Alfalfa Yield and Quality Relationships Within Individual ...

[Pages:25]Alfalfa Yield and Quality Relationships Within Individual Harvests

Geoff Brink, Marvin Hall, Glenn Shewmaker, Neal Martin, Dan Undersander, and Rick Walgenbach

Our improving knowledge of the relationship between alfalfa yield and alfalfa quality has greatly influenced

when farmers harvest the crop.

10 Cut firJst-ucronp alefaltfaoday

1960

12 Cut firMst-craopyalfaltfoaday

2006

Consider this timeline of how alfalfa harvest management has evolved through the years.

Time frame

1920-1950 1950-1960

1970's 1980's

Farmer's goal

Persistence, yield

Nutrient yield*, persistence

Nutrient yield*

Nutrient concentration**

No. harvests

1 ?2 3 4 4

* Total amount of nutrients harvested ** Favorable percentage of nutrients in the plant

Growth stage at harvest

Full flower

First flower

First flower Bud

Sheaffer, 1990

We know that:

When we give the plant more time to grow before harvesting . . .

. . . yield increases, . . . but at the expense of feed quality.

When we cut the plant early . . . . . . we capture a higher quality feed; . . . but this is at the expense of total yield.

This previous study clearly shows . . .

. . . you get a greater

monetary return (based on crop value) per acre of alfalfa with higher yields.

Undersander, 2001

But yield and quality are opposed:

As yield increases (green bars) . . . . . . quality declines (orange line).

YIeld (T/A)

IVDMD (%)

3.0

quality

70

65

2.0

60

1.0 yield

55

0.0

Vegetative Pre-bud

Bud 1/10

bloomFull

bloomGreen

pod

Stage of growth at plant harvest

Smith, 1960

50

Quality measured as

in-vitro dry matter

digestibility (IVDMD)

Previous studies on the trade-off between yield and quality looked at the crop on an annual basis.

We conducted a study to find out:

1. What is the trade-off between yield and quality during the growing season? Does it vary from one cutting to the next?

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