Is Your Alfalfa Field Damaged? – AG Matters

A winter with little snow is not only a bad for the CNY economy, it's also bad for alfalfa fields. Jeff Miller with Cornell Cooperative Extension says without the blanket of snow plants may have died or been severley injured. Here's how to know the condition of your field.

Jeff says to check on the health of your field, "dig out a few individual plants. A healthy root system is white. If the roots have a water soaked appearance and are a dull gray color they have "winter killed. You can also cut off a shoot at the soil surface, then split the stem and look at the color of the conductive tissues in the stem. They should be white, if they are yellow or brown this indicates injury or disease."

Determining the number of plants per square foot will tell you how to proceed with the growing season.  Here are more tips from Jeff; "Construct a 1’ x 2’ rectangle out of PVC pipe. Wait for green up,  then throw the frame out into your stand at 5 locations and count the number of live crowns in the frame at each location. Divide the total by 10 to get the average number of live alfalfa crowns per square foot."

5 or more live alfalfa crowns per square foot:

treat it as an alfalfa field: check the pH and maintain it between 6.5 and 7.0, add phosphorus and potassium at rates recommended in soil tests for alfalfa and harvest on a cycle that ensures quality and stand longevity for an alfalfa stand.

4 or less live alfalfa crowns per square foot:

then treat the field as a grass hay field: consider nitrogen application at 100lbs/acre at green up and be ready to harvest the field two weeks earlier than your alfalfa hay fields.

SOURCE: Cornell Cooperative Extension