This is the SCNY Team’s third full week of monitoring heights for first cutting quality in 2019. The full report for the six-county region can be found in the following link: Alfalfa Height Reporting Sheet 5.21.2019. The updated field map for measurements this year can be found here.
From Janice Degni, The SCNY Dairy & Field Crops Team’s Field Crop Specialist:
This is the first week that it wasn’t raining while measuring heights. An occasional corn planter or tillage could be seen across the landscape. Harvest of clear grass stands has begun. We did send one grass sample for forage testing last week and it tested 47% NDF, which is close to the 50-55% NDF target for grass. It’s been nice to see that many grasses have remained vegetative, even orchardgrass in some cases. By next week we will see most grasses heading out.
For now, we get a few extra days for the mixed stands before quality will start to go backward. This buys us a little time for mixed stands which are hitting the harvest trigger. Assess your fields to see how far along they are. As far as clear alfalfa stands we have at least another week. Buds, if you can find them, are just starting to develop. Cutting [alfalfa] prior to the bud stage sacrifices yield and hurts stand longevity. Now all we need are a few rain free days to allow harvest.
It’s interesting to see the range of conditions across fields. Diseases like spring black stem are common in the lower canopy. The crop shows the stress in fields that have been saturated on and off during the month. Weeds are variable. Common weeds include chickweed, henbit, shepherd’s purse, and dandelion.
Alfalfa grew on average 6″ in the past week throughout most of the region. Across the region, mixed stands of grass/alfalfa are ready to be mowed.
With the break in the weather, many farms have been parking the corn planter and mowing hay according to recommendations. Pure grass fields are past peak quality in most all the region, even at high elevations. If there is ample forage with mixed stands and pure alfalfa fields, recommendations are to leave these pure grass fields for heifers and dry cows and storing separately after harvest.
Recommendations for pure alfalfa fields are falling in the next week to 10 days, with some fields at higher elevations in Onondaga County needing through the first week of June to get to peak quality.
For those interested, the CNY Team’s report can be found at the following link: 5212019 1st cutting forage quality summary CNY. The CNY Dairy Livestock & Field Crops Team covers Chenango, Fulton, Herkimer, Madison, Montgomery, Otsego, Saratoga and Schoharie Counties in NY. Any questions about their report can be directed to Kevin Ganoe, khg2@cornell.edu.
As always, feel free to reach out to the team for scouting, monitoring and individual recommendations for first cutting. Look for our next and final report of monitoring heights to come out on Wednesday, May 29th.
Credit to field measurements goes to Janice Degni, Melanie Palmer, Mary Kate Wheeler, Shona Ort and Betsy Hicks.