I'm hoping to find some information on producing alfalfa in the Texas Hill Country. Location: Gillepie County. I am well aware of all the complexities and concerns with alfalfa production in the area, and am therefore simply looking perhaps for any data that may be available for any current or past attempts of its production. Most importantly, I am looking for advise on those varieties which would be most adapted to the area for dryland production. Currently just looking to perform trial - tests on approx. 2 ac. Thanks in advance for any advise.

Nathan, I don't have any data, but I'm over in Comfort and planted 4 acres of Highline alfalfa in the fall. It's doing well, with all the rain we've had. Got the seed and innoculant from King in San Antonio. Other people around here use Kuff (spelling?), but Highline is supposed to be more resistant to cotton root rot. We'll see.

Thanks for your reply. I may inquire about your stand at some later point in time to see how it fares. I appreciate the info.

Please visit the National Aflalfa Alliance Web Site at www.alfalfa.org, then near the top and toward the center of the page point to and click "Variety Leaflet." Your next point and click will be on "view the variety leaflet." This action should bring up a listing of the more-recently developed varieties by dormancy number and resistance to diseases and some insects common to alfalfa.

If you want to try a variety on this list, choose one that has a dormancy rating between 5 and 8. The higher the dormancy number, the earlier that variety will initiate regrowth in late winter and the later it will continue to grow into fall. Winter survival is a separate rating in this listing. You should choose a variety that is most resistant to the greatest number of diseases and insects that are a problem in southern states. An example might be the variety 'Arriba'.

Varieties will differ in the amount of forage produced, but to my knowledge, no recent variety testing has been done in Texas, except for evaluating six selected, "grazing-tolerant" varieties under three beef cattle grazing methods at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at Overton. Note that grazing alfalfa, even in this high-rainfall region is not recommended. From this study, we selected GrazeKing (FD 5) and Amerigraze 702 (FD 7) for planting in on-farm evaluations of newly-developed production methodology for acid soils of East Texas. Both varieties performed well on these Coastal Plain soils, but Amerigraze 702 would have a more suitable dormancy rating for the Gillespie County region. However, its tolerance to the most diseases and insects on the list is not as good as is the tolerances listed for Arriba. The variety 'Highline' has a dormancy rating of 9 and may be suited for your region, but it is susceptible to bacterial wilt and anthracnose race 1, and its resistance to verticillium wilt is not listed. Resistance to cotton root rot (alfalfa root rot) on alkaline soils is not tested for any variety.

We saw no major disease problems in any of the alfalfa research trials that we have conducted at Texas A&M-Overton. Insect problems that you may encounter are weevil in mid- to late-winter, aphids that may be controlled by infestations of lady beetle, and possibly alfalfa leaf hopper, grasshopper, and blister beetle in late spring and summer. Numerous web sites concerning alfalfa are accessable. The one to which I am most familiar is http://soils.tamu.edu, but disregard any discussion concerning liming acid soils and seeding alfalfa in bermudagrass.

Two additional points:
1. Late-winter/spring seeding of alfalfa is not recommended for Texas. Fall-seeded alfalfa does best.

2. Roundup-Ready varieties of alfalfa may be available for fall seeding in 2005. This technology will greatly simplify weed control.

Hi everybody! Dr. Vincent Haby has asked me to update his post with our research data on alfalfa variety trial under limited irrigation.

Our hypothesis was that irrigation of alfalfa in semiarid environments of the Texas Rolling Plains may be reduced while maintaining forage yield at economically sound levels. To achieve this goal, cultivars with higher fall dormancy (FD) ratings (less winter dormant) may be better suited for these environments than cultivars with lower FD ratings (more winter dormant) because of better use of available precipitation in spring and fall.

We established an experiment at Vernon, TX in fall 2001 to evaluate forage yield and quality of 16 alfalfa cultivars and breeding lines with contrasting FD ratings: Ladak (FD=1); Amerigraze 401, Evergreen, and Ranger (FD=3); Cimmaron SR, Garst 6420, Haygrazer, and Stamina (FD=4); Abilene Z, Dagger +EV, OK 49 (FD=5); Sendero and Tahoe (FD=6); Amerigraze 702 (FD=7); Rodeo (FD=8); and a check variety Texas Common (FD unknown, I think must be 7).
The irrigation treatmens consisted of a rainfed (no irrigation) system and a partial irrigation (up to the long-term monthly average precipitation for May - September. Our annual average precipitation is 25.7 inch (NOAA DATA BASE)
In 2002, the precipitation was 34.6 inch and the irrigation was 7.2 inch (total=41.8 inch). In 2003, the precipitation was 13.1 inch and the irrigation was 12.2 inch (total=25.3 inch). In 2004, the precipitation was 31.1 inch and the irrigation was 5.8 inch (total=36.9 inch). As you can imagine, it was not always easy to apply the expected irrigation amount each month according to the unpredictable weather forecast, however, we were very close to match the monthly average during May - September each year.

We found little difference in forage production among cultivars under rainfed conditions, with average DM yield of about 5000 lb/ac. Under partial irrigation, cultivars with higher FD ratings (5-8) produce more total yield DM (18000 lb/ac) than cultivars with lower FD ratings (1-4) (15000 lb/ac).

Higher productivity of cultivars with high vs. low FD ratings was achieved under partial irrigation because of their greater yields in spring and fall, as well as greater production during summer.

On the average for 2003-2004, alfalfa cultivars produced 16750 lb/ac under partial irrigation and 5040 lb/ac under rainfed conditions.

Texas Common was the best yielding variety. It has been in cultivation in the Texas Rolling Plains for a long time, but its identity has been lost.

The experiment will be continued for another 1 –2 growing seasons.

