What implements do I need?

[Anonymous Poster]

I have a B2710 and 20 acres of old pasture (fescue) that I want to burn off and plant with prairie grasses. What implements do I need for ground preparation and planting. Plow, disc, rake, etc.? What sizes for my 'bota? Best brands?
Briarwood

 

[toddler]

That's a lot of burning. Couldn't you just cut it down a few times? What's the difference between fescue and prairie grass?
Todd

 

[Briarwood]

Todd
Fescue is a non-nutritional grass that is only good for erosion control IMHO. It is a thick, course grass that is not even good for livestock graze. I want to eliminate it in my old unused pasture and replant grasses that will attract wildlife, especially quail. I am not an expert on this and am just beginning my research. There are surely others on this board with more knowledge than me. However, ground dwelling birds and even rabbits do not like the thick growing fescue and prefer prarie grasses and legumes that grow in clumps and provide good overhead cover as well as better nutrition. I do not necessarily mean literally burning the fields although this is a possibility, but "burning" in the sense of using a herbacide that is especially effective against fescue.

I guess I raised an issue here that I hadn't intended. I am new to rural life and now own a 'bota B2710. I just want to know what implements that I can buy that will help me the most. Thought I would first ask here before I go to a dealer and start asking alot of stupid questions. FWIW.
Briarwood

 

[Bird]

Briarwood, it's a tough question to answer without knowing a lot of details about what you have now; type of soil, amount of moisture, how much time and money you can spend, do you have rocks to contend with, how smooth or close to a "lawn" you want the final product to be, etc. If you now have tall grass, you may want to mow it before applying herbicide. Then if you want a really nice, smooth, seedbed, turn it with a moldboard or turning plow, followed by a tiller, and then a drag harrow. On the other hand, you may need nothing but a disk if you have the right kind of ground. Right now I don't think any disk light enough for my B2710 to pull would be able to do more than barely scratch this hard, dry, clay where I live./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

 

[TresCrows]

Well, to kill the fescue which I doubt what you have is really fescue since my fescue is fine and soft and green and not at all hard and course but you will need an applicator tank with a boom extension to spray herbicides, liquid fertilizers etc. I suggest also a chain harrow from Furest and like Bird said a tiller. You will also need a PTO powered broadcaster for seeding. I am intersted in establishing native praire also but one must be careful--I think you should--- 1. kill with two appplications of Roundup starting now and the second or even 3 in mid September. 2. Do not turn the ground because you will cause all kinds of weeds to spring up. 3. "No till" in your seeds with your PTO powered spreader after dragging with the tine harrow and then after seeding drag the seeds in. 4. Hope for rain. J

 

[RobS]

BW, check out Prairie Nursery if you already haven't. Some good info on starting native grasses etc. I looked into this last year when we bought our property and decided to put the money into the new house first. It seemed pretty pricey to get started. A friend of mine has about 10 acres in prairie that is beginning to look very nice. One thing he learned is that the native plant seeds won't pass through a seed drill. He borrowed one from the county, but it was useless. He ended up sowing the seeds by hand after some snow so he could see exactly where they went /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif