Alfalfa Harvest Alert for May 27

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 26th and 27th. Recent cool weather has kept alfalfa growth slow, but as RFV’s near target range, many farmers are ready to cut. Windy conditions have resulted in varying amounts of lodging across the region. Aphid populations of note have been identified in southerly sample fields, but no significant levels of alfalfa weevil feeding or other disease have been reported. While not many weevils have been reported yet, be on the lookout for them, as it’s likely they will be hatching very soon.

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 Alfalfa Harvest Alert 5-27 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.