High yielding alfalfa
I want to learn more about growing higher yielding alfalfa. What is the best resource you know of?
What varieties and treatments have you seen the most results from?
I would recommend getting weight on your alfalfa now and start field trials to see what the difference is
Been doing a few different things for the last couple years. Always a ton of variables making it harder. But see some trends. Need higher Phosphorus, sulfur and boron then I expected. Low lignin hasn't preformed well for me.
Just curious what others have seen.
We started raising round up ready alfalfa on our farm last year. We are dry land and only one cut a year. Maybe two on the right year. We put down 150 pounds of 6-30-25 when we seeded.
I grow some RR alfalfa, on one of the farms we have, as it has a clover problem, but it is always lower yielding and lower quality then Dairyland 3400 for me.
Here are a couple good articles on how to improve alfalfa yields.
Here is a great article on how to improve alfalfa yields: https://www.progressiveforage.com/forage-types/alfalfa/10-ton-yields-jump-starting-your-alfalfa-production-engine
Here is the best article I can find for treated versus untreated. : https://www.pioneer.com/home/site/us/agronomy/foliar-fungicide-treatments-alfalfa-mi
Alfalfa likes highly available calcium. We've dry spread gypsum on our alfalfa some years. I've really wanted to try calcium nitrate after each cutting but never seem to make it happen. Just something to think about.
I am working with a grower to improve his quality (RFV) with foliar fertilizer and enzymes. Testimonials on previous use indicate better milk production, forage yield and quality, 21-23 cut intervals.
This is our first year growing alfalfa in ages, but we applied Soil X-Cyto from Conklin before seeding and we're pretty happy with our first cutting so far.
Finally should get this cut today. 3 weeks of rain has kept us out of it.