The amount of good alfalfa variety performance information available to producers pales in comparison to grain crops.  This is primarily due to the fact that perennial forages don’t lend themselves to easy “on farm” yield trials and most plant breeding companies are reluctant to release results from their own tests of competitor varieties.  Hence, the final decision generally comes down to making an educated (or uneducated) guess or checking out results from university performance trials.
 
        We are fortunate in Fond du Lac County to provide one of the sites for UW alfalfa variety testing.  The results from the 2002-seeded trial are presented below.  A word of caution:  this is only one location and one year. It will be the final year for this trial and a new trial was established last spring.  Additional location information will be available later this month or is currently available on the internet at: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/forage/alf05.htm