Alfalfa Seeds

Product Details:

Alfalfa seed also known as lucerne or Medicago sativa, is a plant that has been grown as feed for livestock for hundreds of years. Alfalfa seed was long prized for its superior content of vitamins, minerals and protein, compared to other feed sources.

Alflafa seed Perennial character (8-9 harvests per year). Alfalfa seed is good quality seeds, without the seeds of cuscuta (a weed).

Alfalfa Seed rate is 6.5-7 kg/acre, Good seed germination (95 %) & Average green fodder yield is 80-90 t/ha/year. Good green fodder to Cow, Horse, Mulch cattle, Buffalo, Goat, Rabbit & Sheep.

ALFALFA SEED HOW TO GROW: Mix Manure with soil (30:70),and this will help in germination of seeds. Care needs to be taken to see that the soil is clean from any weed or insect.Open the seed packet on a sheet of paper and put the seeds into the prepared soil to half inch of depth. While watering, sprinkling water through a sprinkler or manually using your hands.Germination may take place 10-18 days.Then you may transplant the seedlings to various pots or desired areas.

Seed rate: 10 - 12kg per acre
Validity: 3 years (10 to 12 cuts per year)

Product Details:

Lucerne or alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is a deep-rooted, temperate, perennial pasture legume which is well adapted to mixed farming systems in southern Western Australia.

Due to its high water use and deep roots (>two metres on suitable soils) it is able to address rising watertables and associated salinity.

Lucerne will provide additional green feed at the start and at the end of the normal winter growing season with peak production in spring and early summer.

It has the ability to respond quickly to significant summer rainfall (>10 millimetres) but requires 20-25 millimetres (mm) to produce substantial growth.

A rain-fed lucerne pasture produces between 4-8 tonnes (t) of dry matter per hectare per year (DM/ha/yr) which is similar to annual pasture, but production is spread more evenly over the year.

Once established, lucerne has good drought tolerance and is well suited to irregular rainfall patterns, but it will appear to go dormant during extended dry periods.

It grows in areas receiving as little as 325mm annual rainfall but also provides good summer production in areas up to 700mm rainfall. Out-of-season production can be used to reduce supplementary feeding requirements.

Lucerne produces high quality green feed. It has high energy — digestibility of 65-72% with a metabolisable energy of 8-11 megajoules per kilogram (MJ/kg) DM — and high protein (12-24%).

The quality of feed remains relatively constant throughout the year while it is active. Lucerne is also a source of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and vitamins A and D.

Lucerne can be grown as a pasture phase, removed and followed by a crop phase or it can be over sown with crops (pasture cropped).

Lucerne fixes between 10 and 20kg/ha of nitrogen for every tonne of dry matter produced, increasing soil nitrogen levels for subsequent crops.

Once established, it can help manage herbicide resistant weeds with its competitiveness and tolerance of some broad-spectrum herbicides.

Effective weed management will increase the legume component and nitrogen accumulation from a lucerne based pasture. Also, grain crops following a lucerne phase produce better yields and quality than unimproved pasture.

In brief, lucerne can:

provide a high quality feed for livestock and improve animal health

reduce groundwater recharge and help to alleviate the effects of salinity

even out seasonal livestock feed and produce fodder opportunistically out-of-season

improve soil fertility and structure

reduce weed burden and manage herbicide resistance for cropping