Pasture & Range: July 2004 Other Pasture & Range Articles

Alfalfa is a cool-season perennial legume mostly produced for hay — typically for dairy hay markets in the Noble Foundation's service area. Its value as a hay or feed supplement is well recognized, but its usefulness as a grazing forage is often overlooked. Efficiency of harvest by baling, as well as the price structure for high-quality hay, leads to alfalfa being used primarily as hay, but there is much untapped potential for alfalfa as a forage in grazing scenarios.

In the early 1990s, the introduction of Alfagraze, the first alfalfa variety tolerant of intensive grazing, along with easy-to-use electric fencing options, increased interest in using alfalfa as grazed pasture. There are now several grazing-tolerant varieties on the market developed with the "Alfagraze" approach.

Many opportunities exist for grazing alfalfa.

What are some of the opportunities for grazing alfalfa? Let's list a few.

1. Fall stockpile for weaned calves.
   Save the last cutting on a convenient pasture and allow alfalfa to stockpile from September until weaning or frost. Place weaned calves on high-quality pasture five to six days post-weaning (after the bawl-out phase) and hold until marketing or until winter pasture is ready. Introduce calves to alfalfa hay in the weaning pens.
    
2. Summer pasture for growing and lactating stock.
   In areas east of I-35, where haying alfalfa is difficult, establish a grazing alfalfa for pasturing growing cattle and lactating cows. Alfalfa would be in excess in spring as would cool-season annual grasses, but it would continue to grow through the summer at a slower rate. Grazed rotationally, alfalfa could, in effect, be harvested in a timely and controlled rate. Use excess growth in the spring to flush calving cows prior to the breeding season.
    
3. Creep feed for calves during the growing season.
   Plant a couple of drill-widths of alfalfa along the edge of perennial warm-season pastures (one or two sides, for example). Place a temporary single-strand electric fence between the alfalfa and warm-season forages. Allow calves to use alfalfa as a creeping area through summer and fall. After frost and in early spring, allow cows access to alfalfa to graze residual in winter and the excess in early spring.
    
4. Summer pasture for fall-born stockers.
   Establish alfalfa and graze weaned calves or stockers each spring carrying calves to heavier market weights. For example, the Foundation's Forage Improvement Division has been grazing stockers on alfalfa since 2002. Spring gains approached 3 lb./hd./day with gains holding above 1.5 lb./hd./d. throughout the growing season (April through September), except during the extreme dry period of last summer (2003), in which gains dropped below 1.5 lb./hd./d in July and August. Under usual and customary practices, the steers would have been removed prior to drought conditions, but due to the experimental design, the steers remained throughout the season. Although bloat could be a problem, there has been a very low incidence of bloat in this study to date. The study continues again this year under the direction of Mary Sledge, principal investigator for alfalfa research.
    
5. Complementary cow forage.
   Interseed alfalfa in strips or blocks large enough to manage into perennial warm-season pasture such as bermudagrass. For mature cattle, 10 percent to 20 percent of a pasture should be sufficient. This will require killing the bermudagrass prior to planting the alfalfa. By rotationally grazing, stand life can be extended, but the aggressive nature of bermudagrass will eventually overwhelm the alfalfa within a couple of growing seasons. The presence of alfalfa in the pasture will increase diet quality of grazing cattle, especially during summer months, which will improve livestock performance.
    
6. Food plots for whitetail deer.
   Plant alfalfa in small plots, protected from livestock, for use by whitetail deer and other wildlife species during summer and fall. It may require occasional mowing or grazing by livestock to keep it in a productive, more desirable state.

There are other possibilities. These are not all inclusive. However, keep in mind that alfalfa is a high-value crop and should be managed as such to extend stand life as well as to ensure a proper return to the investment. Being a cool-season forage, it offers much of the forage quality advantages of cool-season annual grasses or small-grains pasture during fall and spring but will go dormant during winter. Another advantage is it grows through summer with adequate moisture long after small grains and cool-season annuals have matured and dried up. Being perennial, alfalfa does not have to be planted annually. Depending on soils and management, stand life could exceed four to five years.

Here are some proper management tips if planting alfalfa for grazing:

1. Target productive well-drained soils with little potential for herbicide carryover.
    
2. Soil test topsoil and apply appropriate lime, if needed, to raise pH to 6.5 to 7.0 range and the needed P, K, S, Mg and B to meet alfalfa requirements. Test subsoils also to determine pH and, if acidic, available Mn and soluble Al.
    
3. Use a proven grazing-tolerant variety of alfalfa.
    
4. Plant alfalfa at 15 to 20 lb./ac. rate into a firm seedbed, or no-till into a chemically fallowed soil at less than one-half inch depth in early fall. Plant pre-inoculated or freshly inoculated seeds of adapted varieties, preferably those developed for grazing. Control weeds with appropriate herbicides.
    
5. Allow alfalfa to attain early bud stage before initiating grazing in the spring. Rotationally graze, leaving residuals in excess of 8 inches through the growing season. Harvest the excess, if possible.
    
6. Allow alfalfa to stockpile in fall at least 30 days before the historic annual freeze date. Graze residuals to 2- to 3-inch height to minimize weevil damage during the winter. Apply needed annual fertility prior to spring green-up.

For additional information, contact a forage specialist at the Noble Foundation or a state forage Extension specialist in your region.

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