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.