By Darren Hefty

Why does corn get all the love?  Wherever I travel and talk to farmers, they always have a favorite crop to raise.  What’s yours?  For me, I want to give every crop I produce my full attention because I’ve only got 20 years left to make those decisions before I leave them to the next generation.  I’ve got 20 more shots to get it right.

However, with alfalfa, you get multiple crops per year, allowing you to learn from mistakes and get it right three or four weeks later.  There are so many things you may try to improve your tonnage and/or quality of your alfalfa.  Here’s my Top 11 list for this year.

  1. Sure-K and Pro-Germinator liquid fertilizer products after each cutting.  For each ton of alfalfa, it’s estimated that 50 pounds of K2O potassium and 10 to 15 pounds of phosphate has been removed from the soil.  As you’re taking nutrients away, you can easily put nutrients back between cuttings with these highly available liquid products.  Use rate will likely be 1 to 3 gallons per acre per application of each product, depending on soil fertility levels.
  2. TJ Micromix Alfalfa at 1 quart per acre after each cutting as new growth begins.  While many operations are doing a decent job on N, P, and K, we find more fields lacking in one or more micronutrients than any other essential elements.  Micros are key to high production and to putting the most nutrition into the hay.
  3. Headline fungicide at 6 oz. after each cutting at 6 to 8 inches of re-growth.  Spraying for disease control is much different than spraying for insects or weeds.  With disease, you must spray BEFORE there is a problem.  Scheduling such applications for between cuttings lends itself perfectly for the best use of a fungicide like Headline.  Here’s the key: Protecting the lower leaves from disease has led to more tonnage and improved feed value for growers across the country.  You can make up to 3 applications of Headline per season, which is great.  The only caution is that there’s a 14-day pre-harvest interval, so time your applications accordingly.
  4. Silencer at 3.2 oz. when insects are present.  Don’t wait for the high end of thresholds.  Spray early.  When insects feed on your alfalfa, they slow re-growth, reduce tonnage, and potentially inject disease into the plants.  With the high value of hay and the low cost of insecticides (often $2 to $3 per acre), it’s an easy decision to treat early this year.
  5. Raptor at 4 oz. to stop most annual weeds.  The old adage in grass pastures is that a pound of weed growth takes away a pound or more of grass growth.  If the same held true in alfalfa that would be bad enough, but we’re talking about an important feed source where weeds could impact the smell and taste of milk.  We’re also concerned about the appearance of your hay if you’re selling it on auction.  Weeds look bad in your field and may look even worse in your hay bales to a potential buyer.  Kill the weeds.  Get more tonnage.  Get more for your hay.
  6. Bio-Forge.  Classified as an anti-oxidant, Bio-Forge has been shown to increase plant performance in a number of areas including root growth, drought tolerance, and more.  Apply ½ pint of Bio-Forge per acre 2 to 4 times per season.
  7. Plant tissue test to assess nutrient needs. Sample prior to harvest when the plants show re-growth shoots.  I always say a plant tissue test is the report card for the farmer.  How are your grades this year?
  8. Buy a sweep net.  This should probably be #1.  If you don’t have a sweep net and you raise ANY CROPS, you need to get a sweep net today.  They’re cheap.  They’re fun.  Used properly, they’re a great indicator of pest levels.  It’s a great learning tool, as well.  Once you see about 20 different bugs in the net from one of your fields, you get better at insect identification right away.
  9. Cut on an actual schedule.  Try cutting by a schedule on the calendar rather than just when you think you should.  Let’s face it.  Most people think they can time it right and then end up being 3 to 10 days too late.  Obviously, you have to tweak this a little bit based on weather, but cutting alfalfa late costs a lot of money in both lost feed quality and delaying the next cutting.
  10. Soil Test.  Don’t be scared to test your soils.  Since alfalfa is not an annual crop, it often gets neglected not only in the fertilizer department, but also in the soil testing department.  Check your soils, and be honest.  Almost everyone could do a better job in this area.  Once you get your soil tests back, LOOK AT pH FIRST!  If your soil has a pH of less than 6.3, you are giving up tonnage.  If your soil pH is less than 5.5, you are giving up an incredible amount of tonnage!  This problem can be addressed by adding lime.
  11. Sulfur.  If you’re seeing yellow, stunted alfalfa, check for sulfur deficiency.  At pre-bud, take a tissue sample of the top 6 inches of the plant for a good indication.  Sulfur can be applied between cuttings and will take effect right away on the next cutting.

I know this article may be a little shocking when you add up what I suggest you invest in your alfalfa crop.  Like we always say, at least run some strip trials or split fields to prove it to yourself.  Not everything you can do to help your crop this year will help every year, but the important thing to focus on is how does any crop investment do over time?  If for 2 years it pays big and for 2 years it hardly pays, does the average return make it worth your while?  Wall Street investors today are hoping to get 5% to 10% APR returns.  There are often many things you can do on the farm that provide 50% to 300% APR returns, and those are the things you have to keep looking for, experimenting with, and implementing once you see they pay.