Freshly planted hay, too much rain?

[cjk]

Hi, first post here.

As a new farmer I was anxious to get the fields ready this spring. As soon as they dried up I got the plowing and discing done and was ready to plant last friday. After some reading on it I found hay should be planted as soon as the fields could be worked in spring. So I planted 20 acres of alfalfa/timothy with oats last saturday and it has been raining almost every day since.

The first couple of days of rain I was quite happy with and proud of myself for getting the fields planted before it came. But now I have standing water in parts of the field.

My question is, will the seed be OK being under water for several days or will I need to replant once things dry out again?

 

[AKfish]

Welcome to TBN, cjk. A good rain after the seed is in the ground is normally a real plus - and a pretty lucky coincidence, too!

A few days soak shouldn't be a catastrophe - IMO. A week underwater... well, then you'll likely have a problem.

Might just be the low spots with a problem if the ground stays pretty wet and the seed rots - and if they're small areas - you could replant by hand.

AKfish

 

[ddivinia]

Hi, first post here.

As a new farmer I was anxious to get the fields ready this spring. As soon as they dried up I got the plowing and discing done and was ready to plant last friday. After some reading on it I found hay should be planted as soon as the fields could be worked in spring. So I planted 20 acres of alfalfa/timothy with oats last saturday and it has been raining almost every day since.

The first couple of days of rain I was quite happy with and proud of myself for getting the fields planted before it came. But now I have standing water in parts of the field.

My question is, will the seed be OK being under water for several days or will I need to replant once things dry out again?

Tough call - how much of the field is underwater?

Dried out yet?

Fertilizer and some rain will help get it going and spreading.

D.

 

[WTA]

It shouldn't hurt too bad unless the rain was a heavy one that might have washed some of the seed away. I think that just happened to me. I hired someone with a notill planter to do a big pasture of mine a couple weeks ago and it was just bare dirt when he started because my wheat had burned off from lack of rain before. The day after he planted we had 80mph winds followed by 6 inches of rain and hail then 60 mph winds the next day after that. I think I lost most of my seed out there but I am starting to see little patches of green now. Maybe I will get lucky. We have a lot of blowing sand in that field now and I'm debating on wether or not to get out there with a crust buster or something to fix it. I don't want to hurt any of the grass that's left.

 

[ddivinia]

It shouldn't hurt too bad unless the rain was a heavy one that might have washed some of the seed away. I think that just happened to me. I hired someone with a notill planter to do a big pasture of mine a couple weeks ago and it was just bare dirt when he started because my wheat had burned off from lack of rain before. The day after he planted we had 80mph winds followed by 6 inches of rain and hail then 60 mph winds the next day after that. I think I lost most of my seed out there but I am starting to see little patches of green now. Maybe I will get lucky. We have a lot of blowing sand in that field now and I'm debating on wether or not to get out there with a crust buster or something to fix it. I don't want to hurt any of the grass that's left.

That is a tough call. How big a pasture? You might want to just broadcast seed over the pasture to see if that will take also.

D.

 

[WTA]

It's almost 12 acres in that field. I was considering hand broadcasting some Giant Bermuda seed in the thin and bare spots in a few weeks. I did that in my front pasture after the same thing happened several years ago and have the best hay field anyone could ask for with it now. We're up to 500 bales per month now on 7 acres. The Bermuda turned out to be the perfect crop out there since it does flood badly nearly every time it rains. It stays flooded for more than a week usually too and the Bermuda just loves it.

It was ww B Dahl bluestem I planted in this field that got blown away. It's a very tiny fluffy seed so anything not packed in by the rollers on the drill is somewhere else now.

Last night after I replied to this thread one of my neighbors came over to tell me I should run my rotary hoe over it to get rid of the blowing sand. Mostly because he doesn't have AC in his house and has to open windows I think. Now that he has told me to do that I am convinced I should just leave it alone. It's kinda funny but every time I follow his advice on anything from when to cut my hay or when to plant I get burned. I might be relatively new at this but I sure have a lot nicer fields than he does.

 

[ddivinia]

It's almost 12 acres in that field. I was considering hand broadcasting some Giant Bermuda seed in the thin and bare spots in a few weeks. I did that in my front pasture after the same thing happened several years ago and have the best hay field anyone could ask for with it now. We're up to 500 bales per month now on 7 acres. The Bermuda turned out to be the perfect crop out there since it does flood badly nearly every time it rains. It stays flooded for more than a week usually too and the Bermuda just loves it.

It was ww B Dahl bluestem I planted in this field that got blown away. It's a very tiny fluffy seed so anything not packed in by the rollers on the drill is somewhere else now.

Last night after I replied to this thread one of my neighbors came over to tell me I should run my rotary hoe over it to get rid of the blowing sand. Mostly because he doesn't have AC in his house and has to open windows I think. Now that he has told me to do that I am convinced I should just leave it alone. It's kinda funny but every time I follow his advice on anything from when to cut my hay or when to plant I get burned. I might be relatively new at this but I sure have a lot nicer fields than he does.

The reason I mentioned that is I am working on cleaning up a couple more pastures (around 40 acres). Going to doze cedar trees, etc. I am going to broadcast seed these pastures - the last ones I sprigged.

My county guy says April 15th is the right time of year to do it. You might consider buying a broadcast spreader and going over the whole thing. What do figure - 30 lbs per acre?

D.

 

[WTA]

I've got a new Landpride broadcaster but they suck for bermuda seed. Seriously. The seeds are way too small and don't fly far from the spinner. If it's windy at all then just forget it. It worked great planting alfalfa though!

My best results for Bermuda have been going out on my old super C on a windy day with the bag of seed tied to the light bar and dragging a pipe behind me just throwing it to the wind. That method worked better than any drill or broadcaster I could find.

 

[ddivinia]

I've got a new Landpride broadcaster but they suck for bermuda seed. Seriously. The seeds are way too small and don't fly far from the spinner. If it's windy at all then just forget it. It worked great planting alfalfa though!

My best results for Bermuda have been going out on my old super C on a windy day with the bag of seed tied to the light bar and dragging a pipe behind me just throwing it to the wind. That method worked better than any drill or broadcaster I could find.

I hear ya - I have a frontier - it closed down really small. One guy here says put some duct tape over the hole to help it work with bermuda.

How much seed did you put down?

D.

 

[cjk]

The fields are starting to dry out today. Still some standing water in the low spots.

I am seeing little sprouts in some drier areas. 2 teardrop shaped leaves, Alfalfa?

Fingers crossed and hoping for the best.