 I am Marisol Berti, I'm a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and I'm here at the Fargo Experiment Station right now and I will be talking about alfalfa today. The field that I have behind me is actually full bloom because this is a study for leaf caterpillars which are the pollinators for alfalfa for seed production. It's not a regular alfalfa field as you see it because for hay these two have harvested at 10% bloom. What I really want to talk about today is alfalfa management. A lot of producers complain that alfalfa doesn't produce enough that they can get only one or two cuts and some of those low yields is because of not good enough management. So things you need to consider in alfalfa management is age of your stand okay. Usually after the fifth year of alfalfa productivity will come down because plants are old. Also stands how many plants you have left. A lot of people still cause alfalfa field when they only have very few plants of alfalfa left. If you have then it's not really a alfalfa you want you want to have at least one plant per foot square or square foot in in an old stand. So one of the main reasons alfalfa has low yield is because of nutrient deficiency. A lot of soils have phosphorus and potassium deficiency and phosphorus efficient soils cause alfalfa to grow very short and stunt and will produce very little. Especially at the beginning of the season it is normal that if a field is not growing and there is enough moisture phosphorus deficiencies is very likely. It is important to soil test just like you would do for any other crop to soil test for alfalfa for nutrients especially phosphorus. Phosphorus is the most important nutrient alfalfa in other crops is nitrogen but alfalfa fixes its own nitrogen. So phosphorus is the most limiting yield limiting nutrient. Also potassium has an important role and we'll be studying potassium for a while. They are soils where alfalfa is grown they are low in potassium they have lower levels and so it is important to consider it because alfalfa removes about 50 pounds of potassium per each ton of dry forage that you take out of the field. If you're using it for hay you're taking out all that those nutrients from the field and not being replaced. So over time you're reducing the soil the potassium in the soil and although potassium does not have so much influence on yield of alfalfa it has a very important role in winter survival of the alfalfa plants because it has a role on the movement of carbohydrates or from the plant to the roots to survive the winter. Another thing is important in management is harvest management especially in the fall. You don't want to harvest alfalfa when it's too short that's any time in the in the season you don't want to harvest it with less than 16 inches of height. In the fall it's very important that you don't harvest we call it like a critical period which is usually from September 1st to October 1st. You cut it in there even you have the height to cut it what happens is there's still good enough temperatures for alfalfa to regrow and if it regrows on those conditions it's going to deplete the roots from storage from reserves and then it's going to go into the fall with the depleted reserves for surviving the winter so you increase the chance of winter kill it. Now you wait until October and harvest the alfalfa whether it has been frosted already or not you have a less chance because the temperatures won't allow alfalfa to regrow and then all the stores and the roots are still going to be there for the alfalfa to survive. So key things and just making a little summary is you need a good stand of alfalfa plants in no more than five years I know in the western part of the state there are some stands they have 10 years that's no matter how much you fertilize with them you won't get much of a productivity because plants are very old so maximum five years on a stand and then you need to make sure you have the fertility for the productivity of that plant so soil test is highly recommended and then always the harvest management is going to be very important for survival that's all I want a message I want to talk about today if you want more information on fertility and all the nutrients alfalfa might have and soil testing critical levels for nutrients Dr. Fransen and I has an extension publication and we'll provide a link at the end of this video thank you