Every fall warnings are given about cutting alfalfa during its winterizing period. If quite a bit of growth is available in the fall, there are safer ways to cut alfalfa.

During early fall, alfalfa plants detect that the amount of sunlight each day is getting less. This tells them that winter is coming so they change their growth process to winterize.

If you cut your alfalfa during this winterizing period, the plant begins to regrow. This reduces its ability to winterize as fully as it would if it hadn't been cut.

HARVEST DURING WINTERIZATION? Cutting alfalfa during winterization reduces the plant's ability to winterize as fully as it would have otherwise, but there are some steps you can take to increase the chance of your alfalfa surviving and growing well next spring even if you cut in early fall.

But we all know from experience that alfalfa cut in late September or early October often survives just fine, although spring growth may be a little slower. Is there any way you can increase the chance of your alfalfa surviving and growing well next spring?

First and foremost, make sure your alfalfa gets a chance to grow well for a long time in late summer to build its root nutrient reserves. Allow at least six weeks between your previous cutting and the cut that occurs during winterization. This is especially critical if the field was cut five or more times this year.

Second, thoughtfully select fields to be cut during winterization. Avoid old, thinning fields unless you plan to rotate that field to a different crop next year. Young, healthy alfalfa fields containing varieties with good winter survival ratings are most likely to perform well even after cutting during winterization.

Lastly, consider waiting to cut until mid-October, after winterization is over or plants are nearly dormant. The stress of regrowth following this extra late cutting usually is very small.

Valuable alfalfa often is available to cut this time of year. Careful harvest will help ensure it also is there again next year.

Controlling winter annual bromes this fall
Did you have downy brome, cheatgrass, or wild oats in your pasture this spring? Although difficult, they can be controlled and your pasture revitalized.

Winter annual bromes often invade thin or overgrazed pastures in fall and early spring. Livestock dislike grazing them, so over time they can take over and make large patches of pasture nearly worthless.

By far the most effective control method is to spray 6 to 8 ounces per acre of an imazapic herbicide like Plateau as soon as possible in September. This preemerge treatment will prevent most annual bromes from developing.

As we move into October, however, it is likely that some, or maybe a lot of these grass seedlings will have already emerged. When this situation exists, add an adjuvant like a non-ionic surfactant or methylated seed oil to the spray mix for better control of emerged seedlings.

In warm-season grass pastures and rangeland, there is another option. You can use glyphosate herbicides after top growth of these grasses has died due to a hard freeze or two. This can kill emerged annual brome seedlings without harming the desirable grasses. However, do not use glyphosate in cool-season pastures because it will injure or kill the pasture grasses as well.

These treatments may need to be repeated for a couple years to prevent reoccurrence of these weedy grasses. But with proper grazing management and other practices, your pastures can develop thicker stands of the more desirable grasses.

It takes a long, dedicated process to recover pastures overtaken by winter annual bromes. There are no shortcuts.

Anderson is a University of Nebraska Extension forage specialist.