for winter hay. After cutting it last year I took a leap and seeded it with alfalfa. It went in decent, caught a few rains (would have liked more), and looked decent going into winter. Between our crazy winter (multiple 80 degree swings in temp, very little moisture) and a possible (likely) amount of operator error on my part this spring was rather thin in about half the field. Thin enough that I wasn't sure it'd ever be worth messing with or if I was going to end up over seeding grass into it this fall. COOP I get my fertilizer from encouraged me to hold off on putting down the recommended lime, p, k, and minerals until I new what it was going to do (nice guy, looking out for me, likes to laugh at what I'm doing next). We got a couple rains and it started looking a bit better but not a lot so I went ahead and threw good money after bad, drilled in more seed at half rate and sprayed it for weeds.

Weeds are dead, field looks like there might be more there than I first thought, and my seeds are popping up. We did catch a gulley washer that covered the new growth back up and then 3 days in a row of frost (record low temps for this time of year) but it seems to have taken it ok and I've got rows a sprouts again.


What next? Do I go ahead and put the recommended fertilizer down now or wait until after the first cutting? When do I plan on cutting? Will I need to let the stuff that survived from last fall flower out and go to seed to let the stuff I drilled this spring catch up?

Any advice is appreciated.

Phil

You need to apply the lime. Alfalfa is pretty sensitive to the PH of the soil. Also what ever you plant will benefit from correcting the PH