Ball Clover

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Slick what would you be mixing it with ? I never planted any but I thought I read somewhere before that the ball clover has a extremely high bloat potential if I remember correctly. I am curious as to what is the cost for the seed?
 
There's rye already there, but we discussed mixing in some vetch along with it. (No experience there either.) This guy wants $162.50 for 25 lbs. and the vetch is $25 per 50.

I've seen the Sollock videos.
 
Suggest trying a mixture of Ball clover vetch and possibly Austrian winter peas and closely observe how each produces both forage and seed wise. Hopefully you can find one that produces plenty of forage and volunteers well. As each farm is different it will take a little experimentation to find out what works on your farm. It may even vary by different fields due to soil type and drainage.
 
Texas PaPaw":4qahbclq said:
Suggest trying a mixture of Ball clover vetch and possibly Austrian winter peas and closely observe how each produces both forage and seed wise. Hopefully you can find one that produces plenty of forage and volunteers well. As each farm is different it will take a little experimentation to find out what works on your farm. It may even vary by different fields due to soil type and drainage.
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This guy has his seed company in the next county over and has done some farming near my place. Don't exactly know what that means, but he speaks like he has some knowledge of my area. The peas throw me a little as I've never heard of anyone growing them here. Guess I'll be asking some of the local farmers about them. Thanks for the advice.
 
slick4591":1wn3udrm said:
Texas PaPaw":1wn3udrm said:
Suggest trying a mixture of Ball clover vetch and possibly Austrian winter peas and closely observe how each produces both forage and seed wise. Hopefully you can find one that produces plenty of forage and volunteers well. As each farm is different it will take a little experimentation to find out what works on your farm. It may even vary by different fields due to soil type and drainage.
Click to expand...

This guy has his seed company in the next county over and has done some farming near my place. Don't exactly know what that means, but he speaks like he has some knowledge of my area. The peas throw me a little as I've never heard of anyone growing them here. Guess I'll be asking some of the local farmers about them. Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...

Back in the 90's, I traveled Northeast Tx quite a bit and there were some folks in the Bonham-Paris area planting vetch and peas in their wheat pastures. Different folks planted different kinds of peas. Some planted Austrian and others planted singletary peas. Just saw an ad in Country World for a mixture of vetch and singletary peas for sale in LaDonia. Might be worth checking out
 
slick4591":1p9hgyoz said:
Seed man is trying to get me to buy. Says it's great stuff for our black clay-like soil. Any opinions?
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It will do fine.......if you get enough rain to grow anything at all..... :roll:

This was taken in March 2012...was probably originally planted in the late winter of 2010, maybe 2009. Went several years without much to show for my efforts. A little seed goes a long way. Their is both Ball and Arrowleaf Clover in the pics from different year plantings and trying to get something to survive 40 days between a rogue shower.





 
My malware protection doesn't like Country World, so I can't get in there. The seed company is over in Fannin County near Ladonia with a Commerce address. Sounds like their pastures are in the Wolfe City area, which would put it near Ladonia. Maybe same people. I'll give the guy a call back tomorrow and ask about the peas.

Vette, looks like you got it going there. Maybe one day I'll have better winter grazing pastures.
 
slick4591":22rrrv07 said:
My malware protection doesn't like Country World, so I can't get in there. The seed company is over in Fannin County near Ladonia with a Commerce address. Sounds like their pastures are in the Wolfe City area, which would put it near Ladonia. Maybe same people. I'll give the guy a call back tomorrow and ask about the peas.

Vette, looks like you got it going there. Maybe one day I'll have better winter grazing pastures.
Click to expand...

Winter pastures have been hits and misses lately....Really need this year to be a hit. Spent the last two days getting 25 acres ready to plant tomorrow.....We will see.
 
I have lots of Ball clover and love it. It is the best re-seeder I have. You will not get much grazing the first year. Lots of hard seed. The second year it will come on. The Vetch and Winter Peas will grow this year if we have rain. They will re-seed also if you manage it. You can have bloat with Ball clover if it is pure stand and lush. Do not turn in on it with hungry cows. Keep out dry hay or mix with enough ryegrass or oats to not have a pure stand of Ball. Out Ball has persisted for about 10 years now. FYI the Vetch and Peas will be a little later in the season than the Ball when you get it going. Some years I can graze the Ball as early as January but most years it starts in February and is good in March / April. Can go into May if wet and not too hot (I am south of you, just west of Tyler).
 
That's great information, CJohnson! I'll be making another call today.

Vette, I know about the hits and misses. Summer of '11 I planted 12 acres of B Dahl and don't guess a single seed sprouted. Of course, we didn't get much rain that year, either.
 
slick4591":23qxknjx said:
That's great information, CJohnson! I'll be making another call today.

Vette, I know about the hits and misses. Summer of '11 I planted 12 acres of B Dahl and don't guess a single seed sprouted. Of course, we didn't get much rain that year, either.
Click to expand...

I can get the rain to sprout it, just can't get another to keep it alive.
 
Imported from Planting Rye...

BC":2d47xni8 said:
Slick, you probably have ryegrass. It volunteers fairly well and comes on in early spring. "Winter" rye is a cereal grain just like wheat, oats or barley. It does not do well if it is just thrown out on top of the ground, in other words it needs to be on a prepared seedbed or at least no-till drilled into short sod.
Click to expand...

Okay, this is making more sense now. I just bought this from Atwoods and when I plant it won't be up until spring like the other stuff I have, correct?



I'm not able to prepare a seed bed except to scratch the soil with an old harrow. Planned on doing that first, then broadcast seed then run the harrow back over it. Is anything I've been talking about going to germinate if I do it like this?
 
The ryegrass you bought will come up with your planting protocol. It would come up quicker if you could lightly disk (scratch the surface) and then overseed and harrow in the seed.
 
slick4591":4fr3l4kh said:
Imported from Planting Rye...

BC":4fr3l4kh said:
Slick, you probably have ryegrass. It volunteers fairly well and comes on in early spring. "Winter" rye is a cereal grain just like wheat, oats or barley. It does not do well if it is just thrown out on top of the ground, in other words it needs to be on a prepared seedbed or at least no-till drilled into short sod.
Click to expand...

Okay, this is making more sense now. I just bought this from Atwoods and when I plant it won't be up until spring like the other stuff I have, correct?



I'm not able to prepare a seed bed except to scratch the soil with an old harrow. Planned on doing that first, then broadcast seed then run the harrow back over it. Is anything I've been talking about going to germinate if I do it like this?
Click to expand...
wrong......... It is a cool season grass. Annual means it produces a crop yearly.... plant this year for a crop this year (it does reseed itself quite nicely in some areas). Gulf is pretty much the most common. Planting the way you are planning and given you get some rain and it turns off cooler, it should thrive. Your only nemesis would be lack of timely rain and an extended period of hot dry weather. If it turned off cool (highs in mid 70s) and wet you could probably be grazing by Thanksgiving.
 
That's what I was hoping for. The ryegrass that's volunteer here doesn't come up until late February or early March, so I didn't want to duplicate that.
 
Hello Slick,

I am from your neck of the woods and I haven't been online the last week because I was planting clover and Ryegrass. I have seen and read the articles from Solluck as well.
Got 35 acres done prior to the rain and I plan on doing another clover/ryegrass on another 30 acres within the next week or two.
My plan is to focus on rotational grazing and stockpiling for winter...and avoid the hay business all together.

Bought my seed from East Texas Seed http://www.easttexasseedcompany.com/
Graze King Ball Clover and Prine Tetraploid Ryegrass
 

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