alfalfa hay

[dan28040]

I've been thinking about trying to start an alfalfa hay field and selling alfalfa hay. i live in the foothills of north Carolina. I have about 30 acres i could dedicate to alfalfa. Just not sure about how to go about planting and harvesting alfalfa. I bale about 800 bales of grass hay a year. I kind of have the cutting and baking process down for grass hay. Is their a different process for alfalfa

 

[bsrfarms97]

If I were planting 30 acres of pure alfalfa hay I would lime the ground really well in late fall. In the early spring I would disc the ground heavily to cut the sod up pretty fine. As far as planting personally I like to plant using a drill planter to get a nice even crop all over. I also like to plant round-up ready alfalfa seed so I can spray it to keep the weeds out. As far as harvesting alfalfa hay, you should be able to get a cutting around every 28 days during spring, summer, and fall weather.

 

[MattLynch]

It also needs longer to dry then grass hay. Up here alfalfa is always cut as silage because it is almost impossible to dry with our weather.

 

[flusher]

I've been thinking about trying to start an alfalfa hay field and selling alfalfa hay. i live in the foothills of north Carolina. I have about 30 acres i could dedicate to alfalfa. Just not sure about how to go about planting and harvesting alfalfa. I bale about 800 bales of grass hay a year. I kind of have the cutting and baking process down for grass hay. Is their a different process for alfalfa

My neighbor has three 10-acre irrigated alfalfa fields. He had to rip the fields down to about 30" depth because of hardpan (alfalfa is a perennial with deep roots). He disced the fields with a spike harrow towed behind the disc. Seeding was done with a 6-ft wide Brillion seeder. He mows with a Hesston swather that has a 12-ft wide head (sicklebar). Mowing is done every 30-40 days during the April-Oct period (Oct-May is our wet season around here). He uses a dual side delivery bar rake to combine pairs of windrows and bales with a New Holland three twine baler. He has a self propelled NH bale stacker to clear the bales off the fields. Those fields have been producing for about 4 years. Lately he's converted 20 of those acres to produce prune plums for Sunsweet.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Local lore is that once you establish alfalfa in a field, it is really hard to go back to native grass.

 

[Bigfoot62]

Local lore is that once you establish alfalfa in a field, it is really hard to go back to native grass.

Y'all must not have Bahaia grass.

 

[DaveOmak]

Dan, morning.... Have the soil tested for nutrients... plan on fertilizing as suggested in the soil report... I disced my field and planted Piper Sudan Grass because the field was low in organic matter... cut every 2 weeks with a brush hog (to 6" height) as it grows 1 1/2-2" day.. fertilized every month with urea... Sudan needs Nitrogen.... Irrigated... then disced and spike harrowed and seeded in the fall.... The sudan is reported to add up to 10 tons/acre organic matter and suppresses weeds..... This is my alfalfa field at 3 years... no weeds... cut every 30 days depending on weather.....

 

[dan28040]

Good looking field.

 

[dan28040]

Does the piper Sudan grass make good hay?

 

[OldMcDonald]

dan28040, I baled 5 acres of Piper last week - a poor crop due to lack of irrigation. A serious breakdown of underground mains and the usual Portuguese understanding of "urgent" in May means the damage is not yet fixed despite three visits of "mechanicos" who fail to have the necessary bits and pieces. It makes excellent high roughage low protein hay. It can grow to 12 feet high or more too so not the easiest of crops to deal with. I grow it usually in alternate years. My main crop here is olives and I keep a few goats because I cannot imagine farming without animals. I think this link to Sudan Grass might work Sudan grass (Sorghum × drummondii) | Feedipedia - Animal Feed Resources Information System If not look up Feedipedia. It is a very good site of information on worldwide fodders for livestock.