USA - Now or never for planting late season forages

Recent rains across northern and central Indiana give producers a small window to accomplish forage management related tasks, said a Purdue University expert.

One of those tasks is seeding crops. Producers must be cognizant of the time of season they seed in, said Keith Johnson, Purdue Extension forage specialist.

“It’s too late to feel good about seeding alfalfa in the very northern parts of the state, but if you have fallow land and received rainfall, there’s still time to consider seeding elsewhere in Indiana,” he said.

If best management practices are followed, central Indiana has until very late August and southern Indiana has until the first few days in September to get alfalfa seeded.

“Until now, many of the alfalfa hay fields have been dormant and waiting for rain to grow,” Johnson said. “It’s great that we got rain, but because of the timing one may have concerns about losing a productive alfalfa stand if the crop is harvested in the latter half of September or the first half of October.”

Johnson explained, fortunately, forage producers have a few options.

One option is to wait until after dormancy occurs before harvesting the crop. The objective is to harvest the crop late enough in the season when no regrowth will occur.

Packaging the crop as hay without a preservative is risky as drying the crop to a safe moisture level for storage is difficult. A better option is to store the crop as silage.

Another option is to graze the crop after dormancy occurs, during late October and into November. But it’s important to remember that if the ground is wet, it’s not good for animals to be grazing.

Also, be sure to implement bloat preventative strategies because crops like alfalfa, red clover and white clover have the potential to cause bloat in ruminant animals, Johnson said.

Corn or soybean fields harvested for silage may be replanted for late fall grazing or as a potential forage crop for spring. Winter wheat, winter rye, winter triticale and annual ryegrass grow well in the fall.

But before seeding, read the label of previously applied herbicides to make sure there are no residual chemical that could damage the seedlings, Johnson warned.

For cool-season grass dominant pastures, now is a good time to apply nitrogen fertilizer, Johnson said. A rate of 30-50 pounds per acre is advised, particularly for rotational grazing where fertilizer can be applied on a couple of paddocks. Defer grazing these areas until November and December, while grazing other paddocks that didn’t receive nitrogen fertilizer.

“It might be tempting to turn animals out into these pastures when the growth is one to two inches tall, but I would suggest letting the grass grow preferably to a height of 8 inches to increase the vigor and well being of the grass,” he said.

“In addition to applying nitrogen, this is a great time to get soils tested to learn what nutrients are needed,” Johnson said. “If phosphorus, potassium or limestone are needed on pasture and hay fields, the late summer is a good time to apply these amendments.

“Many management tasks can be done this late in August and early in September. However, not much time is left to feel good about these practices, but the rain a few areas received gives us a small window of time to justify doing some of these management practices.”

Communities in English

Communities in Spanish

Communities in Portuguese

USA - Now or never for planting late season forages