What can be said regarding alfalfa? There is a great deal known about the management and feeding of alfalfa as it is one of the most researched crops available in the United States. We will leave most of the questions regarding growing and feeding of alfalfa to the Land Grant Universities, Extension Services, and local advisors. Barenbrug carries a full line of high quality and disease resistant alfalfas suited to most of the traditional alfalfa growing areas in North America. The questions we receive often involve the potential for grazing alfalfa. Let’s discuss the topic.
Grazing alfalfa requires a high level of management both for the health of the alfalfa and the livestock grazing it. Alfalfa can cause bloat so care needs to be taken to avoid this. We will focus here on the management of the alfalfa and refer you to a livestock advisor or veterinarian regarding the management of bloat.
On the one hand, grazing alfalfa would not be recommended as it can dramatically decrease the life of the alfalfa stand. Why do we insist on grazing it? It has the highest yield and quality potential of any perennial crop we can grow. Simple as that. During periods of drought, when all the grasses have quit growing, alfalfa will likely still be growing and producing a quality feed. The incentive to grow alfalfa is high. Alfalfa should be grown with a grass when used as a grazing crop. This helps reduce the potential of livestock bloating and helps create a sod which livestock will be less likely to punch up. The alfalfa will also be less prone to heaving due to freezing and thawing in cold winter areas. It would generally be recommended that the alfalfa be utilized for both cut and carry harvest as well as for grazing. The first cutting in the spring would be targeted for mechanical harvesting, summer harvests may be grazed, and a fall harvest might again be mechanically harvested. This helps reduce the grazing stress on the alfalfa. If alfalfa is grazed all season it will likely deteriorate if defoliated more frequently than every 30 days which does not allow root reserves to be adequately replenished. Eventually the plant can be worn down and become susceptible to diseases and winter kill. In all cases it is wise to have at least one cutting, preferably later in the season, with a 6 week cutting interval to allow the plants to store adequate root reserves.
Some companies have been breeding “grazing type” alfalfas with creeping or branching root systems. These alfalfas probably do have improved abilities to stand up to grazing. Their draw back can be dramatic loss of yield. Producers following our recommendations of harvesting the first and last cuttings of the season mechanically may wish to choose Barenbrug’s traditional rooting type of alfalfas. Our varieties are ranked among the highest yielding of all alfalfas and are bred for greater persistence. They should stand up to grazing better than many traditional types and have the excellent disease resistance profiles we have come to expect. We believe farmers will appreciate the high yields and still get satisfactory persistence. Regardless, farmers grazing alfalfa should view the alfalfa as a short-lived perennial. The better the soils and the better the alfalfa, the longer lived the stand is likely to be. Always include sufficient grass in the stand so the grass can tiller out and thicken the stand as the alfalfa thins.
How should I seed my alfalfa? A common question. Speak with your local Extension Agent or crop advisor regarding local experience. By far the most successful method is a traditional full tillage seeding. Alfalfa has proven to be a challenge to no-till seeding and even more difficult to frost seed. Of course, there are always exceptions. No-till seeding into an existing sod is not
likely to work unless the sod is completely killed using herbicides. If the sod contained alfalfa, at
least two weeks should elapse following spraying to reduce the risk of auto toxicity, caused by the release of chemicals into the soil by the existing plants. These chemicals inhibit the growth of new alfalfa seedlings. Thickening a stand of alfalfa is even more of a challenge, partially due to auto toxicity.
While growing alfalfa for grazing will meet with some skepticism, it is worth consideration for farmers with suitable land resources. Research at the USDA Pasture Lab at Penn State found that alfalfa and cold hardy perennial ryegrass (Holland cultivars) could last 6 to 8 years. Rest periods between grazings of less than 35 days favored the ryegrass while longer periods favored the alfalfa.
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