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Fall Planning for Revitalizing Small Alfalfa Field

2K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  qcfarms 
#1 ·
So I have a small alfalfa patch (2A) that is in its' second year. It was planted in the fall of 2014 and in the spring of 2015 we got 30" of rain on it in March thru May. This washed about half of it away so I just let it run its course last summer taking 4 cuttings off it though it wasn't real thick. Fast forward to this year, the field looks pretty good (2 cuttings already) with some fescue and ryegrass (have no clue how that stuff got there) filling in some of the voids. So this got me thinking that maybe i need to mix in some grass this fall such as fescue or ryegrass to give me a little more tonnage in the thin spots of the field. I found this on the Pioneer Seed website:

"Timothy, orchardgrass, ryegrass and reed canarygrass are all popular forage grasses, but the grass recently receiving considerable attention is tall fescue, especially now that many endophyte-free varieties are on the market. Tall fescue has good adaptability to variable soil drainage conditions, mixes well with alfalfa and has the potential for high yield and quality."

Not sure what reed canary grass is but I'm guessing it won't grow in my area just as timothy and orchard grass will not. I am thinking that fescue would be a better grass for just growth in my area but I don't like how it clumps and then there's the endophyte issue though I've been cutting some fescue that grows with my bermuda hay and it has not caused any problems while feeding. Not sure if rye grass would be something that I would have to seed every year or if it will come back cut after cut.

I try to cut every 32-35 days depending on the rain so whatever I plant will need to grow in concert with the alfalfa. Another option would be to just run some stockers on it in the fall and winter then disc it under in early spring and sprig in some Midland 99 bermuda. Thoughts??
 
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#4 ·
Would brome work in your area? If you must use fescue I would encourage you to look into using an endophyte friendly variety like MaxQ that doesn't have any toxins.
Looking at some of the OSU data on cool season grasses, it looks like annual bromegrass can be grown in the southeast part of the state and smooth bromegrass can be grown in the very north central part of the state. Of course, I'm right in the central part of the state so looks like brome is out. That brings me back to fescue or rye and as vhaby indicated rye could cause issues due to when it grows in our area. I'll look at an endophyte free fescue that works in our area. Thanks to all for your inputs!
 
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