Alfalfa Harvest Alert for May 17

By Taylor Herbert

The Alfalfa Harvest Alert Project/ Scissor Cut project continued this week. The first field in Sibley County was harvested on May 12th and some fields in Stearns, Morrison, and Benton Counties were sampled for the first time. Compared to samples taken earlier in the week, samples taken over the last couple days have reduced Relative Feed Values (RFV) but biomass yield has increased. This is the trade-off that the Alfalfa Harvest Alert Program is trying to capture. Farmers need to make a decision to maximize both yield and quality to fit the needs of their operation.

As a reminder, the goal of this project is not to try and name the exact day of harvest. Rather the goal is to encourage growers who are busy with management of other crops to be more strategic with hay crop harvest as it relates to their needs.

How to get harvest alert data

The May 17 Alfalfa Harvest Alert data is available as a pdf. However, there's also a tool that contains this year’s data and all of the data from every county and farm that has participated in the Alfalfa Harvest Alert Program since 1977. Go to z.umn.edu/AlfalfaHarvestAlert to view the data.