Planting No-till Grass into Old Alfalfa Stands
We have successfully seeded ryegrass, orchardgrass, tall fescue, sudangrass into old alfalfa stands using our no-till drills.
Technique - Sudangrass
Planting after first or second cutting of alfalfa at 20-40 pounds per acre of Piper or Imperial hybrid sudangrass one pass with no-till drill. You can apply fertilizer with the seed. Recommend 100-200 pounds of 16-20-0 per acre. Do not go over 30-35 pounds of actual nitrogen per acre.
Technique - Orchardgrass, Ryegrass, Tall Fescue
Planting after last cutting of alfalfa. We recommend a mixture of grasses for the best production. If you want more than one year use orchardgrass, tall fescue and hybrid ryegrass (perennial ryegrass X annual ryegrass). You can use orchardgrass alone or ryegrass alone (tall fescue will work but some horse people do not want tall fescue hay). Planting rates: 5-15 pounds per acre depending on thickness of the alfalfa stand. Fertilizer: no more than 30-35 pounds of nitrogen per acre with seed. Again 16-20-0 is a good choice. Annual ryegrass for last year of alfalfa stand.
Varieties:
- Tall Fescue - Use new soft leaved endophyte free varieties. E.g. Fuego
- Orchardgrass - Use new improved leaf disease resistant varieties. E.g. Century, WP 300
- Hybrid ryegrass - Use newer varieties for improved leaf disease resistance. Can last 2-3 years
- Annual ryegrass - use named varieties with rust resistance. VNS ryegrass is not recommended unless seedsman can state he knows rust resistance - all it takes is one field turning red and coating swather at harvest!
Diploid varieties are more winter-hardy than tetraploid varieties. Tetraploid varieties have wider leaves and more sugar content, yields are similar between Tetraploid and diploid varieties.
Use of no-till drill:
Soil should be as dry as when you would take disc to open field up. Wet soil that will slick the seed slot can result in stand failure. Most drills have low horsepower requirements. We rent, build and sell California No-Till Drills. We also handle Haybuster, Sukup and Brillion seeders. We are constantly gaining experience to add to our 20 years of no-till work.
For more information, give us a call at 530/872-2624, we would love to hear from you!