Alfalfa O.G.

TGIN

Well-known Member
I have a 15 A. field of 1/2 Alfalfa 1/2 Orchard Grass That could have been baled in the fall but the weather would not let me . We have had alot of 20 deg. nights and the alfalfa is mostly brown but the OG is green and would make good pasture . My Question is if I turn the cows in on it am I taking a chance of my hay freezing out or is it safe now . Another Q.is about bloat , they are on cornstalks and alittle fescue now . Should I put them on bloat blocks before I turn them in the OG ?
 
I think you should be ok... if the alfalfa is "dead" from frosts then it"s just like hay and i"ve never heard of orchard grass causing bloat... as for the hay freezing out, i think mother nature has more to do with that than whether you graze it or not... although the more any snow gets tramped down the bigger the chance of ice forming and that might increase the chances of it freezing out.
 
We use orchard grass as a winter perennial and in the spring it really comes on strong, lots of fresh washy growth, cattle will ''grass belly'' on it, not really bloat, just high moisture green grass that they eat a lot of and it swells them up with bulk, this does not happen in the winter I guess because the grass just doesn't grow as fast in the winter.
 
You will be fine to graze it now. The alfalfa has gone into formancy and eating it off now will cause no problems. Bloat should not be a concern either. Your BIGGEST problem will be if the ground is soft. Alfalfa doe not like to be trampled, and, if it does get trampled you will lose plants. The "general" rule of thumb for alfalfa is that if you've had two consecutive nights of 27 degress or below, the plant has stopped all growth and is essentially "ready" for winter. Your situation may have been a blessing in disguise as you should NOT harvest alfalfa between Sept. 15th and November 1. (at least here in my area of Central Missouri) The plants go through a process known as "reverse plasmolysis" that essentially reverses nutrient flow from the upper plant to restore the root reserves. Any disruption of this process weakens the plant and encourages winter kill.
 
Agree with the others.

Bloat is not _supposed_ to be a problem if there is 40% something else for them to eat, sounds like you have that covered with the OG. However, chaning their feed always presents a slight risk, so you have to judge....

Harvesting the alfalfa short now might slow it down in spring. In short, harvest it now, or harvest it next year, might not see much more total tonnage. But harvesting it now and you have it, see what next spring brings and you might get more. Don't know until you try.

--->Paul
 

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