Forage Types

When I help growers choose the right alfalfa for their operations, there are a lot of factors we discuss. As an adviser, my goal is to really understand each grower’s unique situation and management style to recommend an alfalfa variety that best fits those needs.

This is a story of agriculture in Britain hundreds of years ago, with some applications for us today. The year was 1750. The population of Britain was estimated at 5.5 million. It had reached this level several times over the former 1,000 years but had never surpassed it.

Currently underway is a project to enable alfalfa producers to map yield and quality (or more precisely, nutritive value) across an alfalfa field using an unmanned aircraft system (UAS – also called a drone) at sufficient resolution to enable identification of the yield damage caused by wheel traffic.

The 2018 silage harvest is complete, and it’s time to plan seed purchases for next year. But how do you make informed choices about next year’s hybrids without having a decent grasp on how your herd is responding to this year’s crop?

Most farmers wouldn’t go to town without some sort of shopping list, either in his or her mind or on paper.

Alfalfa is used by and marketed for dairy cows, beef cattle and exports, in the form of cubes and compressed bales. In Washington state, alfalfa makes up about 65 percent of the total hay grown.