# What brand of alfalfa seed do you plant?



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I was just interested to see what brand(s) of alfalfa seed everyone plants and which is your favorite.

I have planted Pioneer and WL. The WL was a new seeding last spring and from what I have seen so far I think I like it better than the Pioneer. Ordered some Dairyland alfalfa yesterday to give it a try this year. Hoping to plant in the next couple weeks.

Hayden


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## woodland (May 23, 2016)

We usually get from pickseed and they will mix it with whatever grasses you would like. We have been seeding a lot of AC Grazeland alfalfa which is a bloat reduced variety for our pasture. This allows us to graze up to 40% alfalfa and 60% orchardgrass at anytime without much risk of bloat. We love the stuff since it can double our production over straight grass pasture.








This is us chopping second cut on some pasture that wasn't grazed whereas grass will only do one cutting up here in our short season. For our hay mixes we've been using pickseed as well and it's a multifoliate (can't remember the variety) and are very impressed as well.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

There was a time I would not open a bag of any kind of seed unless it's said Pioneer on it and now I plant just about none of the big P. For alfalfa seed we have Planed WL or DeKalb. We are starting to go with some Roundup Ready alfalfa and it seems like many companies would have a common 428 Roundup Ready variety. We nolonger plant anything of the 428 line we found that to be somewhat low yeilding. There are several companies coming out with new Roundup Ready Alfalfa varieties


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

I use a variety from a local seed farm. Have planted many acres of Dairyland as well, and may do some acres this year again.


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## joeberg (Jun 8, 2011)

FarmerCline said:


> I was just interested to see what brand(s) of alfalfa seed everyone plants and which is your favorite.
> 
> I have planted Pioneer and WL. The WL was a new seeding last spring and from what I have seen so far I think I like it better than the Pioneer. Ordered some Dairyland alfalfa yesterday to give it a try this year. Hoping to plant in the next couple weeks.
> 
> Hayden


I have planted 6 different varieties. Guess what, I have 6 fields that mature differently.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Have been using the big P brand in the past (non-RR, but with leafhopper resistance), but I am re-thinking going forward, leaning strongly towards a brand that participates in the one dollar check-off per bag program (newly started is my understanding).

Larry


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

I chose an America's Alfalfa variety after reviewing National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance (NAFA) Variety Leaflet. The variety is 455 TQ RR. It is a dormancy 4.5 variety that has been traffic tested (T), bred for quality (Q) and is Roundup Ready. This stand is growing toward the first cutting in its fourth season. I chose this variety for it's disease resistance ratings and its dormancy rating for my location. If I could find a traffic tested variety with three cornered alfalfa hopper resistance I would be tempted to try it.


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## Lewis Ranch (Jul 15, 2013)

vhaby said:


> I chose an America's Alfalfa variety after reviewing National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance (NAFA) Variety Leaflet. The variety is 455 TQ RR. It is a dormancy 4.5 variety that has been traffic tested (T), bred for quality (Q) and is Roundup Ready. This stand is growing toward the first cutting in its fourth season. I chose this variety for it's disease resistance ratings and its dormancy rating for my location. If I could find a traffic tested variety with three cornered alfalfa hopper resistance I would be tempted to try it.


I just rented some ground that raised alfalfa 30 years ago and was thinking about trying my hand at it (22 acres) what's the seed costing and how much are you planting?


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

I just plant my own seed.


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## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

joeberg said:


> I have planted 6 different varieties. Guess what, I have 6 fields that mature differently.[/size]


 That would be a benefit for me so all the fields aren't ready to cut at once and there is a better chance to get more of it put up without it getting over mature.


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## barnrope (Mar 22, 2010)

I use Croplan. Had good luck with it.


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## woodland (May 23, 2016)

carcajou said:


> I just plant my own seed.


What types/varieties do you grow? Just curious.


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

Tried a few varieties, settled on Algonquin. Seems to grow best for us.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Lewis Ranch said:


> I just rented some ground that raised alfalfa 30 years ago and was thinking about trying my hand at it (22 acres) what's the seed costing and how much are you planting?


PM me. I'll put you in touch with America's Alfalfa national seed sales manager who can tell you prices.

If you are going to plant coated seed, consider planting no less than 24 lb seed plus coating per acre.

If you have not grown alfalfa before, you might want to attend our Alfalfa Conference on March 24 at Texas A&M- Overton. There is a post on HT that describes the conference and how to pre-register. The post is in a Thread something like "Make Alfalfa Great Again." It's a very recent post.


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## Southern_wind_farm (Mar 12, 2017)

I have planted America's alfalfa, pioneer, and now trying channels round up ready alfalfa. Wasn't to impress with the America's when I open the bag and realize that it was only 66% live seed so had to buy more to finish planting. The salesmen didn't seem to be concern about my frustration but more glad to get more money from me. Pioneer seems to worked a lot better, really had a nice stand. Now excited to try channels here in a next few months.


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## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

carcajou said:


> Tried a few varieties, settled on Algonquin. Seems to grow best for us.


Algonquin from Mycogen? That's the variety that we plant the most of. Like the winter hardiness and yields well on our sand. I've tried some more expensive varietys from different companys that may have been leafier and better the first year or two, but they usually also died out faster too. I probably should just stick with Algonquin but I'm still willing to try some different varietys to see if I can't get a little different maturity so its not all ready to cut at once.


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## carcajou (Jan 28, 2011)

Never heard of Mycogen, i see now they are a seed distributor. Algonquin is dependable, year after year, after year.


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## jedp (Mar 18, 2017)

Currently having good luck in my region with RR Nexgrow. Supplying green chopped and big bales of dairy quality feed on 1200+ acres and seeing annual production averages of over 8 tons per acre consistently.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

jedp said:


> Currently having good luck in my region with RR Nexgrow. Supplying green chopped and big bales of dairy quality feed on 1200+ acres and seeing annual production averages of over 8 tons per acre consistently.


That's pretty strong.

Regards, Mike


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## jedp (Mar 18, 2017)

It is strong but we're cheating a bit by green chopping first and second. Cut today, chop tomorrow and have the sprinkler on as the last truck exits the field. Do it again about 28 days later. I don't hate baling, but man...green chopping is low stress! Helps us get a fifth each year but the field wears out faster.


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## Waldo (Apr 29, 2016)

Years and years ago in oz we had no aphids blue green and all.so we had only one variety hunter river .but in the early 70sbang aphids turned up.total decimated the hunter river as it had no resistance to aphids.the seed companies imported cuff101 from the states,and then over years the ag department and private companies started breeding one of the public variety called aurora was breed from hunter river.pretty bug resident .stand of hunter river have been know to last 20 years or more.to 5 to 6 years top


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