Winter injury is being detected in low-lying areas of alfalfa fields across the region. This past winter presented several opportunities for damage to occur and farmers should be assessing stands to determine winter injury or winter kill. Pioneer Field Agronomist Curt Hoffbeck says stand evaluation involves digging up the plants and splitting the roots and crowns.

He says to make an initial determination if a stand needs to be rotated out of alfalfa farmers should do a plant count. A healthy one to two-year-old stand generally has 10 to 15 plants per square foot, with older stands from 5 to 8 plants.

Hoffbeck says once the plants break dormancy and start to grow farmers can also do stem counts.

Hoffbeck recommends farmers replace the field with a new seeding. He says trying to thicken existing alfalfa stands by over-seeding is often not an effective practice due to alfalfa autotoxicity effects.