Alfalfla with grass....

[katrina]

We are going to plant some alfalfla and we want to plant some grass with it... Suggestions?

 

[jodywy]

I plant straight alfalfa the grass will fill in , in time
If we plant grass I like orchard for the feed value

 

[RSL]

In our northerly climate I have been transformed from a doubter to a fan of Meadow Brome. Also I still like Crested Wheat, even though it is out of favour with the grazing gurus now.

 

[Justin]

We are going to plant some alfalfla and we want to plant some grass with it... Suggestions?

i'm just the opposite, i plant grass with a little alfalfa in it.

 

[katrina]

We are going to plant some alfalfla and we want to plant some grass with it... Suggestions?

i'm just the opposite, i plant grass with a little alfalfa in it.

Okay smarty pants, what grass do you plant? :twisted:

 

[cowwrangler]

i do a orchard grass and brome mix with the alfalfa,brome comes early and later cuttings the orchard grass

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

In this dry climate it seems that Crested Wheat grass will take over a Alfalfa stand. For hay I just seed Alfalfa but I do use some Meadow Brome not Smooth brome. We have such a seed bank of Crested Wheat in this country is spreads easily and quickly. If your using it for grazing what about a couple of legumes. Maybe Sanfoin and a clover or Milk vetch?

 

[PATB]

Has any tried yellow flower alfalfa?

edited to add state side source for 2 strains of yellow flowered alfalfa. I just ordered a small amount to see if it will grow and persist in maine.

http://falcataseed.com/

 

[RSL]

Has any tried yellow flower alfalfa?

It's supposed to be the new thing around here (the forgotten/missed child of 1980s forages). We have never not had yellow flowered alfalfa for the last 30 years and it works great for grazing.

 

[leanin' H]

Everyone out here likes orchard with thier alfalfa in order to offset early frosts that really setback the alfalfa. The taller grass protects the alfalfa in the spring and insnt froze back like alfalfa will do alone.

 

[Anonymous]

i do a orchard grass and brome mix with the alfalfa,brome comes early and later cuttings the orchard grass

Yep that's what I like too...And as Big Muddy says- the Crested seems to come on its own- especially at the north place that is all dryland (except for the occasional flood that irrigates part of the hay meadows)...

Another thing I like to add to fields that are swampy or have drainage problem areas and that is Garrison Creeping Foxtail...It will eventually take over the swampy/wet areas...

 

[3words]

Whats your intentions to do with this alfalfa&grass mixture,graze it or bale it?

 

[katrina]

bale it..

 

[LazyWP]

Whats your intentions to do with this alfalfa&grass mixture,graze it or bale it?

Would you plant different for different uses? Knowing the area where Katrina is, sorta, most outfits are using western wheat grass. I think if it was irrigated, Orchard grass would be a good choice. With a dry summer like we have been getting, smooth brome would work also. Grows early, but you sure won't get any help out of it, of you can get a second cutting.

 

[jodywy]

now we did play around on some dry farm barley ground, we planted a mix of Forager Alfalfa, Ranger Alfalfa, White clover, red clover, alot of Orchard grass, some meadow brome, Owyhee brome, there was some smooth brome, a little fescue, some intermitiate ryegrass, and some timothy. We used barley as a cover. we measured seed in a 5 gallon bucket with somebody standing on a bathroom scale.
There was some other grasses as some of the seed came in a mix. not much rain , got a crop of grain hay and looks like the alfalfa and clover got a good start will hope for a wet summer and see if the grass makes it.

 

[Clarencen]

Orchard grass doesn't do very well here except maybe under irrigation.
I believe you have somewhat heavier soil then I have here, you might want something different then I would. I think you get about an inch more annual rainfall then I do too.
I would plant Manska Intermediate, with alfalfa I guess guess Manska is really pubescent wheat grass but is just like intermediate.
Smooth brome is too much of an invader and it gets sod bound to soon, it takes more moisture and fertility too,
.Crested wheatgrass works pretty good in a grass alfalfa mixture to, but it doesn't produce as well.

Several years ago when we decided to cut back on farming, Howard Wagner was our district conservationist, he recommended 6lb. Intermediate, 4 lbs. Crested and 4 lbs. alfalfa. On our hilly and rolling land he suggested we include 1/2 of Brome. That was a mistake
It was really not recommended to plant intermediate and crested together as one is a sod forming grass and the other a bunch grass. Still in some ways they did complement each other. When there was a dry spring the intermediate held back the crested produced better on a wet year it was the other way around. The alfalfa always decreased. I believe there is a better variety of Crested Wheat grass available now, then there was then.

 

[Silver]

I like to plant red clover with the alfalfa, it's only a bi-anual but puts out like crazy and it's cheap. For grasses we plant brome and timothy. Timothy does especially well in heavier soils with decent moisture. Alsike never needs to be planted more than once :? Around here if you want a fescue / alsike crop all you need to do is disc it down and wait a few weeks

 

[gcreekrch]

There is a place on Buck Ridge, west side of the Fraser River and south of Quesnel. Dry ridge that depends on precip for any irrigation. A guy that owned this ranch back in the dry early 80's would put Alsike in with his fertilizer and broadcast it on in the spring.

He didn't have to farm and dry out the soil and he managed to get a fair crop when a lot of neighbors didn't. :wink:

 

[jodywy]

we fiddle a little Alsike on our meadow foxtail in the spring

 

[3words]

Meadow bromegrass yields really well,and grows back very very quick,but to get it dry enough to bale is almost impossible.If the yields weren't so high off those fields,i would have sprayed it out after the first year of trying to bale it.It is a major fight right from the get go,it lodges so bad i have given up trying to cut it with my haybine and now borrow the neighbours discbine to cut it.You can cut it early but it grows back so fast it will be growing through the swaths before it gets dry enough to bale,that why i leave it so late now so it's almost mature.Even then by the time it is dry enough to bale,it will be growing through the swaths.I have tried everything to get it off,and it's always a fight.It might work if you just mowed and then raked it when dry and baled it,but be prepared for a fight,and i don't fertilize either and haven't fertilized those fields for 6 years now.I have converted the fields with fences around them to pasture so i wouldn't have to hay them anymore,and for pasture it works great and lot's of grass!!Cows love it.