A Lesson in Vernal

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The following are results from the UW Alfalfa Variety Performance Trial located at the Rick Kastning farm on a sloping Kewaunee soil. Note in the table below the large differences in yield among the leaders and tail-enders of the 42 varieties seeded at this location.

These results help to verify several key points about producing alfalfa in east-central Wisconsin. First, variety selection is important. Almost 1.5 tons of dry matter production per acre separates the top five yielders from the bottom five. This impacts not only forage inventories at the end of the year but also has a dramatic influence on your cost of production per ton. Another key point is the performance of Vernal. I know it is sometimes tempting to cut seeding costs to the bare bone, however, it usually doesn't pay and this is especially true with a variety like Vernal with low yield potential and almost no disease resistance. The primary reason for the low Vernal yield is that it got devastated by phytophthora root rot (and perhaps aphanomyces). On most of our east-central Wisconsin fine textured soils, Vernal is simply not going to perform. This is only first production year data. It will be interesting to see how the yield rankings change over the life of the stand.