poor performing alfalfa, inject grass?

3rd year on this alfalfa field and I'm not too happy with the performance. It is in need of lime, been having trouble getting a lime guy out. Winter was too mushy this year, then he was supposed to come out after first cutting and that didn't work out. So now we're going to try after 2nd cutting. Sent a soil sample to Michigan State and they want 2 tons per acre put down.

 

I just did first cutting on both this alfalfa field and an orchard grass field next to it. Some comparison, I got 4 round bales per acre off the orchard grass, using the same equipment the alfalfa field came out to about 1.5 per acre. I actually didn't want to cut the alfalfa quite yet but the weeds were coming up in it so I figured the best way to kill the weeds was to mow it. The back half of the field actually does okay but the front half is pretty thin. The raked windrows look almost no existent on that half.

 

While I still plan on putting down lime I just don't see it in improving that much so I'm thinking of putting orchard grass and brohm into the existing alfalfa. I mainly bale for myself and a alfalfa/grass mix is fine for that. I was thinking of seeding the grass after 2nd cutting to time it for the frost schedule and not bother with a 3rd cutting.

 

I was thinking seeding at a rate of 75% into the side with terrible performance and 25% in the stronger side.

 

Here's some pictures I took today, curious to see what you guys think of this plan. It was cut about 12 days ago. I thought it actually looked better than I expected it to.

 

This is the thin side of the field.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the stronger side of the field.

 

 

 

And here's a strip that actually didn't get cut. I got a flat tire at the end of the day and decided to just leave it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

poor performing alfalfa, inject grass?