Growing forages

You can better manage your farm’s legumes by understanding how alfalfa and other legumes grow and adopting proven strategies to handle winter injury. 

Life cycles of legumes

Forage legumes vary in terms of their life cycle, the amount of nitrogen they can fix, how well they can adapt to challenging conditions and their susceptibility to insect damage and diseases.

By understanding the characteristics of forage legumes, you can better identify, use and manage them on your farm.

Nutrient management

Fertilizer recommendations for forage grasses and legumes

Nutrient guidelines for alfalfa, grasses for hay and pasture, grass-legume mixes, and other legumes. Includes link to alfalfa fertilizer recommendation calculator. 

Winter injury of alfalfa

Many factors can contribute to winter damage of an alfalfa stand. All are important to consider when making spring assessments, and managing injured stands.

Alfalfa winter injury assessment and management includes

• How to assess winter injury
• Factors that affect alfalfa's ability to overwinter
• Managing injured stands
• Options if large portions of the stand are damaged

Winter injury of alfalfa: Strategies for livestock producers includes

• How to assess the damage
• How to determine your forage needs
• Options if you're short on inventory