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Alfalfa quality affects marketing
Muleshoe, Texas
September 16, 2005

The dairy industry is thriving in West Texas and eastern New Mexico, so many crop producers in the region are looking at alfalfa as an alternative or rotation crop. But what are dairymen looking for in terms of alfalfa quality?
Bryan Boehning, a Bailey County dairyman, provided some insight at a recent Texas Cooperative Extension regional alfalfa workshop.

"It's this in a nutshell – we want hay with a good green color, 12 percent to 15 percent moisture content and the highest relative feed value we can get," Boehning said. "A relative feed value of 150 is the bottom end of what I will take. I prefer hay rated at 185 to 190. Anything rated from 190 to 230 is what we consider premium hay."
Helping producers grow and deliver premium hay to a new market is the goal of this and other regional workshops, said Curtis Preston, Extension agent in Bailey County. "Our alfalfa sector is turning from producing horse hay to high-quality dairy hay, which requires a higher level of management," he said. "Knowing your buyer and what they want in terms of feed value is a crucial component of successful marketing."

Relative feed value, or RFV, is a measure of forage quality. The benchmark for rating forages with this index is alfalfa at full bloom, which has a relative feed value of 100. A forage with a relative feed value of 120, for example, contains 20 percent more energy than full-bloom alfalfa.

"We test everything on our place before it is fed," Boehning said. "Our nutritionist uses two or three different labs to get all our feed analyzed. We blend a variety of protein and starches with our hay to make the total ration. That includes corn, sorghum and wheat silage and some distillers grain from the ethanol plant in Portales, N.M.
"We also blend hays because what we buy falls in a range of feed values. For that reason, we will take all the 180 to 200 RFV hay we can find."

Two guides, "Understanding Forage Quality Analysis" and "RFVand RFQ - What's the Difference?" are available on the Internet at: http://animalscience.tamu.edu/ansc/index.htm in the Publications: Dairy Cattle section.

"New and existing dairies on the High Plains are the main market for alfalfa producers here," said Calvin Trostle, Texas Cooperative Extension agronomist based at Lubbock.

Trostle has put together a packet of alfalfa information for West Texas and High Plains producers that includes university alfalfa variety trials, and guides to common production problems and considerations. It is available on the Internet at: http://lubbock.tamu.edu/othercrops. Trostle can be reached at (806) 746-6101 or ctrostle@tamu.edu.

Boehning's milk cows produce an average of 72 pounds of milk per day from three milkings, so plenty of hay is kept on hand to help make the blended ration fed in the milking parlor.

"We keep a stockpile of hay on hand at all times," he said. "We try to buy and stockpile enough hay by January to last us through May. Our equipment is set up to handle large square bales. We prefer 4-foot by 8-foot square bales."

Packaging and marketing alfalfa hay in round bales is not recommended.

Round bales can often net a forage producer as much as a $15 per ton discount because they are harder to handle, Boehning said.

Harvest management has a greater affect on alfalfa quality than the variety a forage producer chooses to grow, said Leonard Lauriault, a New Mexico State University forage agronomist based at Tucumcari/Clovis.

"Alfalfa quality is not highly variable, but there are literally hundreds of alfalfa varieties available to choose from," Lauriault said.

"To maximize quality, we recommend that you cut alfalfa in the pre-bloom stage and allow a six- to seven-week rest between the last two cuttings.

"Varieties with a fall dormancy rating between four and eight are a good choice for the Southern High Plains. You can gauge variety performance by examining the results of university alfalfa trials...this is best comparison data available. Look for varieties that are broadly adapted in trial locations near your farm."

Resistance to insects, diseases and nematodes should also be considered, he said.

"Phytophthora root rot, Anthracnose crown rot, bacterial wilt and fusarium wilt are our top disease concerns," Lauriault said. "Stem nematodes and southern root-rot nematodes also rate right up there. With insects, we are concerned with a variety's ability to withstand alfalfa weevils and aphids.

"Even so, alfalfa has proven to be a good long-term rotational crop with cotton and other crops on the High Plains."

According to the Texas Agricultural Statistics Service, Texas producers harvested more than 855,000 tons of alfalfa from 150,000 acres in 2004, with an average yield of 5.7 tons per acre. These producers received an average price of $132 per ton, and generated more than $112 million in farm-gate receipts statewide.

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