Lucerne
Making good quality lucerne hay is a skill that requires experience or good advice from experienced people, a good environment, good organisation, motivation, commitment and dedication with good reliable equipment. There are various techniques to assess when lucerne is ready to cut including but not limited to ...
Plant growth stage can be a very accurate predictor of cutting time. Crown shoots are an excellent guide for determining cutting time, as flowering is controlled by day length and different dormancy classes and varieties may produce new crown shoots before buds or flowers appear in spring or autumn. Targeting the new crown shoot regrowth when it averages around 2cm is considered optimum.
Cutting height should be as low as possible without damaging the crowns or new shoots. It is important however, that enough stubble is left to ensure the plant material is off the ground for aeration and to stop ground moisture moving up into the windrows. It is suggested that 7-10cm is the ideal above ground cutting height.
Based on nutrient removal, lucerne should be fertilised to maintain its nutrient requirements.
Nutrients that are removed per tonne of DM as hay:
Maintain visual observations of stand health and if unsure take follow-up plant tissue tests to identify problems, particularly for micronutrient status such as Boron and Molybdenum
Clean stand: Weeds reduce the aesthetic appeal and palatibility of the bales and/or may put livestock at risk of toxicities. Consult your local agronomist about keeping your stand clean.
Control Insects: Insects have the potential to severely damage lucerne and therefore reduce the yeild and quality of the hay. Consult your local agronomist about an insect control programme.
More leaf, less stem
Green colouration: Although colour isn’t always linked with nutritional value, the market prefers greener bales. Greenness is improved by baling more leaf and less stem, by avoiding bleaching from rain or heavy dew, shed store bales well to prevent rain or sun bleaching damage. Avoid mould growth by reaching the target moisture content at harvest.
Keep dusty bales to a minimum: Don’t harvest the hay too dry or on dusty hot days when topsoil may end up in bales. Horses are more prone to respiratory problems than sheep or cattle from dusty hay.
Target bale moisture content: Targets differ with bale size. Reasonably dry implies more dust. Too damp increases the risk of spoilage, mould growth and overheating of stored bales.
Conditioning: Rolling and crimping stems improves the drydown speed of stems (so leaves don’t become dry) and produces a softer hay that is more accepted by livestock.
Small bales: Smaller bales are easily marketed due to ease of handling, transportation and storage compared with rounds or medium squares.
Feed test bales: Core a line of bales and get the samples analysed. Offering feed test results to purchasers shows that you are committed to producing top quality hay.