Growing Alfalfa

[CZ284]

Does anyone have expreience here in West TN with growing alfalfa? We have a 15 acre field in one section of our lease. It is pretty low lying but doesn't flood unless we get rains like earlier this spring. Most of the time it's pretty dry. The soil does hold moisture well. Since we have horses, I was thinking we could plant a field and get dual use, some for a hay cutting (Alfalfa hay selling for $17 a bale!) and the deer could benefit as well

 

[pety221]

i've always got alfafa to grow better on a hillside for some reason

 

[CZ284]

Thanks. We have all kinds of terrain. How about soil type?

 

[Arrow Flinger]

You do not want to feed deer the alfalfa hay! They will starve to death with a full stomach! There are different types of alfalfa, and the hay grade, when in hay, deer cannot digest it, so they will have a full stomach, and still starve to death. Generally alfalfa likes a heavy well drained soil, pH 6.5-7. Whitetail Institute has a product call alfa-rack plus, hands down the best alfalfa for deer, plus the mix has there clover and chicory. And yes it will grow in TN.

 

[CZ284]

Thanks AF- I wasn't planning feeding them the hay, rather wanted to grow alfalfa and IF there was any left for a cutting, take that for the horses. Will look into your suggestion on the Alfa-rack plus.

Honestly- since this will be grown on the hunting lease, the horses can do without if that's what it comes to. They're spoiled enough by my wife!

 

[RKenney]

Alfalfa used to be a big crop in Tennessee 40 or 50 years ago. I
guess farming practices have changed since then. My uncle had a
500 acre farm in Maury county back in the 60's and he had several
large fields of alfalfa. There weren't any deer on his farm back
then, but the ground hog hunting was great!

I know some of the western states, like Montana, are big alfalfa
producers. The deer flock around those fields near the Milk
River. If it came back to a major feed crop to Tennessee today,
would the deer here, be like the deer in Montana? If we grow it,
will they come?

 

[eightpoint]

I would not attempt to grow alfalfa unless you have the time and resources to maintain it. It requires a lot of maintenance (spraying, mowing, picky about ph and fertilizer) and is very attractive to pests that can destroy it quickly (learned about army worms the hard way). It's not like wheat or oats that you can just seed, fertilize and pretty much forget about until it goes to seed. After mowing, the cuttings need to be removed so unless you can cut it for hay or cut it very often the thatch will kill it. Plus you can't just come back in an existing stand and overseed again. The growing alfalfa will produce a chemical that will kill any new alfalfa you try to overseed.
It's great food for deer and turkeys but requires much more work on the part of the food plotter.

 

[hard county]

I would not attempt to grow alfalfa unless you have the time and resources to maintain it. It requires a lot of maintenance (spraying, mowing, picky about ph and fertilizer) and is very attractive to pests that can destroy it quickly (learned about army worms the hard way). It's not like wheat or oats that you can just seed, fertilize and pretty much forget about until it goes to seed. After mowing, the cuttings need to be removed so unless you can cut it for hay or cut it very often the thatch will kill it. Plus you can't just come back in an existing stand and overseed again. The growing alfalfa will produce a chemical that will kill any new alfalfa you try to overseed.
It's great food for deer and turkeys but requires much more work on the part of the food plotter.

The alfalfa business is much easier in highly populated areas, the deer will do the mowing for you, and add "fertilize" to boot

 

[LT4Jesus]

Hard County, my brother grows alfalfa for hay in Henry County. I could put you in contact with him if you'd like. He sells all that to "high-end" horse folks. He also raises bermuda hay for the dairy farmers. Let me know if you're interested.

 

[hard county]

Hard County, my brother grows alfalfa for hay in Henry County. I could put you in contact with him if you'd like. He sells all that to "high-end" horse folks. He also raises bermuda hay for the dairy farmers. Let me know if you're interested.

Thanks but I grow my own for hay, by highly populated I meant dense deer, by the alfalfa business I just meant trying to grow it, I realise my earlier post was not quite clear.