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Markin: My first reaction is you either get the weeds before you plant the alfalfa, or you use the mower. If anyone can tell me the economic sence of chasing down annual broadleaf weeds in any hay crop, with chemicals, now that's one I got to see. Really, chasing annual broadleaf weeds in a perennial crop, some guys got rocks between the ears. Yes, by all means go after the grasses on new proposed plantings before hand with Roundup. Any grasses you have there, in my opinion, may as well stay. I grew alfalfa for many years and many of those years were before the days of Roundup. The very best alfalfa I ever grew came in a rotation with corn. I rotated 3 years corn then 4 to 5 years alfalfa. Always cleaned up the weeds in the corn crop, thus when alfalfa was planted nothing left but annual weeds. Just mow those before they go to seed and that is the end of them in alfalfa, or any other hay crop for that matter. Another item I learned many years ago is never spread manure on alfalfa, work it into the corn. Believe me, these two crops each leave the soil in great shape for the other. It is even better if corn is coming off as grain. Alfalfa will fix N for the corn crop. Manure and corn stalks will build the K for the alfalfa crop. This last one on the K really surprised me when soil test results for alfalfa planting came back with little K reqiuirment. That one didn't happen quickly, but rather 10 years into the rotation, and was a gradual build up of the soil.
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