Influence of late season harvesting, fall grazing, and fungicide treatment on Verticillium wilt incidence, plant density, and forage yield of alfalfa

Published source details Gray F.A. & Koch A.W. (2004) Influence of late season harvesting, fall grazing, and fungicide treatment on Verticillium wilt incidence, plant density, and forage yield of alfalfa. Plant Disease, 88, 811-816.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Use grazing instead of cutting for pasture or grassland management Action Link

Use grazing instead of cutting for pasture or grassland management

A randomised, replicated experiment in 1986-1988 in Wyoming, USA (Gray & Koch 2004) found similar alfalfa Medicago sativa yields in plots cut twice and grazed (2.6-9.8 Mg/ha) compared to plots cut three times but not grazed (2.8-9.9 Mg/ha). Plant density at the end of the experiment (1988) was similar in plots cut twice and grazed (47.5% plants remaining) and plots cut three times (43.8%). Grazing reduced yields when used in addition to cutting, for example in 1988 plots cut twice and grazed yielded 2.55 Mg/ha compared with 2.96 Mg/ha in plots cut twice only, while plots cut three times and grazed yielded 2.31 Mg/ha compared with 2.78 Mg/ha in plots cut three times only. In another experiment, grazing in addition to cutting did not affect Verticilium wilt severity (caused by Verticillium albo-atrum), alfalfa yield or plant density in wilt-resistant and wilt-susceptible alfalfa varieties. The first experiment compared plots cut twice, cut twice and grazed in autumn, cut three times, and cut three times and grazed in autumn. Each treatment was replicated four times in 3.7 x 3.7 m plots. Plots were grazed after the first autumn frost (5 cows/ha). The second experiment tested the same treatments plus two alfalfa varieties.