Pasture Maintenance

   / Pasture Maintenance #1  

MikePA

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Had TC25D, now JD X310
What 3ph attachment(s) would be best for maintaining a pasture?

I'm thinking that every few years the pasture should be replanted. Sould this mean plowing then disc then planting or is there some other series of steps that should be followed.
 
   / Pasture Maintenance #2  
Get yourself a nice brush hog type rotary cutter...

God and Mother Nature will take care of the rest.../w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

18-48044-JFM3BW5205SigFile.JPG
 
   / Pasture Maintenance
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Maybe I should rephrase :)

What attachments would I need if I wanted to assist God and Mother Nature?
 
   / Pasture Maintenance #4  
Unless there's a specific crop you want to grow and harvest, just get a rotary cutter and use it once or twice each year.

If you want to speed up the mulching process and develop a cover of more grass/fewer weeds, get a finish mower and cut it 4-5 times each summer.

If you want a real mess, invite the neighbors to graze their horses on it. (Ask me how I know this) No offense to folks with horses, but they need to be switched from area to area often or they'll strip it beyond recovery, leaving just weeds.

My 10-acre field has recovered nicely in 4 years of staying off it except for finish mowing (high-speed shredding) It could handle some well-managed pasture duty now.
 
   / Pasture Maintenance #5  
Mike,

First of all if you take care of your pasture you should never have to replant it. Now to take care of it two things are an absolute necessity. One is a good rotary mower and two is a sprayer. You need to mow about every two weeks to keep the weeds down and stimulate grass growth. The Univ. of Col. did a study on this and they found that opposed to letting the grass grow and reseed itself or to cut the grass and stimulate growth. They found that grass growth and spreading of the roots, filling in, etc. was 7x that of letting the grass grow out. Next you need to keep the pasture free of weeds. The weeds will rob the pasture of essential nutrients, sunlight, and water. Mowing is first defense and then you need to spray in the spring and fall. During the summer any thistles, docweed, etc. need to be chopped out as they come up after spraying.

The next thing you need to do is have a soil sample done. This will tell you what your soil needs and you can have a local farm fertilizer place mix up what you need and come in and put it on or you can do it yourself. Then every spring or fall you need to reapply fertilizer and whatever else your soil needs.

Now you get into extras. An aerator is nice. It will help your ground stay healthy and let the grass grow much better as well. If you're going to have livestock on it you need to divide it up and rotate pastures. When you take the animals off of one part you need to have a harrow and go in there and spread the manure piles around. Try not to let the grass get too eaten off before you move them. If you do the grass can't withstand the weeds and you will start getting weeds in there. Another helpful hint is don't feed hay on your grass. Hay contains alot of weed seed and you will just be fighting it for years to come.

If you do all the above you will have as much grass as you want for many, many years to come.

18-35034-TRACTO~1.GIF
 
   / Pasture Maintenance #6  
Hi ya
could ya be a bit clearer on ya pasture ,ie do you want to feed animals or just have it as a over sized lawn
catch ya
JD Kid
 
   / Pasture Maintenance
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Thanks for the great and helpful replies y'all.

We currently have four horses...too many for the land we have. This pasture was just a field that we did nothing with, i.e., no fertilizer, no weed killer, etc. We just cut it once or twice per year, then we got the horses. They manage to eat all the grass, leaving the little yellow flowers here and there. Where they have eaten, it's pretty bare. We tried over seeding one year, kept the horses off of it for a few weeks, but no new grass came up that we could see.

I talked to the farmer we buy hay from and he mentioned that he 'starts over' every few years in the fields he grows hay in. So I thought 'starting over' as if we were planting a yard would be the best thing to do. It sounds like it isn't.

We don't feed the horses in the pasture, but we haven't done the soil sample and some of the other things mentioned.

Since I am planning on getting a real tractor (bx2200, FEL, mmm) soon, I thought I might as well find out what other implements would be helpful in rejuvenating and then maintaining this pasture.


I was concerned about using fertilizer/herbicides given that our horses are on it.
 
   / Pasture Maintenance #8  
Hi ya Mike
well if it was mine i'd be renewing it it's sounds like the weeds have got a good hold you could do a bit a year so you have not got all your block out in one hit
if you do get someone in frist to tell you what weeds you have and how best to kill them ,may have to spray if to hard to kill by tilling , also get a fert test done .you may have to have a crop(short term grass 1 year kind of stuff) or 2 off it before you regrass to clean it up .put in good grasses keep the fert up to it and you field will keep you and your horses happy .as i'm in New Zealand it would pay to ask around in your area to see what works best
catch ya
JD Kid
 
   / Pasture Maintenance #9  
Mike,
That's a different story. I would definitely start over with what you have. I just redid one of my pastures last year because of what you have said. The previous owners did nothing with it except overgraze it. Once the weeds have a hold it's useless to try.

To replant you need to first spray the whole thing with roundup. Kill everything there. Let that sit for a few weeks while all the growth is killed. Then you need to plow, disc, and harrow it. After you plow it and disc it add the nutrients that you need from your soil sample and then harrow it. The best way to plant grass seed is with a drill. This will assure you that your grass will get planted. If you don't have one or can't get access to one you can broadcast spread it and then go over it with a harrow. Then you've got to have water! This is usually a task to do either in the early spring or fall is best. Then DON'T put any livestock on it for at least two - three months after the grass is growing. The reason is because the roots haven't est. themselves and the horses will just rip the grass out roots and all and you'll be back to square one. Plus you need the grass to be good and healthy to avoid reinfestation with weeds. With 10 acres you should be able to keep four horses if you manage your pasture and rotate pastures. I would definitely cross fence your ground.

What the farmer you talked to was talking about replanting is for hay. Usually hay, alfalfa, is only good for about 4-7 years and then peters out. Then you need to replant with another crop like corn or oats for a year or two to rotate the crop. This will build back up the ground for hay. Then before you put hay back in you need to build back up your nitrogen levels, etc. But making hay is a whole other thread...

18-35034-TRACTO~1.GIF
 
   / Pasture Maintenance #10  
Hi ya cowboydoc
yep ya hit the nail on the head with that write up the only thing i would add is mix ya grass seed with some dry fert if you spred it, more even and eazer to set spreder ..other thing is maybe roll after seeding better seed to soil contact and holds in mosture +makes it flater for mowing ,another thing is if weeds are hard to kill 2 sprays (a month or so apart)get's rid of hard to kill weeds .a note with round up is plants must be clean ie no dust (round up don't work in dirt!!)so graze hard let it freshen up then spray ,also lime can upset round up so if you need lime put it on after you spray .
catch ya
JD Kid
 

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