Best area for hay/alfalfa farming (600+ acres)????

[Red Wolf]

I fail to see what damage temperature and wind damage can do.

They have no trouble growing lots of quality alfalfa in Canada , which has a shorter growing season.

I bought a nice load ( 24 tons) of alfalfa at the auction from a Canadian grower who was about 30 miles into Canada straight north of the ND/Montana border.

Bought a lot of Alfalfa from Canadian growers near Lake Winnipeg in Canada,also.

[oldtrader]

I fail to see what damage temperature and wind damage can do.

Simple. High winds we get sometimes in Montana can literally destroy a hay crop. They do such things, as destroy the roofs on most of the houses in the town. They destroyed the roof on our home last year, and it had very high quality shingles. It seemed that the roof of every house in our area was destroyed. It took all summer to replace all the roofs, by roofing crews that moved into the area for this purpose. Took weeks for the insurance adjusters to get all around town. Winds that destroy roofs, also destroy hay and many other crops.

From University of Nevada. Growing degree-days (GDD) is a measure of the amount of heat needed for plants, insects, and
microorganisms to grow and develop. If a plant or insect is too cold, it cannot grow. However, at some
minimum temperature, growth begins. The warmer the plant or insect is, the faster it grows up to a maximum
temperature when growth stops. Growth and development rates of plants, insects, or microorganisms are
assumed to be roughly linear between the minimum and maximum threshold temperatures. Temperatures
above the threshold maximum may cause it to stop growth and development or that the rate of change remains
constant.

Extreme changes in temperature from being less than ideal growing temperature, or too hot, effect both the amount of growth and the quality of hay. A late spring, cold spells, and very hot weather, keep the hay from growing, and can very much effect how many cuttings you can get. This can effect all crops.

Example: Last summer, due to the weather temperatures, corn that normally grows great here did not mature, and fields that normally produce shell corn had to be cut for other purposes as the ears did not develop. Really hurt the farmers incomes.

We grow a small home garden for fresh vegetables. Last year the Corn did not develop so I just pulled it finally and gave it to the neighbors horse, and the Tomatoes produced very small and few tomatoes due to weather conditions. Friends had the same experience all over the area. Both crops would give good crops most years.

The spring was late in the hay and wheat growing area this last summer, and farmers were unable to get into the fields to plant when they needed to due to the soil being too wet.

We can control water as irrigation is the norm here, but we cannot control the weather which is the biggest effect on crops there is.

[gemstone1]

If your goal is to raise Alfalfa, try SW AZ....how does 8-9 cuttings a year sound.

Regards
Gemstone1

[Red Wolf]

Canadians seem to have no problem neither does Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas, western WA.

I believe the main reason alfalfa is not grown in Montana is dairy farming is nearly non-existant in Montana.