The good news is that despite the downsizing of proprietary and public alfalfa breeding programs, there is still a lot of genetic improvements being made. This is in part due to the technical advances in plant breeding.

With agriculture using more than 40% of total U.S. freshwater withdrawals in 2015 and hay and forage crops weighing in at 37% of U.S. irrigation water use, environmental groups and the media have been known to blast alfalfa producers for excessive water use.

When a producer plants an alfalfa field, there is an expectation that the field will remain productive for several years. Alfalfa is a perennial crop but there is a limit to its longevity, since all alfalfa fields naturally thin over time.

Should growers be treating their fields more like golf courses? A common solution to this problem in golf courses is the application of products known as soil wetting agents that reduce the surface tension of soil.

In recent years, the percentage of alfalfa used in dairy rations has been slowly declining as other feedstuffs have become more available or cheaper. However, alfalfa’s recent significant forage quality improvements may help to reverse that trend.

As a risk management consultant, I get asked a lot of questions regarding the Pasture, Rangeland and Forage (PRF) program. Here are some questions that are asked more often than others.

Which of these five mistakes for fall planting alfalfa have you made?

UI plant virologist Alexander Karasev took the alfalfa samples in 2020 while collecting symptomatic foliage in a field at the future site of Idaho CAFE near Rupert. Karasev named the newly discovered disease Snake River virus, after the Snake River Valley in which the field is located.