Interplanting grasses into alfalfa controls weeds in older stands

Abstract

lnterplanting grasses into atfatfa effectively uses grass com petition to reduce the amount of weeds in alfalfa hay. The increased produc- tion offsets a lower price for the hay content, making the altalfa-grass hay equalty profit- able to alfalfa hay sprayed with herbicide. This technique avoids plant-back restrictions from use of some herbicides. Atfatta weevil populations can be reduced below threshold levels, providing addi- tional benefit from the technique. The percentage of growers inter- planting did not change but nearly half of the 24% of growers using interplanting are new users of the tec h n i q u e. C oo pe rati ve Exten s i o n was viewed as the most usetul source for interplanting informa- tion by 64% of farmers surveyed.