Spring Discing

Very nice pictures. That looks a lot like my disc except mine is missing the scrapers. I never thought of using it for that purpose but it looks like it worked very well.

@J-L 33886 wrote:

How effective is it in establishing good grasses?

I have a hay meadow that just doesn’t seem to grow anything but this grass my neighbor calls Johnson grass which we think crept in off the highway. I have been trying to figure out what to do with it.

In Michigan, it is usually more effective with clovers because of the small seed size. It is important to have the right weather, several days of warm, wet weather are good germinate and get it emerged, or frost seeding to get it worked into the ground. Grasses are not as reliable, although Timothy has a seed similar to clover seeds. Most grasses have a light, fluffy seed that is harder to get into contact with the soil and prevent drying out. If the weather cooperates it can work though.

Johnson grass is similar to the quack grass we have, very aggressive, extensive root system, tough to kill with tillage. A lot of frequent tillage, or herbicide if you are OK with that.

Drilling is better if you can no-till drill it in. Even a conventional drill with openers can work if you can get on the ground when it is not too hard and you do not have much residue to cut through. Better if the drill has presswheels to firm the seed in the ground. Dragging can be good too, covers the seed with some soil and residue to protect it from drying cycles. But discing exposes some soil and allows some of the seed to get down below the surface in contact with the soil. There is little investment other than your time and seed, so if the weather does not cooperate you do not lose much. But if you can keep some legumes established and manage your pasture you can double the forage production.

We do not have much Johnson grass in MI, but if it is like quack grass it would be OK for pasture ground that you always had animals on, or you could bring them in and graze when the grass was small. They will eat it later, but they don’t like it. The big problem is it out-competes the other more desireable species and like mono-culture… quackgrass alone. There are some grasses like italian rye or festulolium that are good pasture grasses but in no time go from being palatable to objectionable so how well they fit depends on how many animals on how much ground, etc. I like botanical diversity with plants that mature over quite a while. Annuals would fit in a double crop situation, after wheat or oats for instance, but I am not sure of the benefits of seeding annuals in permanent pasture.

Hi Ed,

So what are you going to use to overseed (both seed type and seeder)? One reason no-till is being promoted out here is the slow establishment of new grass stands after tillage.

When you read the standard directives on seeding into existing stands they usually want you to somehow reduce competition from the existing grass stand – chemically or I think via mowing/grazing. What do you think, Tim?

Some good information here. Geoff actually asked my next two questions as far as drilling/broadcasting and dragging.

I did get some grass established on a hay field using manure spreader and manure with Creeping Meadow Foxtail seed. Worked alright.

This particular place has just been taken over by the Johnson grass. Yes cattle will eat it…after every thing else is gone. Tougher than hell to mow or swath. Very tough plant. I feed that hay and watch the cattle eat everything else first. Same when they pasture it off.

I’m not too sure about late season anything here. Very short growing season at 7200′.

I don’t generally buy seed but count on the seed left in the horse manure and, primarily, getting the soil chemistry right (manure, wood ash, lime; all harrowed in) for the seed that is already in the ground to grow & thrive. If annual weeds (milkweed) are very competitive, I mow them off early and let them mulch the grass/legumes. Perennial weeds blueberry, buck brush, golden rod (?)) I mow hard (more mulch) as often as necessary until, with the soil chemistry changes, they quit. This has worked fairly well for me on a 3.5 acre hayfield up the road that was badly run down. On smaller areas at home, I circulate my winter turnout areas for the horses annually. I might give 3 horses 100×300 feet per year. I feed all around the area, on the ground (hopefully, snow). This distributes seed from the hay. The manure load on that size area is heavy enough to compensate for pH deficiencies and I usually get good grass for several years. It does best the first year if I spread the manure pile around somehow & mow off the annuals (esp. pigweed) probably late June-ish.

See Bill Murphy, Greener Pasture on Your side of the Fence

Paperback, 390 pages
Published May 1st 1998 by Arriba Publishing (first published 1998)
ISBN
0961780738 (ISBN13: 9780961780739)
edition language
English
original title
Greener Pasture on Your Side of the Fence: Better Farming Voisin Management-Intensive Grazing (4th Edition)

This book convinced me not to spend money on seed.
Mark