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Post by generalchaos on Aug 7, 2022 19:28:54 GMT -6
I have a neighbor with about 6 acres of pasture. He asked me how to seed into it. I’m guessing it must be thinning out. Can you go in with a regular drill maybe after a rain and seed it or do you need a no till drill, those heavy ones?
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Post by Beerwiser on Aug 7, 2022 23:07:03 GMT -6
None of it really works IMO. The only caveat to that is if you get moisture and even then it is so so. With pasture it is packed like a road, those tasty four legged fart sacks do a great job at that and that is the biggest problem. The heavy press drills like the hay busters will put it in but don't do anything to loosen up the soil to get roots established. Depending on what he wants to put in is also a factor, putting alfalfa into a field with established alfalfa does not work. Grasses are easier to catch in old stands. How old is the stand and how rough is it is where I should have started. If it is like mine, old and rough. Spray it out and turn it under, start fresh.
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Post by northernfarmer on Aug 8, 2022 8:46:46 GMT -6
While never having dealt with pastures myself I just have to look at pastures that have not been worked up for some years and compare ground right beside it that has been worked up and seeded to crop or replanted to pasture and like Beerwiser said, those old pastures are so pounded down that they look "dead", they don't grow properly come spring compared to untrampled ground around it even if it was a spring that had plenty of moisture. By rights ground like that needs the hard pan loosened up with some type of very deep tillage and worked up and left for a year with some workings to get the clumps worked up and then seed and harrow pack to create a smooth surface and let the plants get well established before having animals running around on it. In a perfect world having a few pastures to rotate with so that one can be worked up and established properly.
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Post by generalchaos on Aug 8, 2022 10:46:53 GMT -6
It was seeded to alfalfa 14 years ago. All that’s left is grass. No alfalfa.
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Post by generalchaos on Aug 8, 2022 12:00:52 GMT -6
Maybe it would be more beneficial to slap some fertilizer on?
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Post by Beerwiser on Aug 9, 2022 9:48:03 GMT -6
I would start with fertilizer, cheapest and it will definitely help. There were a couple of fertilizer companies that used to have a NH3 applicator meant for hay and pasture land that worked well. Burnt the grass right where it was put on, but the grass around it more than made up for it.
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Post by snapper22 on Aug 10, 2022 22:52:10 GMT -6
Spike it with 100# n via a nh3 cultivator with eagle beaks or some kind of 1” knife. Have a field that’s been down 30+ years which was pooped and we did that. Next season and years after it’s been good.
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