Pasture renovation questions

[Julie Clemons]

Hi folks –

I have about 2 acres of pasture I want to work on this spring. I bought 50 lbs of pasture mix from Fedco thinking I would just frost seed it, but now I am reading that frost seeding works better with legumes, not so much with grasses. What’s the best way to use this seed? It wasn’t cheap and I don’t want it to go to waste.

I don’t have the equipment or wherewithal to plow and reseed from scratch. I rotationally graze my horse and was thinking I could let her eat each piece down pretty thoroughly, then spread compost, then seed. Would that work? Do I need to roll or rake or somehow cover the seed?

I have a disk harrow if that would help – graze,then disk, then compost, then seed?

I spread 2 tons of lime in fall 09 as per soil test recommendations (with a little push spreader – it revised my definition of “boring.”) Miss Horse grazes it, and I’ve been pasturing poultry on the worst spots for 4 years or so.

Thanks for any thoughts.
Julie

[Tim Harrigan]

You do not say where you are and that could make a difference. If you are in the east, northeast or upper mid-west you might have some success with what you are planning, but I would probably disk then seed before the compost. The best way would be to drill the seed with a no-till drill, your conservation district may have one to rent or for hire, check with your NRCS office.

If you reseed and hope for a good stand you should plan on keeping your horse off at least through June, take the first cut off as hay if possible, they try not to graze it down throughly. Graze for a few days and then rotate off. That may not be possible in your case.

[mitchmaine]

hi julie,
you could try discing as soon as you can get on it, and work it til you break up the sod and bring up the soil. sow your seed and spread your compost and disc the seed /compost into the soil. straighten out your harrow and use that to roll and pack it. should get a good catch. tim’s right about keeping animals off it till it gets hold. good luck with it.
mitch

[Julie Clemons]

thanks very much for the info!

I am in NH…Because I live an hour from Carl and Lisa I forget that folks on the board are from everywhere! Sorry!

Sounds good. Lil could use the work for sure so I will get on the disk as soon as I can. Right now we still have about six or eight inches of snow.

I can keep Lil on different areas of the property. I have some pigtail posts, temporary fence and a solar charger…an absolutely great setup for making use of those odd little corners and patches. She makes a great lawnmower.

[mitchmaine]

hey julie, sounds like you are saying you might give that two acres up for the summer?
maybe you could do it up right and have a spring plowing event and invite “them that wants” to come help with the job.
three of us with teams plowed up a couple acres up here last fall, and it was a great day. cold windy and rainy. lots of food.
just a thought. it would make a better seedbed. i was thinking you might just want to scratch in you seed and not disturb your pasture too much.

[Julie Clemons]

I never thought of that…I would think people have enough spring work to do without doing mine for me – ?

The field in question was mostly sand, moss and ferns 8 years ago when we bought it. soil had been bulldozed off along with stumps before we bought it. It is still pretty loose and soupy in the places where there is not much root mass yet – and the ledge is awfully close to the surface so I am loath to lose any more topsoil. All this makes me think it might not be ready to plow yet.

Speaking of spring work, is this Mitch of the famous sugaring duo (and Common Ground booth neighbors) Mitchell and Savage? Shouldn’t you be out in the sugarbush right now? 🙂

[Anonymous]

I have a similar question so I figured I’d just add in here in this thread. I have about 5 acres I want to reseed, but no equipment for discing, etc. I thought I’d try waiting until right before a really big rain (we get some really torrential downpours where I live, Central Florida) and just broadcasting into the field. I figured the violent splashing of rain on the dirt might just cover the seed enough to have a fair germination. Would I just be wasting seed, or is this a workable idea?

[Tim Harrigan]

I am just guessing, I have no knowledge of FL seeding conditions. My guess is it might already be too hot for that, what you would want is wet conditions for several days in a row. If the seed has to suffer through wide swings in temperature and moisture it will generally not germinate, at least that is what we expect with the cool season grasses and legumes in the northern states. My guess is it will not work very well, but check with your county extension staff, they might have some suggestions.

[Julie Clemons]

Two months later…Decided I had to get out there and disc even though it is still squooshy. At least there is plenty of organic matter to disc in, and I’m staying off the lower end of the field (there is still standing water there, argh). It disced up nicely and hope to spread manure and seed tomorrow. Anyone want to come babysit? Walker isn’t quite big enough to hold onto the hames yet.

[near horse]

@Julie Clemons 27180 wrote:

…… Walker isn’t quite big enough to hold onto the hames yet.

How about one of those baby slings/backpacks or whatever and then just tie/loop it over the hames? It’ll just rock him to sleep.:rolleyes:

***Note – this is not an OSHA approved action!

[Julie Clemons]

Walker’s a girl, for the record. 🙂
believe me, I’ve considered a lot of these type of contraptions. Could I hook the bike trailer on behind the disk? Could I mount a carseat to the seatpost on the forecart? Could I stick her in a saddlebag? But then I think, there’s so many other things I would rather be in the newspaper for, besides killing my kid.

[Author]

Posts