- We're at our next stop of the virtual forge field day.
We have moved to the OSU agronomy research farm,
and we're here at the alfalfa plots
and a Dr. Alex Rocateli has joined me again.
Dr. Rocateli you've got an established field,
It was established this year, first year crop.
And you've got several varieties.
We're gonna kinda walk down through them,
let the producer see some differences
and what the production and quality may be.
First of all we're starting with a variety
that is a reduced lignin variety.
- Right.
- And it's also Roundup Ready.
- Indeed.
- Okay, I'll turn it over to you
and let you discuss this variety.
- Okay, this is what we started last October.
We start with some alfalfa variety trials
around the state, and this is the one that we have here
in still water.
And what we were trying to do here Nathan,
is exactly to test the new technology
with the conventional ones.
As I mentioned to you, these one here is a Roundup Ready
and reduced lignin alfalfa.
And you can see that this is the first year.
You can see that they had a good winter hardness
for this region and also a good fall dorminance can you see,
you have a very healthy stem coming up.
- It looks like a very good variety.
That is the only reduced lignin variety that you have.
What would be the benefits
of having a reduced lignin variety?
- Yeah let me start telling that all the time
that our producer comes and tell, Hey Alex,
so they're reducing lignin Alfalfa
will give me a better quality hay in the end of the day,
I always say, well, if you cut your fall for earlier,
let's say at the boot stage,
you're not increasing your quality as well,
without this technology?
Yeah, that's true.
To be honest you can get a premium or a supreme hay quality
with a conventional alfalfa, right?
- So what this is allows,
it allows for a weather interruptions.
If you can't get to the alfalfa and it starts maturing
on you past prime time of harvest,
you're still gonna have reduced lignin,
versus conventional types that will start building lignin.
This gives you kind of a fail safe method
of having higher quality hay,
if weather were to interrupt your harvest.
- I agree in that's the point, these unlocks,
more opportunity on your management.
Let's say you wanna keep a harvest at the same time,
you have a convention,
or you wanna have a reduced Lignin alfalfa.
If you're a harvest the same time
you are gonna get from a reduced lignin a higher TDN,
but not a higher crude protein,
because again, you're gonna have less lignin there,
that's gonna increase the digestibility,
total digestible nutrients,
but your crude protein is gonna be about the same.
It's just about having more energy on that forage.
Now let's say if you have a reduced lignin alfalfa
and comes a rain and the need to postpone your harvest,
what's gonna happen?
That's a still gonna hold a better quality,
if that happens, than a conventional one.
The deal here is, that it's a more flexible option
when you compare with the conventional one, that's it.
That's, what's gonna give you a higher, like,
I would say, widen your window harvest that you have.
- What you're saying is it's still gonna maintain
its TDN quality,
but the protein is still gonna be very comparable
to the other varieties that you have.
- Yeah.
But we know that alfalfa protein is not the big issue Right?
When you talk about an alfalfa hay,
what really matters there, what really changed drastically
it's more the TDN right the energy.
Yeah.
- Relative feed value.
- Exactly, that's why the scientists,
and developed the reduced lignin was so concerned
on downgrade, like down regulating the lignin content.
So that's the case.
- All right, as we move on down,
now that is a reduced lignin Roundup Ready,
and now we've got five varieties that are just Roundup Ready
varieties, and I'll let you discuss them.
- Right from hardbacks to that's is both of them to this one
here, the other ones that has the RR and the VR here,
those are all reduced.
- Roundup Ready.
- I'm sorry, Roundup Ready alfalfa.
Everything starts with far so I'm sorry.
As you can see here on the VR,
and I like to say that, that's the cousin of this one
that doesn't have the gene down regulated
for reduced lignin.
And you can see that you can see a standard
that's growing a little higher,
but it's not much different from the reduced lignin.
You can see also very leafy material, like a very good stem,
as you can see for the first year.
And if you go through the others,
you're gonna see that they're very similar, very similar
very good.
