I can't see only 17% of alfalfa being sprayed in the lifetime of the stand. No way.

Only 17% of alfalfa acres being sprayed in a year, yes, I might buy that number.

Still, the organic advocates love to confound the consumer with their hand-waving notions of what constitutes "organic." What the organic advocates prattle on (endlessly) about is "no pesticides."

Ah, but what they downplay is "no synthetic fertilizers."

And that, friends, will be the barrier to organic alfalfa production in the west. Most alfalfa producers in the west simply are not situated where they can get sufficient manure or fish guts to fertilize their fields without synthetic fertilizers.

As for organic prices: I came to a point a couple years back when I was going to make a decision about organic vs. non-organic, and take the yield hit from basically not using fertilizer. It turns out that organic dairymen are just as stingy as the non-organic dairymen, and won't pay any sufficient premium to account for the yield hit of not using fertilizer. So no, there is no way I'd go organic.

Staying on the topic of economics, I can't see any economic reason to plant RR alfalfa now. The local co-op extension and I have now completed research on how to get bluegrass out of alfalfa stands at an economic level and have found that 2lbs/ac of Kerb will do the job, with 1lb/Kerb afterwards as a maintenance level. This comes to $60/ac and $30/ac costs, respectively. Bluegrass was the ONLY reason why anyone here was examining RR alfalfa at all. The cost to establish a RR alfalfa stand here has been reckoned at $120/ac (and possibly higher), as opposed to about $60/ac for non-RR alfalfa.

Well, $60/ac for the non-RR alfalfa, plus $60/ac for Kerb after two years to eliminate the bluegrass and you're right there. The Kerb will also knock out cheatgrass and other shallow-rooted spring/summer annuals. It won't knock out the blue and tansy mustards, but Sencor the previous fall does that very cheaply.

There is no economic reason now for planting RR alfalfa. I can accomplish everything I want to with conventional seed, conventional chemicals and not have to deal with Monsanto or the hippies.