This year’s wet conditions have disrupted many hay cutting schedules across Iowa, leaving many producers uncertain about when or whether to take a final alfalfa harvest. As we move into fall, it’s ...

Current recommendations regarding cutting height of alfalfa are designed to maximize yield while maintaining high quality forages and stand longevity. Forage growers frequently cut forages at a height ...

What’s Your Crop’s Life Expectancy? - The intensity of cutting management (the number of cuttings made per year) should be based on the desired quality and life expectancy of the crop. If the goal is ...

Alfalfa will quit growing after the first hard freeze (when temperatures reach below 26°F), which in Kansas occurs on average around October 15 but can be as early as October 1 or as late as November ...

Careful timing of alfalfa cuttings helps to achieve high forage quality and high yields and extended stand persistence. It also can be effective in reducing the impact of weed, insect and disease ...

The rain, flooding and severe weather that’s plagued the Midwest in recent weeks has delayed the first alfalfa cutting in many regions. Very few fields were harvested before the extended wet period ...

KIMBERLY — It’s the third year in a row that the first cutting of alfalfa has been delayed because of cold and rain, but this year the delay is costing more than frustration.

The first cutting of alfalfa often is the most important cutting of the year. It usually produces the most yield and its forage quality changes fastest from day to day. This spring alfalfa started ...

JUNEAU – Dodge County farmers plan to harvest about 32,000 acres of hay this year. However, unseasonably high temperatures in March combined with numerous frosty mornings in April have confounded the ...

Alfalfa is Kansas’ fourth most economically valuable crop, with roughly 660,000 acres harvested annually. With dramatically ...

With a very challenging growing season and flooding across parts of South Dakota, many growers have struggled to harvest high quality forages in-between rains this summer. As summer winds down and ...

BROOKINGS, S.D. — Alfalfa weevils are an annual pest to alfalfa fields, causing damage typically during the first cutting of alfalfa. However, in recent years, weevil pressure in South Dakota and ...