converting corn to hay field?

[petebert]

This field had the corn taken off of it last fall. Neighbor is supposed to be converting it to hay for me and we'll work out some sort of deal on how to split it. Problem is the thistle is starting to come in and I want it gone before it flowers. My neighbor probably won't have a chance to get to it before it flowers.

Should I try and find someone who can at least just till the whole field under?

I have a soil sample report and would like to fertilize, when would be the most ideal time to fertilize? Should I put the fertilizer down before it's tilled?

It's a 10 acre field. If needed I can run through it with the brush hog. Shouldn't take a whole lot of time, it's not like I'm mowing the entire field, just need to knock the tops of the thistle off before they seed. So I could leave the brush hog up a little higher and run through it at a decent speed.

Any recommendations on what to seed with? This would be for Michigan. I like leafy hay with variety. Can I just seed it with a pasture mix or do a mix myself? I was thinking alfalfa, clover, timothy, orchard grass. Any other recommendations?

 

[Creamer]

Those sound good for your environment if you want the mix. Over time the grass will take over.

To get rid of the thistle I would spray it with roundup before anything is planted.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Down here we sprig our hayfields if planting coastal, I certainly wouldn't fertilize until I either seeded or had a stand of grass or you will be fertilizing every weed that comes up in the field, and I am with creamer on spraying the thistle before anything is planted.

 

[Tx Jim]

Ditto on spraying with glyphosate or some other herbicide.

 

[Dadnatron]

Spray it or you will be dealing with it for a long time. You will anyway, because the soil seed load won't be affected by the spray. However, I would spray the entire 10 ac rather than till it. Keep the current vegetation (weeds etc) in place, just spray them. No-till drill straight through the dead stuff. Drill in 2 directions with 1/2 seed necessary each way. You will develop a quicker ground cover with fewer bare spots between rows to give weeds a spot to get ahold within.

I'm doing the same thing right now. I had soybeans on 70ac last year. I sprayed it this spring and the next day, I drilled grass into the field. I only went one way, because I will be putting in permanent pasture this fall. But in the places I went 2 ways, there is a significantly lower weed load.

I spray or take a shovel to every thistle I find. They were the bane of my young existence. The only thing good was I had a horse who liked to bite off the purple flowers as we rode by, and he would chew on one for an hour. I think it was his 'Skoal'...

 

[Oldoak]

Good that the horse liked to chew on the purple flowers before it went to seed. Otherwise the horse would have been dropping thistle seed and organic fertilizer all in one package.

 

[joeu235]

If its not too much you can spot spray with Grazon

 

[Creamer]

Spray it or you will be dealing with it for a long time. You will anyway, because the soil seed load won't be affected by the spray. However, I would spray the entire 10 ac rather than till it. Keep the current vegetation (weeds etc) in place, just spray them. No-till drill straight through the dead stuff. Drill in 2 directions with 1/2 seed necessary each way. You will develop a quicker ground cover with fewer bare spots between rows to give weeds a spot to get ahold within.

I'm doing the same thing right now. I had soybeans on 70ac last year. I sprayed it this spring and the next day, I drilled grass into the field. I only went one way, because I will be putting in permanent pasture this fall. But in the places I went 2 ways, there is a significantly lower weed load.

I spray or take a shovel to every thistle I find. They were the bane of my young existence. The only thing good was I had a horse who liked to bite off the purple flowers as we rode by, and he would chew on one for an hour. I think it was his 'Skoal'...

When we put our horses in a new pasture they had not been in for a while they would run the new pasture to find all the thistle heads - first thing gone. They were great for thistle control!