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Best Brand of Alfalfa
- Thread starter Mullins62
- Start date
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Ck with your local coop and they prob carry good seed for cheap price. Tell them you want grazing variety if you aren't growing it mainly for baling. And you can save some money not buying RR especially if your using it in a mix. Couple of companies like WI make mixes if you aren't planting much. Good luck.
X-farmerdan
Well-Known Member
I will confess (I seem to do a lot of that here), I haven't grown alfalfa in a long, long time. So, this is from the position of 'armchair' farmer.
The simplest thing is what dogghr recommended. Go to the local coop and buy whatever it is they sell. Varieties, of which there are many, do well some places and not so much others. For, food plots I don't know if selection matters or not. I would guess it might be a most important decision. But, there's no science to support that supposition. What is the most important variety characteristic? is it yield? Is it pest resistance? Is it fall dormancy?
Because I'm a Penn State'er and couldn't find variety trial info specifically for WV, I'll offer this link...
http://extension.psu.edu/plants/cro...age-variety/reports/2015-forage-trials-report
It probably doesn't help answer your question because you ask for "the best." And we don't know....
The simplest thing is what dogghr recommended. Go to the local coop and buy whatever it is they sell. Varieties, of which there are many, do well some places and not so much others. For, food plots I don't know if selection matters or not. I would guess it might be a most important decision. But, there's no science to support that supposition. What is the most important variety characteristic? is it yield? Is it pest resistance? Is it fall dormancy?
Because I'm a Penn State'er and couldn't find variety trial info specifically for WV, I'll offer this link...
http://extension.psu.edu/plants/cro...age-variety/reports/2015-forage-trials-report
It probably doesn't help answer your question because you ask for "the best." And we don't know....
X-farmerdan
Well-Known Member
The good thing about BOB is there's enough different stuff in the bag, somethings bound to grow!
Google "alfalfa winter hardiness map" and "alfalfa fall dormancy map". Look where you are in both and buy an alfalfa with both the best hardiness (low number) and best dormancy (high number) that is appropriate for your area.
Also, google "potato leafhopper map" and if you are in an area with lots, buy a leafhopper resistant variety. I just had to spray my new two acre alfalfa plot for those SOB's this weekend.
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Also, bookmark this and read it carefully. Everything you ever wanted to know about growing alfalfa.
Most important thing -- don't bother trying to grow alfalfa until your soil PH is right (as close to 7 as you can get). You'll be wasting money otherwise.
https://www.agronomy.org/files/publications/alfalfa-management-guide.pdf
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dogghr
Well-Known Member
Turkeys and other birds love the hoppers. Again a reason to limit field size so deer will keep mowed and animals will control insects in a not for cash crop. I just don't get it why there is always so much drama when the word alfalfa is mentioned as a deer food plot. Rotate crops a couple years, get the ph and soil readings moderate or better, plant a mixture, and mow couple times a yr if needed and like clovers, enjoy the plot for 5-7 years then rotate into brassica. Not a better crop than other choices but gives a fun variety. Comes down to it hard to beat clover chicory and grain foodplots but after a while a man just gets bored. There is more failures w soybeans reported on here yet many still plant them. So it should be with alfalfa. Just plant the stuff an watch the deer enjoy.. now if you're planting for feed or profit, which I've done, then conversation is a little different, but same would be said of a soybean cash crop.
BTW, I'm doing a small expansion of half ac of my plot and I'm going to try the WHI alfalfa plus. Will report back in 5 years.
I'm just joking don't take all these comments too seriously. Good luck to all
BTW, I'm doing a small expansion of half ac of my plot and I'm going to try the WHI alfalfa plus. Will report back in 5 years.
I'm just joking don't take all these comments too seriously. Good luck to allbigbluetruck
Active Member
If youre not growing it for hay as at least the #2 objective, I would stick with clovers, for the reasons the others have said, theres a good thread about alfafla a little ways down. Its not as management intensive as some think.
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