How late to cut hay in Indiana

I have always heard Sept 15th is the last time you should cut alfalfa. I usually assume some leeway is built in and push that to the 22nd.

Due to weather/life, I just took 3rd cutting on 10 acres. Cut Aug 30(last night). 28 days would be Sept 27.

I am in West Lafayette area and assuming I had a good window to cut on the 27th or 28th how dangerous is it to cut then. Alfalfa field was planted in 2004 and is a pretty solid field.....

Given the price of hay I would really like to get more but replanting a field gets expensive...

Alfalfa goes through a cycle of storing food in the roots, & growing rapidly to make buds depleting the roots. You want to go into winter with the roots full. You shouldn't cut in that 'rapidly depleting' phase.

--->Paul

Allan

I believe in fall of 2005 you planted some alfalfa. How did that field turn out. I planted some at the same time as you. Ithought mine was going to fail as it sat there amonth with zero rain.....

Mine came on though was a littel thin first cutting of 2006 but since has been an excellant field for me...

We planted at the same time as I remember. Field just turned out great after it was all said and done.

Now, if I could just get some moisture. Still haven't got a real good cutting off of it yet. :>(

Allan