Balancing quality and yield potential in alfalfa has never been easy. For decades, growers had to make a tough call: cut early and protect forage quality or wait for more yield and risk losing nutritional value. After more than 25 years working in alfalfa research and product management, I’ve seen how this tradeoff has shaped decisions in the field.
HarvXtra® Alfalfa has changed the conversation. It offers producers a more flexible way to manage for both high-quality forage and improved yields designed to reduce the need for compromise.
A more flexible window for harvest
Conventional alfalfa has a tight harvest window (typically every 26 to 28 days) to retain the fiber digestibility and nutrition needed for high-producing dairy cows. Delaying harvest by even a week with traditional varieties can lead to lower forage quality, crops getting too tall and tangled and added costs from supplements to rebalance the ration.
HarvXtra Alfalfa helps avoid those challenges. It reduces the amount of lignin in the plant, which is the least digestible component of alfalfa. This allows farmers to harvest up to 35 days without sacrificing nutritional quality. Studies show that HarvXtra Alfalfa cut at 35 days can offer similar digestibility to conventional alfalfa harvested at 28 days, with the added benefit of greater yield.
This gives farmers flexibility to work around weather delays, equipment limitations or personal schedules, while still getting a high-quality feed.
Lessons from the field
When HarvXtra Alfalfa first launched, we worked with large dairies across the country to see how it held up compared to conventional alfalfa in real-world conditions. The unpredictable weather made it harder to stick to normal cutting schedules, but that’s where HarvXtra Alfalfa shined. Even with harvests delayed, growers reported strong forage quality using HarvXtra Alfalfa vs. those using conventional alfalfa, who saw a quality drop.
Over time, more producers have seen the broader benefits. Delaying harvest with HarvXtra Alfalfa helps put less stress on the plant, which can lead to healthier stands, better regrowth, strong canopy closure and improved weed control.
Agronomic advantages that work
HarvXtra Alfalfa offers more than flexibility. It comes stacked with Roundup Ready® technology to support clean stand establishment and dependable weed control.
Newer UltraCut® Alfalfa disease package varieties also add value, delivering disease resistance and performance under pressure, whether it’s leaf spot in the Midwest or salinity in the West. It all adds up to a system that supports both quality and efficiency.
Redefining what’s possible
You no longer have to choose between quality and yield potential. HarvXtra Alfalfa is changing what’s possible for dairy operations, especially when margins are tight or labor is stretched thin.
If you’re still managing harvests by the clock instead of the plant’s potential, it may be time to rethink your system. With HarvXtra Alfalfa, you don’t have to choose. You can have both.
To explore what HarvXtra Alfalfa can do for your operation, visit HarvXtra.com.
