Fall Alfalfa Harvesting Reminders

Take a look at your feed inventory before making the decision to take a fall harvest of alfalfa. If you need the feed, a fall harvest can yield approximately one ton of dry matter per acre. If you don’t need the feed, consider leaving the alfalfa stand to aid in gathering a snow cover and reducing potential for winter injury. Stressed alfalfa at the end of the growing season will be more susceptible heading into the winter months, especially if your fertility plan didn’t replace all the nutrients taken off this summer or adequate rainfall was hard to come by.

If you decide to take a fall cutting of alfalfa, it must either be cut early enough in the fall to regrow and replenish root reserves prior to the first killing frost or late enough so it does not regrow and waste its root reserves on short growth. These guidelines lead us to an approximate “No Cut Window” between Labor Day and mid-October in the upper Midwest. To determine a more accurate time of when to cut, use growing degree units to pinpoint when your location will have more than 500 units or less than 200 units.

While taking your fall cutting of alfalfa, raise your cutter bar height to leave at least three to five inches of stubble. This will allow for a better snow cover and also help allow oxygen to get to the stand in areas where ice sheeting occurs. Additionally, small strips of alfalfa left standing in your field can assist in snow cover and reduce the chances of winter injury.

Brian Weller Western Region 507.456.3034	Dan Ritter Central Region 219.863.0583	Branden Furseth Northern Region 608.513.4265	Mark Gibson Eastern Region 260.330.8968	Amanda Goffnett Eastern Region 989.400.3793

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