By Justin Elliott

 

Alfalfa plantings were down this year due to pressures from high value crops, which have a huge impact reducing the numbers of resistant ryegrass.

 

Secondly, a very late break into late May/June put pressure on pre-winter plantings so growers went to spring plantings instead. We had a very dry start to spring and rains came very late in spring. This will have an impact on first year seedlings yields as these crops have not matured due to the cool conditions through spring and the late sowing.

 

Alfalfa crops still have large numbers of livestock on them at the moment as the price of stock is very high. It's pleasing to see Alfalfa crops are very clean, as it was excellent opportunity to get winter cleans done this year.