Alfalfa Harvest Alert for May 16

Jackie Estrem, UMN Extension Educator- Sustainable Agriculture, Stearns, Benton, Morrison, & Sherburne Counties, and Taylor Herbert, UMN Extension Educator- Crops, Wright, McLeod, & Meeker Counties

The Alfalfa Harvest Alert Project, also called Scissor Cut, continued this week with samples taken on May 15th. Continued warm weather was followed by rain for most of central Minnesota on Thursday and Friday. Some of Thursday’s sample collection was delayed due to weather, but the results for most of the samples have come in. There was no alfalfa weevil feeding or plant disease reported.

One field was harvested last week, and two fields submitted their first samples. For milking dairy herds, a target RFV of 150 is recommended, but can vary farm-to-farm depending on nutritional goals. Expect to lose 15-25 RFV points between harvest and storage losses. For a target of 150 RFV, cut around 165-175 RFV. For dairy heifers, stockers, and lactating beef cows, a feeding RFV of 120-130 is sufficient.

The goal of the Alfalfa Harvest Alert program is to alert growers to start the first cut of alfalfa when the crop is at a level of quality and yield potential that meets their specific needs. As a reminder, the goal is not to try and name the exact day of harvest. Rather the goal is to encourage growers who are busy with management of other crops to be more strategic with hay crop harvest as it relates to their needs.

How to get harvest alert data

The May 16th Alfalfa Harvest Alert data is available as a pdf. However, there is also a tool that contains this year’s data and all the data from every county and farm that has participated in the Alfalfa Harvest Alert Program since 1997. As an added bonus, this year we are also including data from University of Wisconsin Madison Extension! Go to z.umn.edu/AlfalfaHarvestAlert to view the data. You can also get the most recent information through email by signing up at z.umn.edu/QuadCountySignup and clicking the "Alfalfa Scissor-Cut and Harvest Alert" box.