By Brian Hefty

What can you do to get a LOT more tonnage with your alfalfa this year and in the future?  Just like any crop, there isn’t a silver bullet.  It takes time, effort, dedication, and attention to detail.  Here are some of the things you may consider in your alfalfa fields.

  1. Soil & Tissue Testing.  Soil pH is critical.  You need a pH in the 6.3 to 7.3 range, ideally.  A 5.0 pH, by the way, will give you almost no tonnage compared to a 7.0.  Use the free Ag PhD Fertilizer Removal app on your smartphone or iPad; select alfalfa; enter your tonnage goal, and it will tell you how many nutrients are needed.  Alfalfa uses lots of potassium and quite a bit of phosphorus and sulfur, as well as many micronutrients.  A 4-ton crop, for example, uses 48 pounds of phosphate, 196 pounds of K2O potassium, and 22 pounds of sulfur.  In addition to testing your soil to see what it already has and fertilizing accordingly, we recommend monitoring your crop with plant tissue analysis on a regular basis during the season.  This will help you adjust your fertility program both this year and in the future.
  2. Weeds.  You don’t have a lot of good options.  Use Eptam at 2 quarts per acre pre-plant incorporated.  Use Buctril at 1.5 pints per acre post-emerge and/or Pursuit/Raptor at 4 oz. per acre.  For grass, Select Max or a generic will do well for not much money.
  3. Insects.  Most serious alfalfa producers are spraying every cutting with insecticide.  Bugs like alfalfa weevils and potato leafhoppers can devastate alfalfa, but there are many other harmful insects often found in alfalfa.  The full rate of a pyrethroid like Silencer is only $2, and the full rate of Lorsban is just a little higher.
  4. Diseases.  Many farmers have been experimenting with fungicides like Headline for both disease control and plant health benefits.  I’ve talked to many farmers who think this is really adding to their bottom line, so it is probably something you will want to at least experiment with.
  5. Tiling.  As a general statement, you don’t want to leave your alfalfa stand too many years, or it could damage drain tile; but just like in all other crops, good drainage is important if you want to maximize tonnage and quality.
  6. Starting Over.  If you want maximum alfalfa tonnage and quality, you are ahead to tear out your stand every 3 to 4 years, in most cases.  I talk to farmers all the time who want to raise grass and alfalfa together for horses.  You can certainly do that, but you will maximize total tonnage by raising the grass in one field and alfalfa in another.  That way you can baby each crop and manage it much better.  When you are raising a grass and a broadleaf intermingled, you can’t fertilize appropriately, control weeds appropriately, or cut both of them at exactly the right time.

Alfalfa can be a great money-maker for you; so give it everything you’ve got this year and each year, and you’ll find your tonnage and profits going up.