{"id":20,"date":"2022-07-13T16:20:23","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T16:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barr-ag.com\/blog\/?p=20"},"modified":"2023-04-13T20:11:05","modified_gmt":"2023-04-13T20:11:05","slug":"brief-history-of-alfalfa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barr-ag.com\/blog\/brief-history-of-alfalfa\/","title":{"rendered":"Brief History of Alfalfa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alfalfa, the oldest of our cultivated forage crops,<\/strong> is thought to have \u201coriginated in southwestern Asia with Iran as the geographic center of origin\u201d (Goplen et al., 1987, p. 5) Alfalfa was first introduced to the Americas by Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors. Meeting with idyllic conditions in Mexico and Peru, the alfalfa plant thrived and spread to \u201cChile, Argentina, and finally to Uruguay by 1775.\u201d (Bolton et al., 1975, p. 7) Catholic missionaries brought alfalfa to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. \u201cMany areas were producing alfalfa in the southwestern USA by 1836. However, it was the introduction of the \u201cChilean clover\u201d to California during the days of the gold rush that proved to be of major importance.\u201d (Bolton et al., 1975, p. 7) In fact, cultivating alfalfa was usually a better paying enterprise than panning for gold.<\/p>\n

By \u201cthe late 1800\u2019s, alfalfa was being grown to some extent in Montana, Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio. Although the Chilean (Spanish) sources of alfalfa were well adapted to the southwestern states, they lacked winter hardiness needed for successful production in the northern and eastern states.\u201d (Bolton et al., 1975, p. 8) Meanwhile, colonists in New England had already introduced alfalfa to their new homeland under the name \u201clucerne\u201d. \u201c\u2026More than 100 years before alfalfa made its important entry into California from Chile, the crop had been recorded in Georgia (1736), North Carolina (1739), and New York (1791).\u201d (Bolton et al., 1975, p. 8) However, lucerne was having a tough time thriving along the eastern states as soils are generally more acidic and the humidity very high.<\/p>\n

Cultivation of alfalfa was largely unsuccessful in Canada and in the northern United States until the more hardy variegated strains of \u201cMedicago media (purple-flowered M. sativa x yellow-flowered M. falcata)\u201d (Goplen et al, 1987, p. 5) were introduced via a German immigrant, Wendelin Grimm who settled in Minnesota in 1857. Grimm persevered through the substantial winter-kill that several back-to-back brutal winters wrought on his alfalfa crops. Through the process of natural selection a resultant hardy strain of alfalfa was born. \u201c\u2026Grimm\u2019s alfalfa soon advanced successful alfalfa culture into the northern states and Canada.\u201d (Goplen et al., 1987, p. 5)<\/p>\n

While there have been introductions of other strains of alfalfa since that time, it was the initial efforts of Wendelin Grimm in the late 1850\u2019s that have enabled us at Barr-Ag to grow alfalfa hay near the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains . Today alfalfa is available as an early maturing or standard or medium maturing types.<\/p>\n

At Barr-Ag, we take up to three cuts of the early maturing varieties of alfalfa from our irrigated farms. This alfalfa hay is sought after for its higher protein content. The later maturing variety is grown on our dryland properties and we harvest up to two cuts. All of our alfalfa hay is non-GMO.(See the attached article: USDA to OK Genetically Modified<\/a>
\n Alfalfa; Good-Bye Organic Dairy, Honey, and Grass-Fed Beef?<\/a> )<\/p>\n

Barr-Ag\u2019s head office is located at 5837 Imperial Drive, Olds, Alberta, Canada, T4H 1G6. Please visit our website www.barr-ag.com<\/a> or call or write if you have any questions about our timothy hay, non-GMO alfalfa hay<\/strong> or any of our other products. We can be reached by telephone at: 403 507 8660<\/strong> or by email at: info@barr-ag.com or haysales@barr-ag.com<\/p>\n

References:
\nBolton, J.L., Goplen, B.P., Baenziger, H., (1975) Alfalfa Science and Technology
\nGoplen, B.P, Baenziger, H., Bailey, L.D., Gross, A.T.H., Hanna, M.R., Michaud, R., Richards, K.W., Waddington, J., (1987) Agriculture Canada: Growing and Managing Alfalfa in Canada, Publication 1705\/E
\nEvers, Gerald W., Sheaffer, Craig C., (2007) Forages: The Science of Grassland Agriculture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alfalfa, the oldest of our cultivated forage crops, is thought to have \u201coriginated in southwestern Asia with Iran as the geographic center of origin\u201d (Goplen et al., 1987, p. 5) Alfalfa was first introduced to the Americas by Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors. Meeting with idyllic conditions in Mexico and Peru, the alfalfa plant thrived and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alfalfa-hay"],"yoast_head":"\nBrief History of Alfalfa - Barr-Ag Hay & Grain Exporters Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Producers, Exporters and Buyers of Canadian grains, pulse crops and hays.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/barr-ag.com\/blog\/brief-history-of-alfalfa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brief History of Alfalfa - Barr-Ag Hay & Grain Exporters Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Producers, Exporters and Buyers of Canadian grains, pulse crops and hays.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/barr-ag.com\/blog\/brief-history-of-alfalfa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Barr-Ag Hay & Grain Exporters Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/barragcanada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-13T16:20:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-13T20:11:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Social Media OTR Web\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Social Media OTR Web\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/barr-ag.com\\\/blog\\\/brief-history-of-alfalfa\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/barr-ag.com\\\/blog\\\/brief-history-of-alfalfa\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Social Media OTR Web\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/barr-ag.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7e0f81e7abfe0725c73a1e5d65aa17be\"},\"headline\":\"Brief History of Alfalfa\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-13T16:20:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-13T20:11:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/barr-ag.com\\\/blog\\\/brief-history-of-alfalfa\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":595,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/barr-ag.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Alfalfa Hay\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/barr-ag.com\\\/blog\\\/brief-history-of-alfalfa\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/barr-ag.com\\\/blog\\\/brief-history-of-alfalfa\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/barr-ag.com\\\/blog\\\/brief-history-of-alfalfa\\\/\",\"name\":\"Brief History of Alfalfa - 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