For questions please contact me at d-malinowski@tamu.edu

Dear Dr. Haby,

Are there any varieties of Alfalfa that are adapted to soil ph ranges of >7 to <8.5?

Alfalfa.org does not list varieties that are resistant to Cotton Root Rot on Alkaline soils.
Does any research group provide a comparative list that does look at Cotton Root Rot on alkaline soils? If not when is TAMU going to?

In your posting or Jan 4, 2005 you write,
"but disregard any discussion concerning liming acid soils and seeding alfalfa in bermudagrass."
Why should we disregard this information?

Will the Alfalfa/Hybrid Bermudagrass interseed method work where the base grass is 'KR Bluestem'?

What other legumes could be interseed into 'KR Bluestem' that would work in akaline soils with cotton root rot to provide soil benefits and improved forage quality?

In the Crop Production Budgets the revenues are listed as a percentaage of the value each individual hay type. Have you or anyone put a round bale of Alfalfa/Bermuda mixed hay on the side of the road with a '4 sale'sign stuck in it to see what the real world market will bear for this type of hay?

Keep up the good work!!!

Dear Mr. Hacker:

In answer to your questions in your 15 Mar. 2005 posting, alfalfa varieties grow well in the pH range from 7 to 8.5. As you know, much of the alfalfa produced in the U.S. is produced in the western states where the soil is alkaline. It is a bit more difficult to grow alfalfa on soils with pH below 7; that is why, if your soil is above pH 7, I made the statement that growers on alkaline soils should disregard the sections on limestone application in my web site. Acid soils need to be limed to pH 7 for alfalfa.

There are no alfalfa varieties that are resistant to cotton root rot (alfalfa root rot). One of the first research projects undertaken by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station scientists many years ago was to find a cure for cotton root rot and that cure still eludes scientists today. Perhaps the plant research group that works with genetics of alfalfa on a molecular scale at the Noble Foundation at Ardmore, Oklahoma might, someday, develop a cotton root rot resistant alfalfa.

Regarding interseeding alfalfa into a stand of KR Bluestem, I will try to discourage you from attempting this. Why dilute a forage with such good nutritive value as is in alfalfa by growing it with KR Bluestem, or any other grass for that matter? If your intent is to graze the mixture, cattle, when first turned into the mixed forage system, that are used to grazing the bluestem grass, will graze the grass and avoid the alfalfa. When they have grazed the grass, they will try the alfalfa, and on finding it to be better, they will prefer the alfalfa the next time they are turned into the mixture. You will likely have to cut the KR Bluestem for hay in order to get it off the field. If you force the cattle to graze the bluestem, they will continue to nibble at the new alfalfa growth and trample the new growth buds. This will cause early loss of the alfalfa stand. I'm basing this belief on what happened in our work with interseeded mixtures of alfalfa and Coastal bermudagrass at the Experiment Station at Overton.

Also, if your are attempting to grow alfalfa with a grass in a dryland system, alfalfa initiates regrowth well ahead of warm-season grasses in late winter. If rainfall is limiting in spring and early summer, the alfalfa will have the advantage of earlier access to stored soil water.

You might consider interseeding 'Overton R18' rose clover as a cool-season annual in your fields that have KR Bluestem. This rose clover is tolerant to alkaline soils. Also, some of the medics might work as cool-season annuals. One that works well in south Texas alkaline soils is 'Armadillo' bur medic. A more knowledgeable source than I am on the medics is Dr. Bill Ocumpaugh. Dr. Ocumpaugh is located at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station at Beeville. The telephone number is 361/358-6390.

Most "hay buyers" who would purchase hay based on roadside observation may not know enough about the nutritive value of alfalfa/grass mixture hay to understand that it might be more valuable.

Hi. This is Bill Ocumpaugh at TAES-Beeville.. I was alerted that this discussion was ongoing and ask if I would make a few comments. First, I did some alfalfa work here in the 1980's at Beeville, and there was no resistance to Cotton Root Rot... and all the commercial and public alfalfa breeders I have talked to over the years say there is no known resistance... so unless someone finds the gene in another species and transfers it, that is a problem we are going to have to live with. My work on alfafa was discouraging, as a hay crop, even with irrigation, I could not get the yileds up high enough to make the process of making hay economically feasible. With irrigation, the annual yields were good, but when you have to cut them every month, the yeild per cutting was not encouraging... much less than a ton per cutting.

Now on the subject of alternative legumes, there are some... And some of the best adapted are the winter annuals that are relatives to alfalfa, known as annual medics. We released Armadillo burr medic in 1998, and it will grow and produce a good amount of forage there. Armadillo was collected here on the research station and has done well from here to just south of Waco. We released Devine little burr medic in 2005.. this legume was originally collected west of Devine Texas, and has done well in the more arid regions from the south of Devine to north of Stephenville. Devine is a little later maturing than Armadillo, but in Gilipsie County, should perform as good as or better than Armadillo. The marketing agreement for Devine is not finalized, but we anticipate seed will be available this fall for Devine from Pogue Agri Partners Inc. in Kenendy, TX... They already have the specialized harvesting equipment and marketing rights to Armadillo. Both these annual medics are excellent reseeders, and should persist for years after they produce one seed crop. For the most part, the only fertility that we have had to add in this region has been phosphorus, but as usual, we recommend doing a soil test and put down that you want to grow a legume. I hope this helps.

Hello, I am a new member and I am researching what to put in in the spring for dryland forage.I have it in beardless wheat and plan to cut it at the dough stage and leave 10 inches or so of stem for protection?? I Have looked at Buffalo grass,Crested wheatgrass.Grama.Russian rye and Ladak alfalfa so far.Who has some wisdom for a newbe? Thanks!! Mark