Reseeding

[Ed Thayer]

I picked up a nice McCormick deering disc harrow last fall and got to thinking it might work for airating my 4 acre hay field before spreading compost in the Spring or after the first cut.

Would this be benificial and has anyone else done this before. I was thinking setting it in the straight position and adding some weight to it would provide some slots in the soil for the air, water, seed and nutrients to get in.

Ed

[jac]

Hi Ed.. The only prob I see is that those discs are concaved and even in the straight ahead position I suspect they might slice too much turf. I might be wrong on that coz I’ve never tried a set on grass. I use a slitter with 7″ blades to areate the grass.
John

[Does’ Leap]

I’ve tried disking hayland with relatively little success. I would graze the land you want to seed tight to the ground with horses, put some weight on your disks, and keep the disks straight ahead or slightly angled.

George

[OldKat]

@Does’ Leap 15000 wrote:

I’ve tried disking hayland with relatively little success. I would graze the land you want to seed tight to the ground with horses, put some weight on your disks, and keep the disks straight ahead or slightly angled.

George

I guess it depends on the soil type and the type of grass that you have. In our area the hybrid Bermudas almost have to be disked to keep them from forming a thatch. There are some people that use a “pasture renovator” which is like a chisel plow with a little more of an angled foot to it, with a tip that is case hardened to rip through the surface and open the grass up a little. It only runs about 3 inches deep.

I have one which is about 5′ wide with 6 shanks (uses a shear bolt in case you encounter a root or a rock), but which I primarily use like a chisel plow for a first pass in front of a disc harrow on heavy soil. I do not use an offset disk at all.

Very few people grow it, but the “improved” varieties of crabgrass (Red River and Quik-N-Big, both are trademarked) do great in our area on sandy to loamy soil, but ONLY if you disc the surface LIGHTLY when the soil temps reach 55 degrees F. In the heavy bottom land several people have given up on trying to eradicate Johnson grass and have instead started growing it in pure stands for hay. I bought some two years ago and the guy I bought it from said he discs very lightly in the fall to slice up the roots, which grow just beneath the surface. He said the more he disks the thicker the stand gets. His was baled when it was hip high and the stalks were the size of a mans little finger in diameter. Very leafy and the cows at it like it was candy.

Most range specialists will say to NOT disk native grasses; which in our area are the bunch grasses like Little Bluestem, Side oats grama, Dallis etc and in the bottoms Eastern gama grass. We also have Bahia, which is an introduced grass and is extremely hardy and invasive as all get out. Everyone that I know that has disked any stands of these has generally lost their stand entirely, except in the case of the bahia … it seems to thrive on it.

If I were disking hay ground I would do it exactly as George suggested; gangs straight or angled at the first setting and weighted down with concrete blocks or something similar.

[Ed Thayer]

The soil is heavy till and has been compacted by tractors for years. The local dairy farmer up the street has tried no till seeding with mixed results.

I think I will try what you have suggested and see how it works.

I also thought about doing a PH test and depending on the results, spreading lime with the manure spreader when I apply the compost?

Ed

[Tim Harrigan]

I would consider disking pasture or hay ground with straight gangs or slightly angled gangs to expose some soil to improve seed to soil contact for renovation, particularly for frost seeding. So the disking would be across the slope, late in fall to expose some soil. We typically would want to frost seed over a snow cover or on frozen ground so disking at that time would not be practical.

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