Has anyone ever fed organic alfalfa to lifestock to reseed farmland. and where can I buy it in Montana?

Question

Has anyone ever fed organic alfalfa to lifestock to reseed farmland. and where can I buy it in Montana?

Answer 1

You can't reseed farm land in alfalfa by feeding hay (organic or otherwise) because there is rarely any alfalfa seed in the hay.  I'm sure you could find the organic hay looking in the local papers or checking the bulletin board at your local feed store.  They could also sell you the alfalfa seed.

Answer 2

Are you asking if the cow can spread the alfalfa seed??  You need to switch your operating manuals from the beef cow to the equipment side.  Check with your local extension office through the states university.   Get online and google hay, buyers, sellers in Montana or western states.

Answer 3

Alfalfa, ESPECIALLY organic alfalfa would not contain seeds.

By the time an alfalfa plant has gone to seed, the stem becomes quiet woody.  Not at all palatable for animals to eat.

Organic alfalfa is mostly grown for organic dairy cattle.  They harvest the hay when it is very short, well before the "gone to seed" time.

Since organic alfalfa is grown and havestest for dairy cattle it of course tests very "hot."  Horses cannot eat this hay, as it would cause them to founder.

Hay prices this year are outrageous.  Dairy farms (in CA) are paying $300-$400 a ton for organic alfalfa, NOT including the shipping.  

I live in Idaho, where a lot of the dairy alfalfa that is shipped to CA is grown.  There are quiet a few farms specializing in growing organic alfalfa around me.

The fact of the matter is, you will have a VERY hard time finding organic alfalfa to purchase.  With the demand for organic alfalfa from the organic dairys, most of them have contracts with the farms growing organic alfalfa.  There actually isn't enough organic alfalfa for the current number of organic dairys....very hard to find organic alfalfa.  

To reseed farmland, you would be better off learning about your native grasses, that grow well in your plant zone, buying some of that seed, and mixing in a few clovers and some alfalfa.  

Of course once you do that, you need to practice intensive grazing.  You need to divide your pastures into small areas, and intesively graze your stock on them for a few days, then move them onto a new pasture.  

If you just allow the stock to remain in a wide open pasture, they will ONLY eat the "desert" type grasses first....the alfalfa, and clovers, and leave all the other grass.  This will eventually kill off the nitrogen fixing legumes, and leave only the native grasses.  The stock will then move onto their second favorite type of grass.

Eventually this leads to a played out field filled with weeds, the livestock will not eat.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years