This is the team’s first week of monitoring alfalfa heights for first cutting quality in 2023. The full report for our six-county region (Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Cortland, Tioga, Tompkins Counties) can be found in the following link: Alfalfa Height Reporting Sheet 5.2.23.
This week’s updates:
Team agronomist, Janice Degni, offers her hay crop report to kick off our weekly updates.
Hay crop broke dormancy earlier this year than the last few. Two weeks with several days reaching 70 and 80 degree and some light rain spurred alfalfa and grass growth.
Trees began leafing out 2-3 weeks ahead of what’s typically early May. Fields were soggy this week after the 3” or more of rain that fell across our region over the weekend.
Unfortunately there was significant flooding along the rivers. If we start to get higher temperatures, hay fields could surprise us with earlier than expected maturity.
Broome: leading the way, alfalfa height averaged over 15″ this week. Any full grass fields near pure alfalfa fields measuring 15″ are ready to be harvested for peak quality.
Cayuga: average height here is just under 12″. Warmth in this coming week will really see heights take off
Chemung: lagging more than normal years, Chemung’s average height is also just under 12″. The next week’s coming weather may really impact how rapidly alfalfa grows and grass gains NDF.
Cortland: coming in at just over 10″ on average, Cortland is usually one of our colder counties to measure.
Tioga: heights here averaged just over 12″. Again, warmth in the coming week will make hay crop jump rapidly
Tompkins: average for this week is 13″. Full grass fields will reach peak quality in the coming week.
A Reminder on our Methods
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.
Next Report
Look for our next report of monitoring heights to come out on Wednesday, May 10th. 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.
