Our second weekly alfalfa height report for 2020 looks a lot like last week’s – very slow alfalfa growth in response our cool temperatures. Click here to access it. We prioritize our 1st cutting alfalfa-grass quality monitoring to help farms time early season harvest schedules. A well-timed 1st cutting sets up good quality and yield for the rest of the season. Farms need to capture appropriate forage quality and nutrition for their herds, flocks and customers.
As you peruse the report, you’ll notice that alfalfa growth continued to be slow this week,
and is still well behind 2018 and 2019 averages. We stand at an average height of 6.7″ across NNY this week, compared with 12.4″ in 2018 and 9.8″ last spring, despite the cool temps of early 2019.
GDD accumulations for the past week are close to nil, but the forecast for the next several days should add a few and stimulate some alfalfa and grass growth.
Nitrogen should be applied to grass fields (if less than 50% legume and no manure history) by now. Cool temps have stretched this window, but get it on now if it’s not already on. Ideally, N should be timed just prior to increase in plant demand to limit risk of losses to ground and surface water and to the atmosphere.
Watch grass fields for signs of maturity and developing quality. Flowering for most grass species occurs in response to day length, so lack of GDD does not slow that progress. Grasses will begin to head at the same general times as previous years, but the yield will be lower. Watch your fields to capture quality of grass or mostly-grass fields accordingly.
Check out the report for some additional tidbits and let us know if we can help with forage management, or any other topics. Be well and safe and rely on CCE for all sorts of information and assistance during this stressful time. We are available via email, web, YouTube, blog, and USPS mail as normal.