Producing, harvesting, and marketing alfalfa requires making one decision after another. It is a continuous process of decisions. Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!!! Not only are there many decisions to be made and questions to answer, we have to ask the right questions. We get many questions from County Ag. Agents and producers and quickly find that many questions are wrong. The answer to the wrong question will not help.  
 

We are frequently asked how to get rid of a certain insect when that insect is not the problem. It is usually easy to name an insecticide for particular pests, but it will not help if that insect is not the problem.  

"Where can I buy some good cheap seed?" When a discussion begins like this, I am almost sure that the producer has skipped important steps in getting ready to establish a field of alfalfa. Good seed is important, but putting the seed in a good environment is frequently much more important. Clean seed of a good variety will save producers a lot of money and will help them make a lot of money. No matter how good the seed, it will not help producers who do not fertilize and lime according to soil test or develop good seedbeds.  

"My new alfalfa stand died? What happened to it?" The answer may be that a herbicide was used on wheat in that field the previous winter and the label clearly says to not plant alfalfa the next fall. Producers should not blame the seed dealer, the fertilizer, or their pesticide applicator when they planted too soon after a herbicide.  

These are hard decisions and there is a lot of record keeping required for modern agriculture. Before each decision, be sure to ask yourself the right question. That will make your decisions better and easier.