We put about 4ha of Lucerne crop in nearly 7years ago now, if you look after it, you can get up to 10 years if you're lucky. We put it in as a high protein feed to give our calves a really good start and they have adlib milk, grass and lucerne right from when they are born.
Later on when they are weaned we keep up the lucerne along with the grass and they fill out really well. The better start you give your young stock the better they will do as cows.
Lucerne needs to be cut later in the day to get optimal sugars in the plant when cut and you need plenty of 'leaf' on the plant when baled, because that's where the goodness is. We tend to take 5 cuts a year from our lucerne and mainly turn it into baylage but have occasionally also done lucerne hay. The baylage is superior for calves in nutrient value, we have done extra hay for the cows when we know its going to be a colder winter.
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