Has anyone else noticed in the Upper Midwest that most of the alfalfa got winterkilled, or otherwise died off due to too much moisture, this past year?   I was wondering if anyone else has seen it and how widespread that it is.

In Iowa, it seems to be the same all across Southern Iowa, that I have seen.

With the dairy situation and the decline of the horse population....I am pretty sure that it isn't worth the effort to re-plant any new stands.   What you all think?

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"Making America Great Again." "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."~~Margaret Thatcher~~ The Democrat Party is the Communist Party. "Veritas Odium Parit" Latin "Truth begets hatred"

Our stand made it through the winter and 2 cuttings this, but the last 2 cuttings looked like as much grass as alfalfa. Drove through the field today to get to a pasture to take down the electric fence that split the pasture in to halves. The stand look about half and is coming back soooo uneven. This is a 4 year old stand. We spread 400LBs of K and 200LB of P, in a split application, after the 2nd and 4th cuttings. After it started to thin we put in a pound of boron, was looking just a BIT yellow. It is weevil resistant and they were never a problem. I'm thinking it has something to do with the wet and cool weather, just a guess. Was hoping to get another year out of it.

Craig, always thought the horse people wanted timothy. The dairies could be a concern but there are a lot of cows out there. We have had 2 excellent haying years in our area, although getting it up dry was a problem. Most of the dairy guys green wrap, so have plenty of feed. If we have a dry year the price will go up. If your ground is best suited for alfalfa might be hard to raise another crop without a lot of erosion. If it has been in alfalfa for several years I bet it could really raise some corn and beans though. I know wheat prices kind of suck, but you might sow it to wheat this fall and then start some new alfalfa next August. Just a thought.

Wish to heck I knew how to use all them fancy tools at the top of the page.

 

 

 

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3020 wrote:

Wish to heck I knew how to use all them fancy tools at the top of the page.

You have more editing capabilities on this forum than on any other forum that I know of.  Freedom is good, and I give you the most creative freedom possible!  If you'd like to know how to use this powerful tool, this is where I got it from and this is the tutorial.

I'm using the FCK editor, what the site calls "Our previous editor solution, stable and full featured" as it is easier to work with and for certain, 100% free and open-source.  The CK editor looks much better tho, and I think I might use that option at some point in the future. 

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