This is the team’s second week of monitoring alfalfa heights for first cutting quality in 2025. The full report for our six-county region (Broome, Cayuga, Chemung, Cortland, Tioga, and Tompkins Counties) can be found in the following link: Alfalfa Height Reporting Sheet 5.13.25.
This week’s updates:
This past week saw substantial growth in our monitoring fields with the nice weather we received over the weekend and (more than) adequate moisture in the soil. Some farms have braved the soggy spots and gone out for grass harvest – even some for mixed grass/alfalfa in the southern portion of our region.
Broome: average heights were over 22″ here, gaining over 4″ from last week. Grass is ready and mixed plots will soon be ready.
Cayuga: average heights were over 16″ here, but still a wide range between fields. Best to check local conditions for determining quality – grass likely is ready everywhere and mixed stands are approaching peak quality in some locations. Gains were over 4.5″ from last week
Chemung: average heights were 19.5″ gaining almost 5″ from last week. One of our monitoring fields was mowed.
Cortland: average heights were 18″, gaining less than 4″ from last week. Grass fields are ready to be harvested and mixed plots will soon be ready.
Tioga: average heights were almost 21″, gaining over 4″ from last week. Grass fields are ready to be harvested at peak quality and mixed fields soon will be.
Tompkins: fields here averaged 21.5″, gaining over 4.5″ from last week. Grass fields are ready to be harvested and mixed fields are pretty much there.
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 21st. We will also be updating on grass maturity throughout the month of May and early June, utilizing scissor cuts to help assess maturity for other classes and species of livestock.
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.