News

Alfalfa slow to green up this spring

An Extension crops educator says because of the late spring growers should pay close attention to alfalfa stands.

Dave Nicolai with the University of Minnesota tells Brownfield the perennial forage crop has been slow to green up in the Upper Midwest.

“It’s going to be time here soon for growers that probably have a couple year-old stand to go out and take an assessment in terms of a plant stand count.  And if they’re starting to get down to that 5 or 6 plants per square foot or smaller, they might want to start rotating some of these fields out.”

He says the clock is also ticking for growers planning to seed alfalfa this spring.

“Either way, it’s quality, count, and so forth that are really important.  So I expect some of that will be needing to be attended to as well.”

Nicolai is not aware of widespread winter-kill across Minnesota and Wisconsin, but says there was probably damage in areas that lacked snow cover.

“Sometimes we get ice sheeting, which can be very detrimental.  Or even differences in the terrain in a field, where some areas were more snow-covered (and) some of the hilltops or other sides may not have been.”

He recommends diligent scouting, especially through the middle of May.