Those are the Roundup ready.
- So technically we're not seeing
a whole lot of vast differences,
as far as you look at the plots, you really can't tell
and one superior variety over the other.
They look pretty uniform all the way across the plots.
as we move on down, now that was our Roundup ready
varieties, then we've got three traditional
or conventional varieties that are widely used
across the state.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with them also,
I'll let you talk about the conventional varieties.
- Well we have our old and good OK49,
good as gold, very well known by producers here
and the 685, 6585Q those are conventional,
they're not Roundup Ready, they're not reduced lignin,
and you can see also that their stems are pretty good.
If you see here, very leafy material
as we expect from an alfalfa first year, right?
Very good material.
Now, something that I think that it's worth to discuss
is why someone would prefer a Round up Ready
headed in a conventional, right Nathan?
- Sure what would be the benefits
of I'm assuming the cost different seed cost difference,
there are some great differences.
What is the true benefit and how do you justify
that extra expense going to Roundup ready?
- I will be honest if you look down there,
see those fields there, those are alfalfa
that I'm doing more serious research on
and what do we have there is four varieties,
exactly those varieties here.
We have the reduced lignin and Roundup Ready variety,
and the other ones that's just Roundup Ready.
And to know what was the huge advantage
of having all of them as Roundup Ready there,
we had the weed years ago.
- You were following weed.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
- And what happen is when comes the spring
the weed start to choke all my um,
- Alfalfa plots. - Alfalfa plots.
And what happened is, was very easy to control
with glyphosate was inexpensive because it's glyphosate
and was very simple to go there and terminate that weed
that is coming it was choking my alfalfa.
That's the deal.
The Roundup Ready can be a very good tool, to be used,
but before you go there and paying for a higher price
seed, for paying for those technology fees
that comes with this, pay attention on your field
and see how much of a problem is weed there.
And also do you have weeds that are tolerant to glyphosate
that are resistant to glyphosate.
But think with me, if you have some big weeds,
you have some hard horse weeds are also known as Mary stale.
That's not being controlled by glyphosate.
I mean, you're gonna need to use another herbicide, right?
To control those.
In this case, you need to apply the glyphosate
and all there that can control the other weeds also.
Would the Roundup Ready in a situation like that
be an advantage?
That's what we need to think when really paying more
for the Roundup Ready.
- In some instances, it can be very well worth it.
- Oh yes in some instances.
- Okay, now Dr. Rocateli one of the questions
I get in our County, let's go back to the establishment
because alfalfa is a lagoon.
We've got to get pH, right,
we find a lot of acid soils around here.
Maybe you could tell us what this soil, this plot size,
what its soil conditions were and what adjustments you made
before the establishment took place.
- Well, we were lucky because our PH here.
before we start was about 6.6,
but that's why we keep it lime it, and we keep this field
here in a very well good condition, right.
But I would say if somebody really wants to go there
and establish alfalfa, it's very important
that they have a pH of at least 6.3.
And even the fact is you are establishing a standard there,
that's gonna stay there for years and years to come.
It's good that even you raise it up your pH to 6.5, 6.6,
6.7, because soil stands to acidify over years.
It's good that you start with a very good pH.
- Yes.
Because you're pulling multiple tons off
and you're just mining those elements out of that ground.
- Right.
- So you, you've got to, alright...
Another key point on any lagoon,
including alfalfa is we've got to have that phosphorus
and potash right too.
- Indeed, indeed.
They remove lots of fossils and potash.
So that's why,
what we need to do is going for soil sample analysis
and fertilize accordingly,
wait for the soil sample and analysis,
wait for the soil analysis.
And is good, that even you can place a good,
keep a good fertility in place.
(mumbles) in the first year, because remember,
this is the last time in years to come,
that you can disk that in, in the soil.
And we know that Lime, BNK takes time to react in the soil.
If you just broadcast, you will take longer
for that to really be available to the plants.
- Okay, all right.
