Alfalfa & Legumes

Alfalfa has long been called the Queen of Forages and to this day remains a popular and profitable crop choice for forage growers. BrettYoung is delivering a new line of high yielding alfalfa varieties to ensure alfalfa remains top of mind for forage growers. With a commitment to yield, quality, special traits and disease resistance, BrettYoung is delivering an alfalfa lineup focused on meeting all grower needs.

Future Products

Even though BrettYoung has an outstanding alfalfa lineup, looking to the future is always important. BrettYoung will be commercializing several alfalfa varieties in the future, including:

• Fall dormancy 5 alfalfa
• Salt tolerant alfalfa
• Non-dormant alfalfa 

Winter Hardiness and Fall Dormancy in Alfalfa Variety Selection

Selecting the right alfalfa for your farm starts with understanding the relationship between fall dormancy and winter hardiness of the variety you are considering and how these factors relate to the environmental conditions and stand management practices. Alfalfa varieties vary in how quickly they go dormant in fall and also how well they survive winter. The ratings for fall dormancy are on a 1–9 scale with 1 being the most fall dormant and 9 being non-dormant varieties.

Going into dormancy early tends to reduce regrowth in fall; therefore, a very dormant variety will have a shorter growing season. Less dormant varieties tend to have better regrowth and thus better yields in late-season cuts. The more dormant varieties tend to be suited to 1–2 cut management, while less dormant varieties tend to be suited to multiple cut systems. Many new varieties in the dormancy range of 3–4 have significantly improved ratings for winter hardiness while still providing good fall growth. BrettYoung has carefully selected varieties that have both very good winter hardiness and higher fall dormancy ratings. This results in varieties that maximize productivity while not sacrificing winter survival.