Grazing Alfalfa

[hamonsdexter]

I was wondering if anyone has experience grazing Fall/Winter Alfalfa? If so was a bloat a problem.

[carragheendexters]

Hi Chad,
I can only comment on our situation here in Australia, but I'm guessing it would be the same for you guys. Alfalfa (Lucerne to us) is at its most dangerous when it is young and actively growing in the spring. If your alfalfa is sappy it is a risk for bloat. Once it gets to the flowering stage and starts to get stalky it is much safer for grazing. If you have done several cuts and bailed your alfalfa through spring and summer and kept it in an actively growing stage it can be gas forming still in autumn.
We graze our Lucerne(alfalfa) paddock all year but with more care at different times of the year. We have had great issues this spring with bloat, but not with the alfalfa paddock, the sub clover and young ryegrass has been the issue. We took them off those paddocks and put them on the Lucerne paddock and had less problems.
Only graze for short periods, maybe 1 or 2 hours at a time, make sure you feed plenty of roughage before they go on the paddock, so that they aren't hungry and that they need to chew their cud. The saliva they form when chewing their cud is a surfactant. Think about putting some bloat treatment ( like ethoxylate or bloat oil)in their water or as a lick or flank treatment.
Hope this is helpful.
regards Louise