Good quality alfalfa hay is green, leafy, soft to the touch, sweet smelling, and free of mold, dust, weeds, or other foreign materials.

Hay size is reduced by any of the following factors:

• Presence of weeds
• Cutting alfalfa too late in growth
• Overdrying in rows, causing leaf breakage, brittle stems and reduced green color.
• Weather damage, which causes a decrease in color and nutrient leakage due to heavy rain or dew.
• Uncured or damp hay packaging, causing heating, moldy raking, and mold. Raking is necessary to accelerate curing with the hay, as well as
• Packed or raked at the wrong time of day, leading to breakage of leaves and stems. Cutting, conditioning, raking, and packing operations must be done carefully to minimize these losses.

Cutting height

Alfalfa is best cut at a height of about 50mm above ground level.

Cutting and conditioning

The leaves dry out much more than the stems. You can use conditioner to fracture the stem and make the stem dry faster, allowing easier drying of the stems.

Therefore, conditioning has the benefits of:

• Reduce leaf loss as a result of excessive drying of leaves while waiting for stems to dry
• Reduce the drying period and therefore the possibility of weather damage.

Alfalfa is often cut and conditioned from a single operation.

The pressure of the roller on the conditioner should be adjusted to separate the stems without damaging the leaves.

Alfalfa hay is generally spun with a mower conditioner. Windrowing improves drying time a bit, but is done in a way that can aid in raking, also to help reduce hay exposure to dew and sunlight and therefore minimize hay bleaching.

Conditioned alfalfa typically requires 3 to 4 full days of drying to cure in summer and up to seven days for early and late season cuts.

Chemical drying of alfalfa hay.

Sprinkling with potassium carbonate when cutting can help cure alfalfa. The substance breaks down the wax-like upper part of the stem, letting the moisture drain away.

This reduces the chance of weather damage by reducing the time between cutting and packing, especially in early spring and fall.

Potassium carbonate is somewhat corrosive; therefore, machines must be cleaned after use.

Minimize the amount of equipment that passes through the alfalfa during hay packing and transport.

Ideally, the rake will move the hay as short as possible to avoid extreme blade breakage. The rake should be adjusted so that the hay is never contaminated with soil debris.

Rake

Raking is necessary to speed up the curing of the hay, as well as to reduce the number of machine passes through the alfalfa during bale and transport of hay.

Ideally, the rake will slowly move the hay the shortest range possible to prevent the leaves from breaking excessively. The rake should be adjusted to ensure that the hay is not contaminated with soil debris.

Packed

Correct packing of alfalfa is a skill that develops with practice and experience. Packaging made with a regular moisture content between 18 and 20%. Below 15% humidity, the leaves and stems become brittle and severe breakage occurs. At moisture contents above 25%, hay can become moldy and catch fire due to spontaneous combustion.

The most effective guide to checking if your alfalfa is ready for packing is often to scrape a few stalks removed from the bottom of the row. Alfalfa is fully cured when no moisture is noticeable when scraping the stems. Once this stage is reached, baling should only continue at one point during the day if the hay has lost its brittleness and the leaves are not breaking. That’s why; Alfalfa is often packed overnight or during the day.

You must ensure that hay is never packed when it is wet from dew.

Once packed, the hay must be removed from the paddock immediately to avoid loss of quality.

Handling alfalfa hay during fall and winter.

To obtain optimal alfalfa yields, proper management in autumn and winter is essential. Regular mowing of irrigated alfalfa hay, even at the optimum stage, will cause some decrease in root food reserves in autumn.

Grazing in the fall and early winter is not suitable for alfalfa that has been irrigated and cut regularly during the summer. A rest period after the last cut of eight to 10 weeks allows the alfalfa root reserves to build up again and will result in better hay yields during the coming summer.