Re: CULT: alfalfa/lucerne

Alfalfa pellets around here are from local crops. CO-OP has it's own mills in the area. Usually the best hay is sold to horse farms in the East. That is east of here such as Kentucky. Then the milled pellets are graded for protein content. Pesticides are only used for epidemics and many years are not used at all. Last year was a bad one for army worms. The alfalfa was sprayed toward the mid-late season when farmers are keeping their crops for their cattle heards. This hay is not the high quality hay that is usually sold. Cattle do not require that beautiful first crop. They also will pick through their food and will not eat anything that will hurt them such as certain weeds that show up later in the season. I know the alfalfa around here usually can go for 3 - 5 years or longer without being sprayed with insecticide. The enzyme that is needed for alfalfa is a naturally occuring substance in nature and is usually coated on the seeds before planting. Since it takes 3 - 6 months for fertilizer to reach the deep roots it is rarely sprayed on a fairly grown crop. Usually it is applied very early in spring and then in the fall. Unlike corn wich has herbicide planted with it and sprayed frequently. Alfalfa is considered the farmers friendly crop that improves the soil and is easy to care for. Once planted and established it should provide crops for 3 - 5 years before the weeds start to take over. New crops are usually planted with millet for hay just to keep weeds out while the tender young starts get a good root hold. Millet does not require insecticides either and is an annual. I love looking outhte windows and seeing all the butterflys that rotate with the fields as they come ready for the next mowing. There are 7 fields that are rotated with wheat around my home and I very rarely see a spray rig here.

I do not know the practices of other areas but would think they would be similar.

Wendy Zone 5 in Kansas
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Linda Mann 
  To: iris-talk 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2001 5:49 PM
  Subject: [iris-talk] CULT: alfalfa/lucerne


  Hmmm....anybody know where the alfalfa comes from in the US that we are
  all merrily dosing our gardens with and what kinds of
  pesticides/herbicides are used in its production?  If it comes from
  different places & has different management needs, then content of some
  trace elements (both from soil differences and irrigation water) and
  pesticide residues might vary in the raw alfalfa/lucerne & maybe in the
  extruded pellets as well.

  (There I go again Ernie & Debbie <g>)

  Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8



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