Pennsylvania Alfalfa
The Growers Program is effective for all kinds of crops, but often shows its best colors in crops where quality is an important concern. Elvin Kauffman, a salesman in Pennsylvania under Beverly Mast, grows quite a bit of alfalfa as well as doing custom-baling in his area. This has given him a unique perspective in being able to compare the results of different programs for alfalfa across very similar weather patterns and soil types.
Elvin's father started on the Growers Program 25 years ago. He started by plowing under high volumes of high-calcium limestone, though Elvin cannot remember exactly how much. He stressed how important it is to till initially applied limestone into the subsoil so that the entire profile has a good base saturation of calcium. Elvin now applies what equals to half a ton/acre/year into his alfalfa ground, which is in a three year rotation with corn. He foliar sprays with Growers Mineral Solution (GMS) after each of his 5 cuttings at a rate of 2.5 gallons/acre, totaling 12.5 gallons/ acre/year. This is a heavier application rate than his father used, but Elvin believes he is seeing improvements in both yield and quality with the heavier rate.
The difference of yield and quality between his own farm and some of those of his baling customers is so stark that he has gained a couple of them as Growers customers simply by them observing his operation. Both of these customers have similar soil to Elvin and were using primarily 0-0-60 as their fertilizer. They were the lowest yielding of his baling customers before they started the Growers Program but have since seen incredible yield increase. One of them even has comparable yields to Elvin. Both are no longer using any dry fertilizer.
As showcased with Elvin Kauffman, the Growers Program can compete (even out-compete sometimes) with establishment programs in terms of yield and definitely in terms of quality.
This is an excerpt from the Spring Growers Solution (2019) written by Zach Smith.
Signup for our newsletter to stay in the loop
