have a new property and its OVERGROWN

[leonz]

tractor and pasture saga begins;

Huh???

No way will green trash cause a bottom plow to "pop right out of the ground". A bottom plow when used correctly, will flip the top 6-8" of soil over upside down leaving a nice dirt only view. You either have a broken coulter wheel or some other issue -- probably a setup issue. A bottom plow is pushed down under the ground by design that's why it takes so much draw bar hp to pull.

Fix your issue with the plow and use it, it's your best bet for prepping the field.

Yes I would like to see the plow myself as if it was left in float it would have sunk and sucked itself into to the ground and stalled your tractor.

Something tells me you skidded over a piece of shale or a tapered boulder if it was an in furrow plow or on land plow set up if you have a flat or fluted coulter.

You would have sheared the pin and or broken the plow share or if it has a break away plowshare or broken the share and arm and the damage would have been obvious.

If your tractor is equipped with the right lower link that cranks out to allow the plow to drop further it must be cranked all the way in.


And The Landpride overseeder will plant directly in the dirt for you and the existing sod after you mow it also.

This late in the season I would mow to the sod with a 48-60 inch flail mower and use a powered overseeder to cut into the ground or broken sod and seed winter wheat as it will grow all winter.

You will use the overseeder all the time planting grass seed with little effort
and it wont be a wasted purchase.


You would be able to mow the winter killed brush with a flail mower faster if it is not snow covered as well.

If you do anything tommorow by an overseeder you will get more use from it than a disc harrow as you will be limited to

how much disc you can buy due to the discs working width and power available from your tractor to pull its width.

A three point disc even with tearing coulters may not be enough to do it if the tractor is light and you set the needle valve closed if you have one under

the seat to leave the 3 point hitch in one position.

 

[Gary Fowler]

The 40 acres that my B-I-L and I purchased 3 years ago was overgrown with weeds, saplings up to 3-4" in diameter. It hadnt been mowed in over 5 years according to the neighbors and I believe it. It took use a while to get it down the first time but subsequent mowings 2-3 times per year have it looking good. We cut hay off of it this year for the first time. The bottoms were really tough with slough grass and weed. We kept it mowed short and the grass came back in choking out the weeds pretty good. We have not seeded it and the fescue, bahia and bermuda have came back pretty thick and looks good. I attached a photo how it looks now, 3 years ago this was over waist high weed and saplings, now it is pretty nice grass.

 

[Ken45101]

I agree with everyone that mowing several times a year will do the job.

If you tear up the ground now, you run the risk of winter erosion.

One thing I've noticed, where I keep it mowed short (walking paths), it's really nice grass. The remainder is horse pasture which isn't quite as grassy.

It's amazing how much grass is hidden in the high weeds

Ken

 

[pitt_md]

Can you burn off the debree?

 

[Gordon Gould]

I agree with everyone that mowing several times a year will do the job.



One thing I've noticed, where I keep it mowed short (walking paths), it's really nice grass. The remainder is horse pasture which isn't quite as grassy.


Ken

I think thats key. If I just bush hog it takes much longer to get grass and its not 100%. If I use the sickle bar and cut it short the grass comes in faster and better. The first time through with the sickle bar can be mighty interesting though. :laughing:

 

[quicksandfarmer]

It depends on your local soil. I'm in Rhode Island now and grass grows as a weed here, mow once or twice a year and hay comes up, more often and lawn appears. I wouldn't dream of plowing, the "soil" is 90% rocks with a thin sprinkling of dirt and plowing just brings up a whole lot of rocks that you have to get rid of. I've lived other places where the soil was acidic and grass wouldn't grow, moss would come up if you mowed. In other places the soil was hard clay and mowing just encouraged mowing-tolerant weeds like crab-grass, dandelion and lambs-quarter.

If your soil is good for grass mowing is sufficient. If it's not good for grass almost nothing will work.

 

[Transit]

Ploughing and disking tends to pull up rocks which is not what you want to be doing if you are cutting low with a brush hog. Cutting high to avoid the rocks and the weeds come back.
I walked my field a few times picking up rocks. Now I can mow as low as I wish without taking out the hog blades. Each year I let the grass go to seed to over seed when I cut it again. I have the deck set to mulch the clippings, its like walking on a cloud. The ph has returned to a natural 6.8 from alkaline. Long ago I mixed compost tablets in water that are bacteria to speed up the compost pile and sprayed it all over, now everything breaks down fast. It may be time to do it again. I also mixed in clover to help with keeping the field green. Now I see worms when there were none before, the little buggers do a fantastic job turning the ground over and all I have to pay them is some clippings.

 

[doall]

No rocks here so I don't know about that. But I can round up 1 week, disc next and broadcast and fertilize same day. works every August or September for food plots in 6 ft. tall weeds and sapplings.

 

[IslandTractor]

I've been recovering overgrown pastures for the past several years and agree that just regular mowing is the key. If you want lush lawn you need to do more but regular mowing will control most weeds and favor return of grasses.

 

[Rusty]

A question to those of you who have been successful reducing weeds in pastures by finish mowing: what mowing height are you cutting at?

I mow my horse pasture about every two weeks with my MMM at transport height, which is approximately 6". Tall weeds such as Thistle and Queen Anne's Lace have been almost completely eliminated, but shorter weeds such as dandelions and other shorter, broad-leafed weeds seem unaffected.