cutting alfalfa

bg/mo

Member
Its sept 27th,,, alfalfa is about 20inches tall, hasn"t bloomed yet,,, from what i have read im not supposed to touch it. what would you do, wait for bloom then cut or forget bout it for this year?
 
If you are anywhere except the Northern tip of M0., I'd cut it and take a chance. The only other chance you have is to wait for a hard freeze then cut....or deal with a lot of brown garbage in your first cut of next year!
 
I worked for a farmer in Wi. who had the same dilemma as you. He sent me out with a 12 ft. flail mower to cut the 80 acres of alfalfa down to six inches tall. He and his brother had a large successful farm so I've got to believe he new what he was doing.
 
we cut some 4th cutting friday the 26th that wasnt blooming yet.if you get your hay put up right it should be top quality dairy hay.Time to get it cut so that you get some regrowth before winter.If you leave that 20 inches throughout the winter it gives the bugs and insects a good place to hibernate all winter.Nice to see 5inches of regrowth so it can breath if we get some ice.
 
The are always "exceptions" to the rule, but here in Missouri the "rule" is to NOT cut between Sept. 15 and Nov. 1. It is during this time the alfalfa plants go through what is known as "reverse plasmolysis" or they send nutrients down into the roots building up root reserves that definitely help the plant survive winter. If you cut it now you run the risk of severely hurting the stand. It's your call. I've known others to do this and had no bad results the following year. However, their stands don't seem to last more than 3-4 years. I"ll let mine alone until November....and it looks really good right now. 'Really tempting....but don't do it.
 
20 inches tall, I believe I would get another cutting and not worry about it. If your that worried about being after a certain date, in the future I would cut it on that date if there is anything there at all to put up. For what its worth, my alfalfa has been really short going into winter before (mainly due to dry weather and nothing I could do about it) and have not had problems.
 
Rule is that you should have 400 Growing Degree Days (GDD). between last cut and killing frost. Base is 43 degrees where you are. On a day where avg temp is 60, you get 17 GDD.
 
Wait until you get a good killing frost, then cut it. It will stop growing and you won't kill your crowns.
 
For me, I throw the steel to it. Does it shorten stand life, I'm sure it does but I cut the last of mine Oct 3. Its a 6 year old stand, begging to really decline. But, its never had the last cutting taken before the first of October....
 

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