Questions about Alfalfa.

plumboy · Jan 8, 2004

Got 25 acres I'm working in shape to bail some alfalfa on.By mid summer I'll be ready to seed should I wait til fall?I'm planing on getting about 1800 - 2200 per cutting,how much storage space am I looking at?What do some of you get per bail?Here in central Ky it can go for $3.50 a bail and up to $10 for pure(Woodford Feed - #77 bail is $10).I know weather is the biggest obstacle but I think I'm underestimating the amount of labor so a reality check please. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

cowboydoc · Jan 8, 2004

First thing you need to do is a soil sample and make sure your ph is right. Almost always you need to add lime to get your ph right. Midsummer is definitely not the time to plant alfalfa. Your best time to plant alfalfa is spring. You can plant it in late fall after the last frost. You want to make sure you won't get any growth though as it will be killed out with freezing if it does sprout.

1800-2200 bales is a tremendous amount of work. Have you done this before? If you haven't you are in for a rude awakening. Square baling is extremely hard work and takes alot of hours. You are going to need a very big area to store that many bales. My hay barn has a loft for hay that is 40x100. I can get about 6000 bales in it stacked clear to the top, about 15'.

As far as price it can go anywhere from $1.00 to $10.00/bale depending on the quality and availability.

plumboy · Jan 8, 2004

Thanks cowboydoc.As far as the soil its been farmed for years and not been taken care of at all.I just finished subsoiling and taking the samples.Also will do heavy landscaping to get rid of the two low spots that wont drain well.I have a clay mix and am tossing the ideal of spreading some sand and disc in as well as the lime which I'm sure I will need.I had a part in straw when I was younger but that didnt amount to much.I'll probobly wait till spring of '05 then to seed.But if I hussle I might be able to get out late spring early summer.Still not a good Ideal?I'd really like to be able to bail in '05.But no rush I still need to get a new barn up.And is it a good ideal to sell in late winter when prices are better.

rambler · Jan 9, 2004

This all depends on your location. 'Here' we can plant in spring, or in September. Basically you need to catch a rain & cooler temps to keep the soil moist for a while. you _won't_ get that in the middle of summer!

What do you plan for weed control for $10 hay? That's a dream price. Plan on selling a lot more for $2 than $10!!!! Plan on losing a cutting totally every now & then to rain. I lost the 2nd cutting this year to aphids. Be careful how you budget for this project.

It's doable. Not trying to talk you out of it, but for high-quality alfalfa, you have _very_ tight timeframes to get your tasks done & beat the rain - will you have time? Bale at 10:00am & it's too wet, bale at 4:00pm & it can be too dry lose all the leaves, bale at 7:00pm and it's too wet again - here. Wait 5 extra days to cut it, & you lose $1-6 a bale on protien loss, plus hurt the next cutting....

Timing is everything with alfalfa hay.

--->Paul

plumboy · Jan 9, 2004

I have never seen alfalfa go for less than $4 a bail.$3.50 and under is for mix.I'm spraying the feilds with roundup before I plow.If needed I can cut and bail 5 acres at a time,or ten acres.Just depends on how the weathers acting.Is there a way to learn the correct moisture content for this stuff before you bail?Any rule of thumbs or charts?

kensfarm · Jan 9, 2004

"I'm spraying the feilds with roundup before I plow"

Usually the farmers plow.. disk.. & rake/drag.. to prep the field bed.. then plant the alfalfa.. then later they use some specific type of weed spray when needed.

I don't think spraying the fields w/ roundup will have any benefit at all before plowing.. I've only seen the farmers spray the fields w/ roundup if they are going to planting no-till.. and they don't plow at all then.

I thought I read something about a new "roundup ready" alfalfa..

cowboydoc · Jan 9, 2004

Ken is right. All that roundup does is kill the plants that are there. You won't get any controlled growth. And if you use something that does you will kill the alfalfa as well.

If it's been farmed for years I would say you have no chance of planting alfalfa this next year. I can't see how your ph would be even close to being right.

I also agree with rambler that you probably need a reality check. Making quality hay is extremely difficult. You need to know exactly when to cut it, exactly when to rake, exactly when to bale. It is all science and if you have no real world experience in it I believe you are in for a rude awakening. Most of the timing on good hay is not something that you can learn in a book or over the internet. You have to have someone knowledgeable educate you on the job.

Also when you do plant it's very difficult to get alfalfa planted just right. It's very tempermental about the depth that it's planted. You need a very good drill to get it just right. And also buy the best seed that there is. Don't scrimp on the seed price.

I'm not trying to talk you out of doing it. I just don't think you realize how hard it is to make good hay. The first step is the soil. It can take a year, two, or longer to bring your soil up to the proper level. And then we haven't even begun to talk about keeping an alfalfa field going.

plumboy · Jan 9, 2004

Well I've got to start somewhere and if need'be I'll let failure be my teacher.One of my thoughts was to give the feild time to germinate all the seeds that you might burry disc & plowing then zap them.And then before fall I'll do it agian if needed.I live around some good old farmers but they arent precision oriented and would not go through this much trouble to plant alfalfa.So its hard to get the exact steps needed.I'll post the results of my soil samples when I get them.I'm expecting to have either alfalfa square haylage bails or bricks of alfalfa dust the first year of cutting but I dont want to ruin the stand.Thanks for your replies.How many acres do you guys have of alfalfa?

Robert_in_NY · Jan 9, 2004

I am just starting to get into baling as well but I am lucky to be taken over my future wifes family farm and her father will show me what I need to know. Plus she knows a lot about haying as well from growing up on the farm. So all I need to do is buy a baler and a drill and run the soil samples. Right now they are still running a dairy there and in a couple years when I take over the farm they are cutting back to raising heifers. They have spread manure on the fields for ages but weeds are overtaken the fields now as they can't maintain the farm like they wanted to anymore. Cowboydoc is right though, I grew up around farms as both my grand parents had farms and baled hay so I talk to them a lot and learn from them. I also have a trusted friend at my NH dealer who will look over any equipment for me to make sure I don't buy a piece of junk. Make sure you have people around you that you can talk to and get advice before you sink a lot of money into this venture. If I didn't have the people around me that can and will help, I wouldn't even think about this market. The farm I will be working is 150 acres. I will start out working up the smallest field which is 20 acres and the next year start on the rest of the smaller fields till I know what I am doing will work. Then I will plant the 61 acre field just to be sure what I do will work before I sink a bunch of money into seeding that field. Good luck and have fun.

cowboydoc · Jan 9, 2004

If you fail raising hay, esp. alfalfa, it's pretty expensive. I don't know about Kentucky but it costs us about $200/acre in seed, fertilizer, lime, etc. just to put in alfalfa not even counting time and machinery costs. My family does about 10,000 acres a year in hay. I do about 2000 myself now.