The dairy-quality harvest window may only be 7 days for one field. Therefore, the length of the quality harvest window for an entire ranch may be somewhat longer than a week. Often the alfalfa falls just short of the cut-off value to be classified dairy hay. If the hay is going to fall short of dairy quality, it is especially important to maximize yield. Harvests An alternative approach to scheduling the harvest of different fields may help assure growers of producing some dairy-quality hay every cutting.
Growers ordinarily harvest alfalfa fields in a fixed order.
The order may be determined by habit, the field's proximity to the headquarters, dryness of a field, dormancy of the alfalfa variety, or any number of other factors. Typically, fields are harvested in the same sequence for second cutting and each cutting therafter. Therefore, if the alfalfa in the field cut first does not test dairy quality, it is unlikely that any of the fields cut afterwards will either. Another approach is to vary the harvest order so that the field cut first on first cutting will not be the first one cut on second cutting. A field that was cut in the middle of the sequence on first cutting may be the first one cut on second cutting.