THE NEW MIRACLE CROP -- ALFALFA?? 

Yes, ALFALFA is a new crop, and it sure is a miracle. Now you are probably saying, "It's not new. I remember grandpa talking about hay. He was always telling stories about how hard he worked putting up hay, and how long stands lasted. What's this guy talking about?"  

Well, let's put things into perspective, a little. (We all tend to think about today's problems too much.) How long has alfalfa really been here in Oklahoma? In the United States, as far as that goes? Not long!  

While we're at it, lets ask some questions about this miracle crop, "alfalfa". Why don't stands last as long as they used to? Why do we have to spray for bugs and weeds? What's all this talk about diseases? (I can't even see what they are talking about? They must be talking about someone else's hay. My hay doesn't have diseases.)  
 

• What was going on in Oklahoma at that time? Not much! It was a nice prairie with a few deer, bison, and antelopes. Very few people lived here because life was too hard with no beef, no dairy cows, no horses, no wheat, no cotton -- none of the things that keep Oklahoma's agriculture going today. There was very little to eat.  

• Alfalfa was first successfully introduced into the U.S. around 1850 and into Oklahoma Territory just before 1900. So, from an historical standpoint, alfalfa is new to this part of the world. When alfalfa was first brought into the Territory, it was sown on new land (all land was "new"). All (or nearly all) of the inherent fertility was still here. No crops had been grown -- soils were fertile and not too acid. Alfalfa did very well. It was planted; it was harvested; and it lasted for what seemed like a very long time.  

• Since the crop was new, there were very few enemies. Sure, there were grasshoppers and some worms that eat anything and everything, but they were usually held in check by their own enemies. Nothing really bothered the new hay crop -- ALFALFA. It had found a new home, here on the range. As time went on, alfalfa was sown on the same piece of ground, with several years between the old stand of hay and the new one. The settlers had quickly learned that alfalfa did not grow well, if the field had grown alfalfa just a year or two before.  

• What was happening? Soil fertility was starting to go down. And a few bugs, bacteria, fungi, viruses, etc. were starting to build up. So, back in the good old days, hay producers left a field out of alfalfa about as long as it had been in.  

• Now, many of our best fields for growing hay have been used for alfalfa many times. The fertility is getting pretty low -- just think about how many tons of hay has been hauled off over time, and the minerals in the hay had to come from somewhere. They came from the soil. Sure, the soil can make more available to the plants over time, but how fast? Many of our best soils just cannot keep up with high production. We need to fertilize. Many fields (probably most fields) need to be fertilized every year. And some of them need to be limed, if we want to keep the alfalfa stands highly productive for a long time. Putting a little fertilizer on before planting just isn't good enough.  

• Don't forget about those critters -- the bugs and things. They have moved into a new home too. They found our alfalfa fields and liked them. So, we need to use better management (including old fashioned crop rotation, good varieties, timely fertilizing, insecticides, herbicides, etc.,) than grandpa had to use.  

• Yes, we have a New Miracle crop. It's ALFALFA. We should stop taking it for granted. It will make more money than anything else, if managed right. It's still new, from some respects, but it requires more management skill than it did 100 years ago.