Allowing Pastures to to to seed ?

[Stocker Steve]

How much successes have you had with this, and what grasses or legumes responded the best with this approach?

 

[skyhightree1]

How much successes have you had with this, and what grasses or legumes responded the best with this approach?

It works great for me its how pastures get pretty thick. KY31 and orchard grass ladino clover works best for me.

 

[Howdyjabo]

Get the soil nutrients right and it works great for Fescue.
I got all my pastures to recover from the drought by doing that. I had spots that only had a few seed heads the first year, they are filled in thick now.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I have meadow fescue, ladino, and OG in my mixes. It seems like the cattle avoid the OG seed stems so it reproduces unless you mob graze it or clip it.
Has anyone also had success with red clover, or reed canary ?

 

[novatech]

Many grasses and legumes will reseed better if you have the soil ph, N,P,and K right.

 

[NWMoAngus]

Assuming your pastures are seeded into perennial grasses, allowing them to go to seed is overrated.

 

[CravinGrazin]

NWMOAngus, more details?

 

[greybeard]

Lots of perennial grasses become kinda dormant if allowed to go to seed. They have, after all, fulfilled nature's primary goal--reproduction. They get stemmy and tough.
On a new bahia pasture, I'll let it go to seed once/year for the first 2 years to build a seed bank, but after that, I either keep it grazed down or clip the top of it if it gets too tall. (I don't hay here)
I do try t let annual ryegrass make seed heads in springtime--some of it will come back from seed even tho it is an annual.

The other downside to letting forage go to seed is that any weeds also go to seed if you aren't spraying.

 

[pdfangus]

I have a little paddock that was mixed grass....last fall I seeded rye and vetch and cow peas.....didn't get to it to graze it this spring....looked at it over the weekend and those things have fallen over but the legumes are feeding the bermuda.....common native bermuda... and it is booming in that paddock...

 

[JWBrahman]

I am having success with Timothy Grass from the big box store. Last summer I let it die out and go to seed then mowed it. This year it is literally everywhere but I probably won't have it next because the cattle eat it to the bone.

Timothy Grass has a very short growth period here. It is only alive from July - August. It works well in combination with Dutch White Clover. When the clover dies, the Timothy grass pops up and takes off. By September the Timothy is completely finished.

 

[CravinGrazin]

Isn't letting pastures set seed periodically one of the primary benefits of rotational grazing? Greybeard really makes the point, right? Let it build some seed in the soil so it renews itself (going back to having a perennial vs. an annual) so the whole system is renewed.... I guess I was just wondering if I had missed something in the point that NWMOAngus had made. You sure do give up some tender grass by letting the plant mature, but that's the price of renewal with perennials isn't it? I'd sure be interested in learning more if I've missed the point.

Hey pdfangus, what are your plans for the fall seeded forage now that it's matured out? Are you concerned about the rye coming back on you?

 

[dun]

Isn't letting pastures set seed periodically one of the primary benefits of rotational grazing? Greybeard really makes the point, right? Let it build some seed in the soil so it renews itself (going back to having a perennial vs. an annual) so the whole system is renewed.... I guess I was just wondering if I had missed something in the point that NWMOAngus had made. You sure do give up some tender grass by letting the plant mature, but that's the price of renewal with perennials isn't it? I'd sure be interested in learning more if I've missed the point.

Hey pdfangus, what are your plans for the fall seeded forage now that it's matured out? Are you concerned about the rye coming back on you?

We let a pasture or 2 go fallow during the summer just for the reseeding/seedbank reasons. I'll clip them late summer and those will be the first that we'll start in the stockpiled rotation.

 

[pdfangus]

Hey pdfangus, what are your plans for the fall seeded forage now that it's matured out? Are you concerned about the rye coming back on you?

my plan is to let it go until just before frost to see what happens with the bermuda grass.....
like Dun said...I like to let a paddock or two go fallow every year just to have a chance to rebuild and renew itself....this one has not been grazed since last fall and then I broadcast the rye vetch and peas....
I will graze it before frost for sure....
I plant a lot of cover crops broadcast on paddocks...
I like rye and don't have crops so I am hopeful that the rye and the vetch will self seed....

 

[Dale L]

Stocker Steve - I have not had near as much luck with red clover as we do with the white. Our pastures are a mix of K31 and white with some orchard grass. We seeded some crimson clover in one field but it just doesn't hang around as long. We haven't seeded any white clover for years (probably since my grandpa was farming this place which was 15 years ago at least.) But the white clover is thick in many of our fields.