Harvesting your Lucerne: Techniques for Optimal Yield and Quality

There are different options for how and when to harvest lucerne, but mowing timing is critical to maintaining the health and resilience of the crop.

An introduction to harvesting lucerne

There are different options for how and when to harvest lucerne, but mowing timing is critical to maintaining the health and resilience of the crop.

Lucerne can be harvested as silage, baled and wrapped or baled as hay, depending on the needs of the farmer and climate conditions. There are things to consider during the harvesting phase to ensure that the quality of the forage that is harvested is maintained without harming the lucerne stand and impacting its resilience.

Understanding methods for harvesting lucerne

• The harvesting method you choose should be based on the use of the forage and the climate constraints of the season.
• Usually, the first cut of the year is harvested as silage because drying time is limited. The following cuts are usually harvested and wrapped or made into hay in the summer when it is easier to dry the lucerne.
• Space the cuts three to four weeks apart to allow the lucerne to regenerate and to maintain the resilience of the crop.

More about lucerne

Read Lucerne Crop Essential

The stages of drying lucerne

Source: Internal MAS Seeds®

Silaging lucerne

Bale-wrapping techniques for lucerne

Creating high-quality lucerne hay

The optimal time for cutting lucerne

The cutting or mowing stage for your lucerne will depend on what you plan to do with it. Between the start of budding and the start of flowering, the dry matter yield increases, whereas nutritional values (protein and digestibility) decline.

• If you are looking for protein-rich forage, it is recommended to cut the lucerne as early as possible at the start of the budding phase
• If you are looking for volume and/or to make high-quality hay, it is recommended to mow at the start of the flowering phase.
• It is generally not recommended to harvest after flowering, as feed values decrease considerably and the yield is stable.
• The optimal stage for cutting is:
  • at the beginning of budding for forage
  • at the start of flowering for hay
  • between budding and flowering for baling

Expert tips for a successful lucerne harvest

• Choose the harvesting method that is best suited to the drying conditions.
• Plan the cutting/mowing stage based on how you want to use the crop.
• Cut to seven centimetres to preserve the resilience of the lucerne stand.
• Let the lucerne flower once a year to allow root renewal.
• Leave at least three to four weeks between cuts/mowing.
• Mow for the last time four weeks before the first frost.

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