newly planted alfalfa full of weeds

[jimg]

How did you decide on the seed mix? I was thinking about a single variety either common or giant.

The amt of N needed after each cut has been putting me off a bit. Thats has to be pricey!! How did you apply it? Ive read that anhydrous is the best form b/c theres little loss.

You mention 300 bales but what does that translate into t/ac?

Its b/c bermuda is a warm season grass that Im going to drill in rye at the end of the season. That way I get an early cut(s). My coop has a no till drill I can borrow. I would rather not try to afford one of my own...theyre fairly expensive (then again what isnt).

Nice picture and thanx for the info!!

 

[redlevel]

We planted a mix of Tifton 85, Giant Bermuda and common bermuda

Tifton 85 is planted from stolons or rhizomes, the other two are planted from seed.

It used to be said that any bermudagrass planted from seed would eventually revert back to common. I can't understand why the Extension agent would recommend that you plant common bermuda along with a hybrid. Here in Georgia, we try our best to get rid of the common before we sprig a field in a hybrid bermuda, because eventually, common will over take anything else in the field.

That said, common bermuda makes a pretty good pasture and better than fair hay. It is more palatable to cattle than some of the hybrids, but the yield just isn't quite as good. It will respond to plenty of water and copious amounts of N, as you have learned. One of my best pastures came about one year when I planted corn. I plowed down about two tons of chicken litter per acre. There were scattered patches of common bermuda in the field. I planted the corn, started irrigating, then when it was about knee high, I added another 70 units of N. The corn was close to nine feet tall and the bermuda was nearly knee high in spots by late August. We harvested the corn and then just let the bermuda grow. Within 3 years the field was 90% covered. This was a forty acre pasture.

Advantages of a bermuda pasture include the fact that it responds rapidly and well to high rates of fertilizer and water, and it makes a wonderful place to "stitch in" no till crops of rye or other smallgrains for winter grazing. It goes dormant, but maintains a tight sod good for erosion control. If you take a field out of bermuda and put it in crops, you don't have to worry about nematodes for a few years, because the bermuda roots effectively choke them out.

Common rates of fertilization of hybrid hay fields would be something like 80-20-60 applied in the Spring, then 80 units of N after the first cutting, then 80-20-60 after the second cutting. It is fairly common to get three cuttings here with plenty of rain or irrigation, but you better put plenty of fertilizer down. All the N makes the lime requirements higher, too. This should result in somewhere around five or six tons of very high quality hay per acre each year. That requires some intense management, though.

 

[WTA]

Intense is the word for it.

We get fertilizer in bulk dry form and they have big spreaders I can borrow to put it out that tow behind the tractor. It works out nicely. So far, I've been switching off between liquid and dry fertilizer each time. No particular reason, just whatever is cheapest at the time. Our soil samples called for the 80-0-0. I haven't had to lime yet thankfully. I'm not looking forward to it here. I hear it's pretty expensive in this area.

 

[Mike120]

WTA, I grow Tifton 85 in one field and a bahia/common & giant bermuda combination in the other. I bought my weed wiper parts and built the frame for the front of my tractor. It's only 10' wide but is more than adiquate. I'll post where I got the parts this afternoon when I get back home.

 

[WTA]

Thanks, I'd appreciate that. I've never even seen a wick type applicator so this will help a lot. I've been wanting to make one for a long time.

My tifton 85 was planted first here. Almost all of it got stripped right out of the ground and blown into the CRP field covering about 400 acres next to us by a tornado right after I planted it. I went back a couple days after that and planted the giant and common bermuda mix by hand. I think it was 75% giant and 25% common. I just couldn't afford sprigging again. We still have some of the tifton but not much. In our field it actually looks like the common has been choked out mostly. The Giant bermuda gets over my knees in height and doesn't let much else grow in it because it's so thick. Every once in a while I get a little patch of bind weed or nightshade but that's real easy to get ahold of with 2-4-D. The grassy weeds like johnson grass are not so easy without roundup or something but I need a good way to apply it.

Now that I have a new tractor that actually works I've done a lot to really get a handle on the weeds. I've now got buffers around the winter fields that I keep disced up and I can spray a lot more efficiently too. This tractor will hold a straight line easily where the old minnie was a fight with the skinny old tires and power steering that had a mind of it's own. The only complaint I have about the new NH tractor is I should have bought the wheel weights with it. Them things are expensive. I didn't get stuck when I was plowing but it would have made it a little more stable in the turnrows.

 

[Mike120]

WTA, I got the parts for mine at Greenleaf Inc. ( www.grnleafinc.com ). They're listed under Stringwing in their catalog. It works fine, but you have to clean it real good after you use if or you'll be replacing wicks.

I built the frame out of doubled-up 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" angle that I bolt to the front weight hanger on my JD, and use my hydralic top-link cylinder to adjust the height. The wiper hangs off a 10' piece of 1 1/2" square stock.

I use Eraiser (cheap, generic Round-up) in the wiper, and spray Grazon. With fertilizer the tifton will pretty much choke everything else out.