cow seeding

[rnh1]

Has anyone heard of mixing clover/grass seed in feed and letting animals sow it ? I heard this works for red clover :dunce:

 

[dun]

Tere are some folks that swear by putting the seed in the minerals. I've never tried it and don;t know anyone who has. Seems like it's always my neighbors brothers cousin puts clover seed in his minerals..........................

 

[Stocker Steve]

Yes, and then some cow pies look like Chia pets after a rain.

Cheapest approach is to buy mature hay with red clover seed in it for bale grazing.

 

[ga.prime]

I heard of it. I tried it. Didn't work.

 

[hillbillycwo]

I did what Steve suggested (by accident) and it worked very well. I fed this over mature hay in ares that were poor stands of grass edges of lanes and ditches and in the edges of fence rows and brush piles. The cows cleaned these areas up for me and this year I had grazing in areas I didn't last year. Now I also have red clover where I didn't last year. This fall I plan on feeding all my hay like this. I am clear cutting 5 acres and then will feed my hay here this winter to help clean it up and get volunteer growth of clover and fescue in the spring. Then in about Feb I will broadcast some rye (20#'s per acre) and clover (6#'s per acre) and come back the following fall and broadcast fescue (12#'s per acre) again.

Cows will come out of this field in mid March and will be allowed to graze this field litely through the remaining spring and summer or heavier if the grass allows. This seemed to give me fairly good pasture this year and hopefully even better next year as the soil test called for 3 Tons of lime to the acre and I plan on doing that this fall with 40#'s to the acre of P and K. Soil test your field first so you know what you have then you can work your plan from there. Will save you money in the long run.

 

[Douglas]

I think you can do it for clover. It will take years of reseeding to get it spread around tho. And a lot will end up in shade areas, watering areas, etc. Depending on where you are, frost broadcast seeding works in the north as is very inexpensive and more reliable. In the south i would encourage fall overseeding and allow cows to incorporate clover with hoof action. That allows you to manage each paddock for reseeding better. Without removing cows during seed production you not going to get it spread.

 

[cowboy43]

It works real good on mesquite, we have a bumper crop of beans this year , every pie is loaded with passed through beans, can't wait for a good rain so they can start sprouting.

 

[cowboy43]

I have heard you will find a lot of tomato plants around sewage treatment plants, where the seeds have passed throught people and got deposited, think about that when you eat your next tomato :frowns:

 

[TexasBred]

I have heard you will find a lot of tomato plants around sewage treatment plants, where the seeds have passed throught people and got deposited, think about that when you eat your next tomato :frowns:

Watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers and an occasional "pot" plant too. ;-) A man could make himself a pretty nice "spread" from the "garden of eden". :lol2:

 

[hillbillycwo]

Get my maters outta my garden....lol

 

[triplejbarnes]

I have never tried it, but don't see any reason that it will not work. Several years ago I had thick stands of white clover in my front pasture. The cows would eat it, then stead it naturally. Now I have white clover in all my pastures.

 

[rnh1]

thanx guys and gals

 

[Post Oak]

I have been putting Durana clover in my mineral mix this past week. I am going to see how good this works. Bahia, Durana, and yellow hop clover have already spread well on my place just by the cows eating and spreading the seed.

 

[bird dog]

Good mature rye grass baled up and then rolled out works excellent. Roll it out in a damp area and you will have some grass in two weeks

 

[Post Oak]

Good mature rye grass baled up and then rolled out works excellent. Roll it out in a damp area and you will have some grass in two weeks

I had that happening with some fescue hay that I put out earlier this year.

 

[D2Cat]

I have Johnson Grass get a good start from round bales I bought and rolled out to eat.

You guys fertilize and sell it and up here the county considers it a noxious weed.

 

[shaz]

Zero success here.

 

[Nesikep]

We've never tried seeding by giving it to the cows to eat..
However, we have seeded clover on snow before and let the cows in, and when the snow leaves they'll pack it into the ground nicely.. Critical thing is to water it at the right time, if the weather doesn't cooperate.

 

[greybeard]

Good mature rye grass baled up and then rolled out works excellent. Roll it out in a damp area and you will have some grass in two weeks

yes, and it will work with bahia too but it's a slow and pretty in-efficient way to get a pasture going imo. I wouldn't know about clover.

 

[Lucky_P]

Some 'hard' seed will pass through and likely germinate... but what about Rhizobium inoculant? If it's needed, it won't survive the pass through the cow's GI tract. Overall, it seems like a really high-priced protein supplement, buying seed and feeding it to the cattle... you'd probably be better off, if you're not going to broadcast frost-seed it, just to fill your pockets with it and toss a handful here and there into bare spots whenever you walk across the pasture.