Bale grazing and reseeding

[RefugeRanch]

I am new to raising cattle and pasture management and I have been doing some reading on building good soil and came a crossed bale grazing and how it helps distribute manure/urine. I have one paddock that by appearence (thin grassy areas/dirt patches) is not real healthy. So I have started bale grazing in this paddock. My question is, can I spread seed during this process being the time of year that it is? I live in the central Michigan area. We currently have no snow and the ground seems to be semi-frozen.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Jogeephus]

I feed clover/bermuda bales in areas I want clover and its surprising how well it spreads. While I'm sure it would work I don't think I would scatter seed now since much of it will be trampled too deep to do any good and when conditions are right for germination odds are the seed won't be in the right location to germinate. I'd just wait if it were me.

 

[ousoonerfan22]

I've been feeding round bales in thin and bare spots in the pasture and now have grass started where there was hardly any before.My uncle owns the pasture and ran cattle before I started leasing it and I can see bermuda growing in places where he fed round bales in scattered areas in the pasture.

 

[Crazy Farmgirl]

My advice would be to hold off scattering seed until spring green-up to see where you'll need it. Also this crazy winter we're having in Michigan could prove to be the death of your efforts, with the thawing then hard freezing over and over without snow to insulate the ground and the animals driving it to deep in the ground you may not get the desired yeild from the seed.

 

[IluvABbeef]

There's the possibility that you may not even need to reseed. Bale grazing may work so good for you come growing season that you may see no benefit in reseeding, instead of just letting it be and letting Nature do its job.

JMO.

 

[JSCATTLE]

I unroll a lot of my hay . Last spring I baled a field that had quite abit of rye grass in it . I noticed today several streaks of rye grass coming up where I hay . I also seeded some new ground with Bahia by unrolling hay .

 

[Aaron]

Same your time, money and seed for the spring. Not all seed will work. Even harrowing the paddock in the spring won't be a sure thing. I did the harrowing and seeding bit on my bale-grazed paddocks last spring and I don't have a definitive answer yet. This summer will tell me if it was worth the $300 in seed. I can say this though: annual ryegrass will work - oats didn't (burnt out).