Managing for Profit

From one extreme to another this forage season

Managing for Profit copy

Lisa Behnken is a crop specialist with the University of Minnesota Extension service, based in Rochester.  In her state and other parts of the Midwest, she calls the beginning of the forage season interesting and challenging.

“Some people were able to get first crop done very early; they hit a window in May.  (For) others it dragged well into June because of the amount of rain showers.  So kind of an uneven cutting pattern.”

She says this can create potential problems.

“We are typically dealing with potato leaf hopper, especially in the southern half of Minnesota.  Leaf hopper comes in on our storms from the south, moves in with those wind patterns.  It’s usually during our second crop that insect issues come up.”

She says if the second crop of alfalfa is starting to come along, scout those fields to see if an insecticide is warranted.

Another issue has been finding the right time to put up the harvest, which Behnken says can lead to problems with hay quality.

“A lot of rain may have fallen on fields where alfalfa is in the field and tougher to put up.”

If the field is too wet, there is the risk of rutting up the field with the equipment, but the temptation will be there she says, especially for dairy producers.

“Dairy producers are looking for that higher quality hay.  They want to get the alfalfa at a younger stage versus beef producers that don’t need the higher quality.”

Behnken says to watch the maturity of the alfalfa for the pre-bloom or early bloom stage, and finding that window to cut when the weather allows the work to be done.

 

 

 

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