{"id":80503,"date":"2017-05-05T23:27:20","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T03:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=80503"},"modified":"2017-05-04T19:57:49","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T23:57:49","slug":"first-cutting-updates-utilizing-alfalfa-heights-as-a-predictor-of-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=80503","title":{"rendered":"First Cutting Updates:\u00a0Utilizing alfalfa heights as a predictor of quality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?attachment_id=72346\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-72346\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-72346\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/CCE-color-300x74.png?resize=300%2C74\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"74\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/CCE-color.png?resize=300%2C74&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/CCE-color.png?resize=150%2C37&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/CCE-color.png?w=381&amp;ssl=1 381w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Week of May 1, 2017<\/p>\n<p>Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County is monitoring alfalfa heights this spring to help predict quality and %NDF for first cutting hay crop. Alfalfa height has been proven to be a reliable indicator of NDF values in the field for alfalfa, alfalfa\/grass mixed and all grass stands.\u00a0 Results will be compiled and emailed on a weekly basis \u2013 feel free to forward on. Contact Sarah Ficken (<a href=\"mailto:sjs299@cornell.edu\">sjs299@cornell.edu<\/a>) with any questions or feedback.<\/p>\n<p>UPDATES FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 1ST, 2017:<br \/>\nAlfalfa heights in the county are in the 11&#8243; to 17&#8243; range, with most sites measuring at 13&#8243; or 14&#8243;. Now is the time to be harvesting pure grass stands for maximum quality if you are able to get in them. The rain and cooler temperatures have caused a pause in many operations, as people wait for better conditions to get out onto the field.\u00a0 It is looking like mixed grass stands should be ready to harvest for peak quality <!--more-->sometime next week, although cooler weather may push back the harvest a little bit and allow time for the fields to dry up.\u00a0If you have questions, please feel free to contact Sarah Ficken at\u00a0<a href=\"tel:(315)%20684-3001\">(315)684-3001 ext 108<\/a>\u00a0or by e-mail at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:sjs299@cornell.edu\">sjs299@cornell.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Results were collected throughout Madison County<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you live in a Town that does not currently have a measurement site and have an alfalfa field that you would like measured, e-mail Sarah at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:sjs299@cornell.edu\">sjs299@cornell.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The numbers that are indicators for using alfalfa heights for NDF content are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>100% grass stands should be cut when nearby alfalfa is 14 inches tall, to achieve 50% NDF<\/li>\n<li>50\/50 mixed alfalfa\/grass stands should be cut when nearby alfalfa is 22 inches tall, to achieve 44% NDF<\/li>\n<li>100% alfalfa stands should be cut when alfalfa is 28 inches tall, to achieve 40% NDF<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Predicted days to cut are based on daily NDF increases for grasses of 1.0% point, 50\/50 mixed alfalfa\/grass stands of 0.8% points, and alfalfa of 0.5% points and are adjusted for the coming week\u2019s weather.\u00a0 Typically NDF increases about 0.8 to 1.2 per day for grasses, with cooler weather being the lower end of the range and warmer weather being the higher end.\u00a0 For alfalfa, NDF increases about 0.4 to 0.7 per day, also dependent upon warm\/cool weather.<\/p>\n<p>The weekly email for the month of May will have a table of the locations around the county where we have measured the alfalfa height, as well as the elevation.\u00a0 Even if your fields aren\u2019t measured, you can use the location and elevation as a guide to conditions that may be similar to your own. If you are located in a Town that does not have a test site and would be interested in having your alfalfa field measured, please let me know (<a href=\"mailto:sjs299@cornell.edu\">sjs299@cornell.edu<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Week of May 1, 2017 Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County is monitoring alfalfa heights this spring to help predict quality and %NDF for first cutting hay crop. Alfalfa height has been proven to be a reliable indicator of NDF values in the field for alfalfa, alfalfa\/grass mixed and all grass stands.\u00a0 Results will be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23679,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agfarming","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-kWr","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/CCE-color.png?fit=381%2C94&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}