Can you graze alfalfa

Never allow animals grazing alfalfa pasture to get so hungry that they consume too much in one feeding. Always have sufficient feed available. Make paddock rotations mid-day or later; this is when the forage is drier and plant carbohydrate concentrations are higher. Avoid dramatic changes in forage quality when rotating from paddock to paddock by leaving adequate residue. Observe livestock closely the first several days and remove any chronic-bloating animals.

Avoid grazing legumes before they begin to bloom. Make closer observations for bloat when many plants are at a younger growth stage.

For example, use daily strip grazing or use high stock density in multiple paddock systems rather than continuous stocking. Mild bloat is common on high bloat-potential pastures. Alfalfa that started as a hayfield might be rejuvenated for an extra year or two by grazing it. While young alfalfa stands might have 15 plants per square foot, research shows that you can get excellent beef gains while grazing a stand with as little as one plant per square foot. Alfalfa, as a legume, extracts its own nitrogen from the air through its root nodules.

It does need a pH of 6. For one, alfalfa produces at its best when it is rotationally grazed. Lacefield likes to graze for three to five days followed by four to six weeks of rest. Usually the alfalfa is still quite green, despite several nights with low temperatures in the 20s or even teens like last week. There may be some wilting and yellowing, especially on the top, but most leaves still are attached to the plant stems.

So those cows were hand fed small amounts of alfalfa hay at a time so their bloat could be minimized. The only true answer to the question of whether alfalfa can be safely grazed is "probably. With a focus on industry applications and research, the online program is designed with maximum flexibility for today's working professionals.

Annual fertilizer needs therefore would be lower than where plant nutrients are removed from a field as hay. In addition, alfalfa is our highest nitrogen fixing forage legume Table 1. Is alfalfa right for you? If you answered YES to some of the previous questions, it is at least worthy of your consideration; but wait, let me tell you some of the problems and make a few comments about them.

The most frequent concern of producers considering grazing alfalfa is bloat, but it can be minimized with precautions. Producers may lose more money from the fear of bloat than from bloat itself if it keeps them from efficiently using the alfalfa pasture.

Additional Fencing — Alfalfa must be grazed on a rotational basis. Doing so requires that fields be subdivided so that cattle are restricted to one area for a time, and then moved to another area. This system gives the grazed area time to regrow before grazing again. Fencing does not have to be elaborate or complex.

Simple low-cost electric fences that restricts animals to a given area are adequate. Access to water and minerals is also important. Greater Management and Labor Inputs — Although some consider this category to be a disadvantage, advocates of controlled grazing do not always agree.

Once the necessary fencing is in place, time studies have shown that the amount of additional labor required for rotational grazing is quite small compared to harvesting hay.

In addition, regularly moving cattle to new pastures lets the producer observe them more closely and therefore permits greater cattle-pasture management efficiency.