Dryland Pastures - Effective irrigation of lucerne (alfalfa)

Derrick Moot explains how to effectively irrigate lucerne over the summer months.

[@OscrSg]

very informative you have opened my eyes wide thank you for sharing

[@mogamedfakier3592]

Ek se baie dankie ou maat

[@norman1826]

Im planning in planting 100 hectares of Lucerne ...Im still trying to figure out on how to design my irrigation system....may I ask if you could advise please....

[@DrylandPastures]

Not really able to advise without a lot more information. Factors including location, topography, soils, climate, costs, paddock size, what type of systems you actually have access to and what you're planning on using the lucerne for will all impact what is best (even any local legislation on volume and timing of access to water may need to be considered). Email us at [e-mail] with some more information and we'll take a look or try and organise a time you can ring and talk directly to the Prof.

[@chandanisantosh4880]

so if there are no irrigation can grow easily the lucerine?

[@DrylandPastures]

Hi Chandani, Thanks for watching. Lucerne is like any other species - no access to water = no growth. When growing lucerne under rainfed conditions you are effectively using the stored soil moisture for growth. The advantage of lucerne is that it then maximises spring water use because it is never nitrogen deficient. Therefore it grows well in spring when animal demand is increasing. How much it will grow depends on the conditions in your environment during the growing season. When the soil moisture runs out and rainfall is insufficient to recharge the soil profile then growth will slow/cease. This is why we recommend sowing lucerne on your best and deepest soils - the deep taproot means it can access soil water stored deeper in the soil than many other shallow rooted pasture species. The trick here is to ensure you establish into a paddock - well prepared after a weed free fallow. Then let the stand grow until it flowers so it has time to develop its root system. Last year on our very stony soils with no spring rainfall we ran out of water in early November. In others years the spring rainfall has allowed those crops to grow well into December. On our deepest soils it did not run out water until February.

[@charabotte1]

pastured lucerne ? What about bloat ? Don't your cow get sick ?

[@DrylandPastures]

Hi, thanks for your comment. under certain circumstances bloat can occur for stock direct grazing lucerne/alfalfa (although it can also occur on other high quality pastures and is not limited to alfalfa). There are, however, several ways to reduce the potential risk. These include ensuring stock are "full" when entering an alfalfa paddock (if they aren't hungry when moved you reduce the risk of them gorging on the lush pasture), providing access to fibre, use of bloat capsules or bloat oils, wilting strips of alfalfa in the paddock, giving the stock access to a mix of grass and lucerne and several other strategies which suit most situations. Salt licks should be on offer at all times when stock graze lucerne. The Frequently Asked Questions page of our website contains answers to many common questions - check out the "Lucerne Management - Animal" section here: www.lincoln.ac.nz/Research/Current-Research/Dryland-Pastures-Research/Frequently-Asked-Questions Also check the most current alfalfa/lucerne information in the "Lucerne Research" section of our Research Projects page here: www.lincoln.ac.nz/Research/Current-Research/Dryland-Pastures-Research/Research-Projects

[@ericschoeman6613]

Nope I don't agree you want to save water or grow the crop at max depending on your needs .you want to take of 23 tons a hectare this will not work .if you got limited water maybe

[@alisterstewart8657]

uncovered soil not losing any water? okay

[@DrylandPastures]

When the top couple of cm dry out it creates a barrier to further evaporative losses. Same reason a fallow is often created prior to establishing a new crop. If the crop has also been grazed and has no green leaf area then transpiration losses though the plant are minimal - plant demand for water increases as the canopy grows. Aim is to water the crop, not the weeds that may germinate when the crop canopy is low, thus increasing stand longevity.