How long to let a very over grazed pasture sit?

[paulsharvey]

I've seen a couple of this guys videos, and I do think this one was a very well thought out, balanced, video on the topic of cost of grass feed beef, and the fact that pasture has an actual measurable cost.

 

[jyoutz]

A good estimate of time would be to allow rest for one complete growing season, if the grasses respond well to rejuvenation treatments.

 

[Rockbadchild]

I rather not calculate it lol, like I get his point he his calculating the hidden fee to prove it is not free but realistically these are a drop in the ocean. Pasture ready land are expensive, pasture potential land are cheaper but they need lots of work and a solid up front investment. My pasture was overgrown (it was a field 40/50 years ago) so I had removed the old fence, rip the new growth, plow, disk, seed, fertilize, roll it, wait for it to grow (in my case I left it alone 2 years), then fence it in.... I did like 600 hours on my tractor in the first summer and I didn't even disk it yet at that point. I rather calculate what I save by doing it, and that's one square bale per head per day, that adds up quick and it can justify a lot. yes ok a round bail is a lot cheaper at a bale per month per head.

 

[paulsharvey]

I got everything pretty well ripped up with the field cultivator/all purpose plow, took out some of the trees. Picked up 50# of winter rye, and spread most of it with a small push spreader. Was a pain to push in the loose dirt. Then set the chisel, just maybe 1" deep and made a few passes around to try to get some soil coverage. We expect rain Wednesday.

I want to get some green growing, and will ammend soil in Feb or so.

I did burn most of the debris, but with the number of trees, you still pull finger roots on every pass. I buried the partially burn stumps.

Pulled an 18" semi rotted pine stump-tap root with the Ck2610 today, look probably 2 hours of ramping down with loader, wiggle, ramp down more, wiggle again, ect.

 

[WinterDeere]

Nice! Your soil looks like sand, to this northeasterner. Ours looks like dark roasted coffee grounds, by comparison.

 

[paulsharvey]

Well, we went from 80% to 60% to 40% and now we are down to 19% chance for rain today, and low single digits for the next 5 days...

 

[paulsharvey]

Update pictures. The rye grass has started going. We went like 30 days without rain, then got a couple 1/4" and 1/2", slow, hours long kinda rain. I also won a 3 point fertilizer spreader at the local auction for $10, so I need to go get that picked up. The small push seeder was a pain the butt to push through loose sand.

 

[paulsharvey]

Winter Rye came up pretty well. I do have some bare spots, but I used a push seeder. I'm looking at an early-mid March broadcast seeding for Bahia grass, before the spring dry season starts. I'm thinking a Tifton-9 seed. I also just ordered new impeller blades for my fertilizer spreader. Plan on doing lime in mid-late February.

So, over seeding bahia into a rye that won't have died back yet? Cut it, and broadcast, right? Should I skip cutting the rye, as it's not dense? Should I cut it low, or like 4.5"+? I know lime would have been better back in Nov or so, but I didn't have the spreader at the time.

Those pictures are about a 20 days old or so now, and it's thickened up since then with the rain.

 

[RayIN]

FYI; here in S. Indiana we generally have very good pasture land, but it still takes 3 acres for 1 cow, without ruining the grasses by the next winter. IMO 1 cow per acre is not adequate.

 

[WinterDeere]

Take the advice of someone local over me, but up here, any grass put down in spring will germinate but they usually die in our typical hot and dry spell lasting July into early August. Again, seek local knowledge, but I won't be surprised if they tell you it's better to just deal with crappy rye thru next summer, and delay the cost of putting down Bahia until September. That is... unless they're selling seed, and have some interest in seeing you have to buy expensive seed twice!

When doing a new lawn without irrigation around here, we usually put down something cheap to get us thru the first summer (e.g. rye blends), and save the expensive tall fescue for late August or early September. If you have irrigation, then of course you don't need to mind the dry weather.