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Early assessments on alfalfa

An extension crops educator encourages growers to assess alfalfa conditions.

Dave Nicolai is with the University of Minnesota.

“We don’t know for sure, but we think it’s actually going to be okay. It’s somewhat based on having really cold temperatures without that snow cover, the other thing is ice-heaving and maybe even ice sheeting.”

He tells Brownfield the potential for freezing rain, which can damage early stands, is decreasing.

“So at this point in time I think we’ll be okay, we don’t really know 100 percent obviously until we get some green-up.”

Nicolai says older alfalfa is more susceptible to injury.

“If for whatever reason they’ve had some disease in there already or developed in the crown tissue, but those are things that growers can check by digging up and looking at crowns and slicing them to see if they’re white inside.”

He says those assessments should be done in April.