Alfalfa has always been an important forage for livestock and is well known for its high forage quality and yield. However, from the time alfalfa was first introduced into North America, there has been a continuous effort to enhance its performance on the farm.

Miller don
Donald Miller
Technical Forage Adviser / Mountain View Seeds / Nampa, Idaho
Miller was formerly the director of product development for Alforex Seeds.

Much of the early alfalfa seed planted in North America was brought in by immigrants from their home countries, and some of which wasn’t adapted to the climate in which they were being planted. The first milestone in improving alfalfa production was identifying which alfalfa lines were best adapted and, most importantly, which lines could survive winter conditions in the colder climates.

Once adapted lines were identified, it soon become apparent that other factors limited alfalfa's performance, such as diseases and insect pests. To overcome these limitations, university plant breeders began a concerted effort to improve the genetics of alfalfa through plant selection for desirable traits. The first of these improvements was in the form of increasing alfalfa's disease resistance, specifically for the root disease “bacterial wilt." In 1940, the first of these man-selected varieties, Ranger alfalfa, was released – a winter-hardy alfalfa selected for resistance to bacterial wilt. From that point, there has been a steady stream of genetics improvements made by plant breeders to improve alfalfa performance on the farm. Most of the early improvements were aimed at preventing yield and/or stand losses by increasing genetic resistance to diseases and insect pests. Over time, the list of desirable traits increased to include a long list of traits that included improvements in yield and forage quality, as well as other desirable biotic and abiotic traits.

Current state of alfalfa breeding program

From 1940 to about 1970, almost all the alfalfa breeding in the U.S. was done by public institutions. During that time, most of the alfalfa varieties grown in the U.S. were developed and released for commercial production by state universities and/or the USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS). After 1970, there was a shift of alfalfa breeding from public institutions to private companies.

From 1970 to about 2000, there was a huge increase in proprietary alfalfa breeding programs across the U.S. At its peak, there were approximately seven to eight large alfalfa breeding companies and approximately 10 public institutions actively engaged in alfalfa breeding. As the proprietary alfalfa industry increased, public institutions shifted their breeding emphasis from variety development to basic research and/or developing breeding lines that could be used by industry for varietal development.

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Since 2000, there has been a huge consolidation of proprietary companies and there are significantly fewer public programs working on alfalfa. Now only two to three companies provide almost all the alfalfa varieties for the industry. These remaining companies have significantly downsized their alfalfa breeding programs, especially in the development of semi- and non-dormant alfalfas (FD 6-10).

What changes can alfalfa growers expect to see in the future?

The good news is that despite the downsizing of proprietary and public alfalfa breeding programs, there are still a lot of genetic improvements being made. This is in part due to the technical advances in plant breeding.

Beyond the genetic improvements, the alfalfa industry is also reexamining how alfalfa is traditionally being used on the farm, putting an emphasis what practices give the greatest return on investment (ROI). In some markets, less traditional uses of alfalfa such as grazing are being considered based on ROI. The industry is also looking at new revenue streams that could expand alfalfa’s role on the farm and ultimately its profitability.

With this in mind, the future success of alfalfa will most likely be influenced by three factors: genetic improvements for new and existing traits, reexamining alfalfa’s traditional and less traditional uses based on ROI, and the identification of new revenue streams.

The following is a list of future changes in store for the alfalfa industry

Genetic improvements for new and existing traits

New traits

  1. Climate change genetics: Alfalfas bred to cope with adverse growing conditions related to climate change
    1. Alfalfa salinity tolerance: Improved genetics will increase forage production on marginal saline ground.
    2. Alfalfa drought tolerance: The goal is comparable forage production under less-than-optimal moisture (20% less water).
  2. Genetic tolerance for production in stress environments
    1. Extreme wet or dry growing conditions
    2. Extremes in temperatures
    3. Low fertility
    4. Extremes in pH
  3. Branched root traits for better performance in soils with:
    1. High water tables
    2. Hard pan
    3. Shallow soils
    4. Frost heaving
  4. Tolerance to aluminum in acid soils
  5. Resistance to new diseases and pests
    1. Anthracnose Race 5
    2. Aphanomyces Race 3
    3. New biotype of blue alfalfa aphid
    4. New diseases (i.e., bacterial stem blight (BSB)
  6. Alfalfa bred for compatibility in alfalfa/grass mixes

Improvements to existing traits

  1. Higher levels of genetic resistance to pests: New technology will allow the development of varieties with resistance higher than the current “HR” varieties, which is usually in the mid-50% range. Efforts are underway to establish a higher pest resistance category called Very High Resistance (VHR) greater than 65%.
  2. Genetic resistance to new biotypes and/or races of existing pests.

Reexamining alfalfas' traditional and less traditional uses based on ROI 

Traditional uses

  1. Reemphasizing alfalfa as a source of:
    1. Nitrogen fertilizer for succeeding crops: This is an old concept but very relevant considering current nitrogen fertilizer prices. Alfalfa can supply up to 200 units per acre for succeeding crops.
    2. Protein source in dairy rations: Old concept but very relevant with the high price of soybean meal

 Non-traditional uses

  1. Reemphasizing alfalfa for use in grazing systems:
    1. New grazing-tolerant alfalfa varieties can now survive intensive grazing pressure, while maintaining high forage yields.
    2. Pasture-raised beef is a growing market.
    3. Alfalfa/grass mixes: Alfalfas and grass varieties are being bred to be more compatible in mixes.
    4. Alfalfa as a nitrogen for grasses in alfalfa/grass mixes.

New revenue streams

  1. Carbon sequestration: Alfalfa is a candidate for this new revenue stream.
  2. Enhanced revenue from marginal soils: New saline and drought-tolerant varieties will provide additional revenue in regions that are normally unproductive.
  3. Specialty markets: Certified organic or weed-free hay.
  4. Alternative protein source