Planting grass seed in a pasture

[Jerry/MT]

Not for pastures, but for seasonal holding pens. The only thing that seems to come back in the holding pens is weeds.

Tell me more about how you use "seasonal holding pens".

Anything in your part of the world that's going to animals in close confinement during the rainy season (8-9 months of the year) needs gravel and a good drainage system! There is no grass that will hold up under those conditions. When I lived back there King County Conservation District had a program to help people who had horses on small acrages deal with mud problems by designing "sacrifice areas" where horses were confined to small areas and allowed to graze pasture for very short periods of time daily.

 

[goeduck]

Tell me more about how you use "seasonal holding pens".

Calves weaned from the cows. Then cull cows waiting to go to market mostly. The pens are largely on a gravel ridge with a lower swale that water drains to.

 

[Oldoak]

Calves weaned from the cows. Then cull cows waiting to go to market mostly. The pens are largely on a gravel ridge with a lower swale that water drains to.

Yep, not much different than a commercial stock yard. Only on a much smaller scale.

 

[Jerry/MT]

Calves weaned from the cows. Then cull cows waiting to go to market mostly. The pens are largely on a gravel ridge with a lower swale that water drains to.

If it's gravelly, it' probably well drained and if you tried to grow grass it would burn out in the summer and be trampled out when you loaded animals in it. You could throw some annual rye on it in the spring to hold down the weeds and maybe graze it but confinement lots are not places here you grow grass for grazing.
An alternative is to spray for the weeds.

 

[goeduck]

I was comming to the same conclusion (annual seed) and repeat every year. I appreciate the comments.

 

[Jerry/MT]

If you plant annual rye and let it go to seed without grazing it, it may re-seed itself. I did that once and I was surprised to see it come back strong the second year.

 

[D2Cat]

Hogs are what you put on the pond that leaks with some bentonite to let them tromp it in to seal it. They don't loosen up soil, they compact it.

 

[starbrightsteve]

Let’s get something strait, those four acres have NOT been decimated by the horses, they have been decimated by you, the owner of the horses and the land. I have serious doubts that if you follow any of the suggestions folks have made so far, that a year from now everything will be right back to the current situation. Those four acres can not be used as a holding pen for horses.

 

[MH8675309]

Let’s get something strait, those four acres have NOT been decimated by the horses, they have been decimated by you, the owner of the horses and the land. I have serious doubts that if you follow any of the suggestions folks have made so far, that a year from now everything will be right back to the current situation. Those four acres can not be used as a holding pen for horses.

Fella - you're assuming allot - guy came here for advice not to get bawled out.

 

[D2Cat]

starbrightsteve, you must have a government job, where you walk around with a clipboard, drive a vehicle with their emblem pasted on the side, enjoy giving orders, and full of yourself!