What grass is this in my alfalfa?

Nick m

Member
Just curious as to what kind of grass is in this alfalfa. It's been a clean field up until this year and some horse people want to know what kind it is.
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My eyes aren't that good without more of a closeup. But it looks like downy brome,known as cheatgrass.
 
It's impossible to tell from your photos. GIve us a close up picture of the grass ands its seed head. Also tell us where you are located as that will have an impact. DId this stuff just suddenly show up or was it there since establishment? How old is the stand? Is it something you've never seen before in your area?
 
I'm in central lower Michigan. I've seen it around before, but never in this field until now (2nd) cutting. This is the fields 4th year. I'll try and get a pic tonight. It got washed last night, but what else is new.
 
Smooth Brome grass. Lots of it in alfalfa fields here this year. Second growth is looking good with little to none. What you have there is premium horse hay. Keep those photos for your buyers to see what they are getting. Hide them if you are selling to dairymen.
 
It's been 30 days exactly since it was last mowed. All dairy farmers around here like to go at 28 days. I figured I'd let it go a couple days to try and miss the rain, didn't work, still got rained on.
 
I just knocked a field down up here by Sheridan,so you can bet yours will get soaked again now.
 
It's been a pain. Last year there wasn't any trouble getting it to dry, there just wasn't anything to dry. Good luck.
 
Nick, as I said, I absolutely can not tell from the photos what kind of grass it is. If it wasn't there on first cutting, it has to be some kind of annual grass such as cheat, quack grass or foxtail (which is does not look like) or crab grass. Crabgrass usually doesn't get that tall, cheat(downy brome)does and you tend to see it more frequently during periods of "wet weather". My first initial thought was that you had "annual ryegrass" in your alfalfa. However, you would have seen that on first cutting. AS far as telling the "horse people" what it is, simply tell them it is very palatable and it will increase the TDN value of the hay...............which it will. Everything else on my part based upon your photos would be nothing more that a Wild AZZ GUess. If you are interested, I can tell you how to get rid of it on future cuttings. Since the stand is four years old and you are on basicly a 30 cutting schedule, it's probably is not economically feasible to do so. Your stand looks really good.....grass and all.
 
I'm not too interested in getting rid of it, kind of welcome it for the tonnage. Just wanted to know what it was. After looking at pics, I think its brome. Thanks for the input.
 

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