# Alfalfa hay is dead



## honesthilb (Jan 22, 2013)

I live in SE Minn and all my hay ground has died. All my neighbors hay is also gone. A hard freeze in Dec and Jan, and a very wet spring has rotted the alfalfa roots. I heard it is wide spread, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc. Just wondering if it was true and what is going to happen to the hay prices. They are already high.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Are you sure it's dead? We've got a terribly late spring here, near St Louis. Some alfalfa is only up 6". Some even less.

I'm looking for some warm weather to kick start the alfalfa. (But the cool season grasses are going gang busters.)

Ralph


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

I was looking at some last night,it looked dead from the road but there are shoots comeing yet.Take a few more warm days to be able to tell for sure.There is some winter kill,how much??Covered with 6" of snow again so be awhile before I will know.


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## honesthilb (Jan 22, 2013)

We're supposed to get 6-9 inches of snow again tonight, just what we need. I'll give it 10 more days to come alive or I'm plowing it up and planting corn. I sure hope it makes it.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

honesthilb said:


> We're supposed to get 6-9 inches of snow again tonight, just what we need. I'll give it 10 more days to come alive or I'm plowing it up and planting corn. I sure hope it makes it.


I just got call from seed co saying a lot of alf in Rochester,Mn area winterkilled.Roots are already brown and mushy.SE Mn,Wisc and upper Mich don't sound good.


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## honesthilb (Jan 22, 2013)

That's what our local agronomist has been told. The roots have been wet for so long that they have rotted away. I live 30 miles North of Rochester. I think hay around here will get really expensive, if you can even find it.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Near Zumbrota?I bought quite a few open dairy hfrs from the sale barn there 7-8 yrs ago.

Also was at Hay Expo at Cannon Falls in 2011


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

honesthilb said:


> We're supposed to get 6-9 inches of snow again tonight, just what we need. I'll give it 10 more days to come alive or I'm plowing it up and planting corn. I sure hope it makes it.


If you have the planter to do it I'd no-till it to corn before I'd plow it. More often than not, some of the best corn we've raised has bee no-tilled into what was previously a hay field.


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## honesthilb (Jan 22, 2013)

Our power finally came back on after 18 inches of wet, sloppy snow. I think I'll have a few more days to think about it. Thanks for the tips.


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## mncattle (Jul 23, 2010)

I am just north of Northfield and took a look at a couple of my fields on Monday and I was thinking they did not look good at all. I did see a couple plants starting to get some green on them but I am also worried. I figure I would wait a week and they should be getting some growth then after our 10inches of snow melts. I work during the week south of Rochester 40 miles and their fields are looking pretty green already but I figure they are usually a week or even two weeks ahead of us. Good Luck


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## AQHACWBY (Feb 6, 2012)

Hey Guys...

Yup we got 14 inches of snow in Clear lake. Lots of power lines down from heavy branches breaking off.

I have a question.

Just received my alfalfa, orchard grass and timothy.

The orchard grass is pretty light compared to the other seeds, will it mix good with the alfalfa and timothy?


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

AQHACWBY said:


> Hey Guys...
> Yup we got 14 inches of snow in Clear lake. Lots of power lines down from heavy branches breaking off.
> I have a question.
> Just received my alfalfa, orchard grass and timothy.
> The orchard grass is pretty light compared to the other seeds, will it mix good with the alfalfa and timothy?


Nope.

If you can't segregate them by weight when planting, then you might have to make more than one trip across the field while planting.


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## mncattle (Jul 23, 2010)

I have always mixed my orchard grass in with the oats or wheat in the large seed box. The alfalfa and timothy in the small seed box. Or you can do what mlappin recomended. I would not mix all three together.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Are you using a cover crop like oats or ryegrass?If so mix the O-Grass with that.And you can mix the alf & timothy together.


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## honesthilb (Jan 22, 2013)

I found this interesting. It's a 4 minute audio, please listen; http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/06/05/news/alfalfa-drought-winterkill


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## honesthilb (Jan 22, 2013)

http://hayandforage.com/marketing/franken-asks-usda-forage-harvest-waiver#node-17902?NL=HFG-02&Issue=HFG-02_20130611_HFG-02_939&[email protected]&YM_MID=1400052&sfvc4enews=42


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## nanuk (Aug 29, 2011)

my Rancher is seeing about 95% kill on his alfalfa in Central Sask.

the seed seller and a local Ag guy are stumped.

he had a good catch the first year, last year the alfalfa came in around 50-60% of the previous year.

this year, looks like there'll only be a lot of grasses.

on one field where the alfalfa was around 40-50% of the yield, Rancher figures 80-90% kill there also... he's worried.
Me too.. I get paid by the bale!


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