# Which Alfalfa Variety to Plant



## OneManShow (Mar 17, 2009)

I am getting ready to disc up about 25 acres, in north western Oregon, and plant some alfalfa. We grow timothy, orchard and rye/orchard mix but never alfalfa-first time for everything. Our PH is pretty good, around 6.2 but we'll apply some lime to bring it up a bit. We would be looking at a fall dormancy of 3-4 and as much disease resistance and yield as possible. I've spoken to a couple seed brokers/wholesalers in the area, and it seems that whatever variety they have the most of is "the best" in their opinion. I had a dealer try to get me on board a variety he called 33HD and another 411HD. Since I don't know much about alfalfa I thought I'd see if some of you guys might have some good suggestions on varieties to consider or to ignore. We will be fall planting, and the ground is not under irrigation (yet). Some folks in our area get three pretty fair cuttings without irrigation and put up alfalfa for export-of course some folks in our area don't do quite as well. I'll be asking the locals about seed as well, but if figured I'd start here. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I had excellent success with leaf hopper resistant variety 343LH this year. Did not have to spray at all.

Ralph


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Exactly what I was going to suggest as well, from what I've seen so far the extra $$$ per bag is well worth it for leaf hopper resistant variety's.


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

Like much of the country the local public variety usually works as well as the highly pest resistant Commercial Variety.

If you know what pest are a problem in your area you can look in the National Alfalfa & Forage Ass's listing. http://alfalfa.org/pdf/2011NAFAVarietyLeaflet_small.pdf

If you are interested they have a reasonably good text on alfalfa http://alfalfa.org/pdf/AlfalfaAnalyst.pdf

You can go to National Alfalfa Alliance to look over their offerings.

California has a long list of free references at California Alfalfa Workgroup Homepage just click on the topic and print off the information.

In years past I would have categorically rejected any suggestion of needing potato leaf hopper resistance. It turns out in the Southern California Desert area they have a local variety of the plh, and are looking at plh resistant trait for California. 
A gripe I might have with plh resistant alfalfa is most varieties I have seen with plh resistance had little or no aphid resistance. We have aphids here every year but hoppers only ever 25 or 30 years.

Suggestion: that 6.2 pH may be ok but look at your calcium levels. Alfalfa uses about double the amount of calcium as grass hays do.


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## OneManShow (Mar 17, 2009)

I have looked through the NAFA information but I hadn't run across the California Alfalfa site thanks for suggesting it. I bought the new "Alfalfa Management Guide) publication by the American Society of Agronomy (and others). It seems to be a pretty comprehensive resource, I wonder if it'll stand out in the field with me and tell me when to bale next spring? I am leaning strongly toward a variety from Allied Seed called Mariner III, It is resistant to about everything we're concerned with here, and it has been grown well not too far from us. It's a branched root variety (but not shallow rooted like varieties for grazing and wet ground). It is supposed to do well in heavier soils-and we do have some heavy soils on our place. All this and it's expensive too!

We're going to do another soil test before we plant-we'll see what the calcium looks like.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I was talking to a friend of mine the other night and he was telling me that the leaf-hopper resistant varieties were significantly less palatable--I have noticed that my livestock, especially my horses, weren't cleaning it up.

Anybody else seen palatability issues with the LH resistant variety?

Ralph


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## hay wilson in TX (Jan 28, 2009)

I am not so sure it is a palatability problem but a feel in the mouth problem. 
As I understand the reason for some varieties not being AS susceptible to hopper problems is the "resistant" varieties have a pubescence (fuzz or hairs) on the leaves that the hoppers do not like to walk on. This pubescence may cause a different feel on the tongue of the animals that they have a problem with.

If I had access to samples of each I would try a few leaves of each on my tongue. Probably should try a taste test as well.

When the idea of PM mowing first appeared I jumped on mowing PM but prior to 3 PM CDT at 97º W. 
The theory was, and is, that hay dropped into a wide swath and having 5 hours of our high angle sun the hay would dry enough to more or less stop overnight desperation. 
Cutting around noon would have about 4% higher sugar level, and the hay would loose 2% to respiration. Net gain of 2% nonstructural carbohydrates, (sugar). 
My taste test showed no effect, but I am told the livestock preferred the PM hay.

*The critter is the ultimate authority on palatability. *


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## sedurbin (May 30, 2009)

> My taste test showed no effect


You may have to put a little milk on it along with some sliced bananas.


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