First Cutting Monitoring – May 4th, 2022 SCNY Report

This is the SCNY Team’s first full week of monitoring alfalfa heights for first cutting quality in 2022.  A full report for the seven-county region can be found in the following link: Alfalfa Height Reporting Sheet 5.3.22

To familiarize yourself with our methods, we use the same process as the CCE CNY Dairy, Livestock & Field Crops Team as described below.  The CNY team’s report can be found in the following link:  CNY Team Field Crop Update_May 2 2022

For prediction of NDF content, the height of alfalfa as an indicator is as follows:

• 100% grass stands – cut when nearby alfalfa is 14 inches tall (achieves 50% NDF)
• 50/50 grass/alfalfa stands – cut when nearby alfalfa is 22 inches tall (achieves 44% NDF)
• 100% alfalfa stands – cut when alfalfa is 28 inches tall (achieve 40% NDF)

Predicted days to cut are based on daily NDF increases for grasses of 1.0% point, 50/50 mixed alfalfa/grass stands of 0.8% points, and alfalfa of 0.5% points and are adjusted for the coming week’s weather.  Typically NDF increases about 0.8 to 1.2 per day for grasses, with cooler weather being the lower end of the range and warmer weather being the higher end.  For alfalfa, NDF increases about 0.4 to 0.7 per day, also dependent upon warm/cool weather.

2022:  A slow start

It feels cool out there and as anticipated, not much interesting feels like it’s happening, giving you all some time to get other field work completed.

Across our 7-county region, most locations show growth of alfalfa in the single digits, with a few areas over 10″.  For this year’s weather, this isn’t surprising.

The weather report looks like some warmer weather should be coming our way, so those with 100% grass stands should be getting harvest equipment ready to mow as soon as your location’s conditions say the time is right.

Look for our next report of monitoring heights to come out on Wednesday, May 11th.  In the meanwhile, if you can’t get out to check your fields, call one of us on the team.  We’ll be glad to help out.