For those of you with experience planting and maintaining alfalfa, please give me some pointers. I'll be planting in north Talladega county. Better to plant fall or spring? Dormancy level? 505 or 805? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Talk to a fella named fur on here. He seemed knowledgeable

If you can afford it, go with RR. I liked spring better, dew to moisture, but fall worked also.

You have a link? Saw you had to have a Monsanto number on one website.

Furflyin is the resident Aldeer alfalfa expert

Yes, I PM him, no reply as off yet.

The Bulldog 505 is more suited for piedmont and upper coastal plain soils. The 805 was developed for lower coastal plain soils. I mixed some 805 in a ladino clover plot this fall. I limed earlier but don’t think I had the rain to start breaking it down. I’m tempted to try some more in another spot if this planting takes off.

I think I’d stick with one of the Bulldog varieties over a RR variety. I can use Beyond/Imox or Pursuit for broadleaf weed control and Clethodim for grasses.

I have a Monsanto number. Its not super hard to get one.

I’m curious if it goes completely dormant during January/February like it does ip north?

I planted 805 last fall and it did exceptionally well. Had three cuttings on it this summer. I’ll say the deer absolutely love it.
You need to be able to keep it cut and ideally not with a bush hog. The 805 goes dormant but remains green and the deer feed on it through the winter. The RR variety is indeterminate growth so continues growing through the winter.

Did you drill yours in? I would have to broadcast mine. I’m interested in giving it a try this Spring.

Some of you guys with spare land to experiment with try planting sainfoin

Broadcast mine at 20lbs/acre of seed mixed in a fertilizer buggy on a cultipacked seed bed then cultipack seed/fertilizer in

You recon it would work with thrown mow? Serious question I would love to try it in a field to see if it works here.

So wet in February and March, not sure you could risk. No rain in the fall. It's a damn conundrum.

👍

I am not interested in cutting mine, just use it for forage. Do I still need to cut it?

Interesting

I AINT SKEERED. WHERE CAN I GET IT?

Not positive of best place, but several places on the Google/Amazon. Buddy of mine is on.a pollinator program in TN and has someone in the Shelbyville,TN area getting him some seed for next spring. Landowner I hunt on in Idaho plants it for his deer and elk.

Yes.

Do a soil test and make sure everything is just right for alfalfa. It also prefers well-drained soils.



No, not completely. Growth will slow down but it will continue to grow since our winters are much more mild than up north.

Sorry for the delayed reply and response. That new part time job I have, keeps me busy about 15 hours a day.

Mine did, but I don't remember which variety I planted. It stayed sort of green, but it completely stopped growing. Over seeding with winter wheat, works well. Spray it in the spring to kill the wheat.

I am planting again in the spring, but I haven't decided which variety. I will pay the extra money for RR.

There isn't much to maintaining it. I spread my seed, blended into a 5-20-20 fertilizer blend. That's what I will do again.

I turned my plot to bury all vegetation. I wanted the plot as smooth as a pool table. Then I used a cutlipacker. I spread the seed/fert blend, then ran the cultipacker over it again.

Spring is the best time to plant a RR variety. Fall is best for conventional.

ph MUST be correct, 6.0 or higher, before planting. 6.5-7.0 is preferred.

I put 3 tons of dolomitic lime, per acre, on my plot this fall.

What is the cut height requirement? Sounds like I need to get a finish mower and raise it up pretty high. Or use the mower deck on my tractor.

We gonna check in to doing 8 acre field for hay. May take us a year or so but very interested..

I noticed that southern grown alfalfa hay was more woody stems than the stuff I got up north. Not sure if it had to do with variety, growing conditions, farming practices, but there was a ton of waste per flake. We fed to horses in addition to Bermuda hay. Purely observation.

On the Alfalfa itself? There was a year that I didn't cut mine at all. Then the other years it got cut, when the hayfield beside it got cut. It would grow back from ankle high, to 18" tall in 3 weeks.




I wanted to bale mine too, but didn't have access to a mower/conditioner. It would have to be cut with one. I also got scared, when I read about blister beetles. I didn't think we'd have them, but we do. IMO, you'll need liability insurance if you're going to sell the hay. Someones prized horse eats a blister beetle in your hay, you may have to pay for it. I don't know how that works. But one blister beetle will kill a horse.

If we don't get out of this drought, I'm not risking it this spring. I'll wait another year to plant mine.

We got some local guys that grow, cut , and bake it every year.