Any other points that you might want to maybe explain
to the producers as far as establishment
or picking a field for your alfalfa?
- There are two things here that I wanna make people aware,
because it's always a recurring problem.
First out of toxicity, alfalfa the oldest strand of alfalfa
let's say that you have alfalfa right now in your field,
but your strand is thinning out,
and you think that you need to put a new alfalfa
strand there.
I would say that the just terminate that alfalfa strand
and go straight to a next alfalfa seedling
in a matter of one, two month, might be a no go.
Why I'm saying that because the old strand
produced some toxins that can be harmful to the new seeds,
new siblings of alfalfa coming.
That's why you call out autotoxicity.
That's why it's very important that we do assessment,
and know if we had allowed enough time to establish
a new alfalfa strand there.
We have a fact sheet and it's a very short two page
fact sheet.
And that fact sheet has a kind of a table that help us
to figure it out the time that we need to wait
for a next alfalfa following alfalfa.
And there is a table there.
And if you, this table,
if you answer the question of this table,
you can calculate estimate the time that you need to wait.
- Okay I also know being in a well-drained field
is very important.
- Very important, very important.
I mean, I'm sorry, but even I forgot to say that
because to me that even it's sounds obvious,
alfalfa it's, doesn't tolerate too much water logging.
You need to get a very well drainage
or you can have scalding or even root rot.
- Okay, one other thing that I've thought of,
you talked about alfalfa following alfalfa
because of your,
your strands depleting, and you need,
you think you need to replace, all right.
What about putting in a new alfalfa following another crop?
Are there any concerns maybe with some herbicide
carry over from a previous crop?
Maybe you want to talk about that just a minute.
- Yes, yes.
We have problems with picloram.
If you have apply picloram previously in your field
that can affect if there is some residue
off of this herbicide in the field
that can also affect the seedling.
I mean, I'm talking about a gray zone and (indistinct).
If you had the pastures before, now if you had weed
and you had applied some sulfonylurea,
that's also, if you have the residue of those,
this type of herbicide, it can be a problem.
Like fenox is one of them that, can give problems.
I would say to be very, very conservative here,
go back three years in time, had you applied that.
If you had applied that, go to the label of the herbicide
and see there on the rotation restrictions,
if there is something that is a warning them about alfalfa
and make sure to do what the label is telling to.
- So good point is if you keep your records,
you'll know what you applied,
and then you can go back and follow up on those,
but if you're following a crop
where you utilized sulfonylureas or a picloram
that could be very costly to you,
if you're following too close.
- Yes.
- All right, Dr. Rocateli thank you.
We appreciate the work that you're doing on these alfalfa
varieties that's been very helpful.
We want to continue to see a future years production,
so we'll know, kinda weed out these
and see which one's are best variety for everybody.
- Right, we have a handout
there where I'm showing the yields
of all those varieties and also the forage quality.
I just want to tell that those are previews results.
I mean, there are very short amount of result
that we have there.
Three cuts from the first year,
we have still one cut to go in 10 days from now.
Hope it doesn't rain in that time.
- Yeah.
- It's very early for remake any hard solid conclusion
on those varieties.
So far as I mentioned all of them are good candidates.
- All right, and you've got these plots also at Chickasha.
- We got plots with different varieties in Chickasha
because we start later,
but unfortunately due some aphid problems
that we had in the past, the data is not much reliable.
I'm holding on and seeing when we have some stable yield
to do.
Now these same, we have in Oklahoma
and we hope to be hitting Tipton this year
And starting one there.
- Okay, starting another one.
- Yeah.
- Alright. Dr. Rocateli thank you.
We appreciate the work you're doing on your alfalfa.
- Alright.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- Okay, thank you, Dr. Rocateli,
appreciate that footage and all the work you're doing
and also Eric Warburg for all his work
that he does there at the test plots.
I know he's very valuable to you and what you're doing
to the alfalfa.
- Right.
All the other staff there.
- All right.
Thank you very much.
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