Extending and old stand of alfalfa with wheat / teff grass

Hello.  Thank you for openly sharing great advice and stories of past success / failures on here.  I can't tell you how many hours I have spent learning.  

 

I have an 18 acre field that has an old stand of alfalfa.  The field is laser leveled and flood irrigated.  The stand was planted in 2013 and lived through a VERY severe drought for 2 years (2014 and 2015).  The stand is good in some places but almost bare in others.  I have another field with a brand new stand of roundup ready alfalfa so I don’t really need any more alfalfa to sell to my customers – I would rather have some other types of hay.  Last year I got 4 cuttings off this field.  It made 1.98, 1.08, 1.29 and 0.75 tons / acre for a total of 5.11 tons / acre.  Not terrible but the stand really started to thin in the last part of the year.  I don’t really want to rip up the ground and re-level due to paying off some other ground this year. 

 

I have 2 options running through my head.  I am anxious to hear thoughts on either one:

 

Option 1 – no till drill wheat at 80# / acre into the alfalfa stand in mid-march.  Swath and bale the wheat / alfalfa mix around the 5^th of June.  Once the wheat is off, spray the entire field with round up to kill alfalfa, wheat and weeds.  Go in and plant teff grass with either brillion seeder or broadcast spreader / cultipacker.  Take 1^st cutting of teff around 10^th of August.  Take second cutting around 15^th of September.  Let teff grow back until first freeze and then graze cattle and horses.  Rip up field in fall, let lay dormant for winter and then laser level and plant teff or alfalfa in 2019 depending on the water year. 

I am concerned about this option because I don’t know how the teff grass will take in the wheat stubble.  There should be very little residue because I will swath and bale the wheat but I am still uncertain.  Any stories of past success or failure of planting teff into wheat stubble would be great. 

 

Option 2 – take first crop of alfalfa around the 5^th of June.  Plant teff grass with brillion seeder or broadcast spreader / cultipacker while alfalfa it short.  Take 2^nd crop around 10^th of July.  Teff will be about 35 days old at this time.  Take 3^rd crop around 20^th of August.  Take 4^th crop around 25^th of September.  Let teff grow until 1^st freeze and then graze cattle and horses.  Let lay dormant for winter and then go back with teff grass.  Eventually the teff will choke our most of the alfalfa out and I can go back into alfalfa in 2020 or so. 

 

The summers get too hot for orchardgrass / timothy here.  I have had really good success with both teff grass and wheat hay on this ground in the past.  Any stories of success or failure with this type of operation would be greatly appreciated - specifically planting into wheat stubble and any ground preparation.  Thank you!!!

Extending and old stand of alfalfa with wheat / teff grass