Getting Annual Summer Pastures Planted

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I've become a fan of planting summer pastures for our Fall born calves to background on. I'm still trying to figure out how to make it pencil but I'm getting close!šŸ˜

Tried Ray's Crazy Mix for the first spot. Nice that it was mixed already and the price wasn't too bad. 50lbs per acre in the Esch drill and trying to beat the rain.

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Started my second spot with is 30 acres total. Was trying to get half planted since you have to stagger plantings to make sure some of it doesn't get away from you. I'll wait 10-12 days and plant the rest of it. Rain forced me in after getting about half of the half section done. Only received 1/10" according to FarmLogs so might be able to finish today before the real rain starts tonight. Suppose to have 4 days of rain chances starting tonight with 100% chance tonight calling for an 1" plus.

This mix is a 15lbs BMR dwarf Sudangrass, 10lbs BMR Pearl Millet, 5lbs Cowpeas and 5lbs perdovik sunflowers per acre. Will put in 5lbs sorghum per acre with the other half to try something different. After mixing this in the box by hand in 92 degree weather the Ray's premixed bags looked a lot better for the cost difference


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I'm going to try and run weaned calves in these pastures for 60-70 days then run Spring pairs through it till it peters out. I will put back to perennial mix this Fall.
How many calves to the acre is normal for those 60-70 days?

Also, do you stagger planting dates on purpose or is that due to rain in the forecast?
 
How many calves to the acre is normal for those 60-70 days?

Also, do you stagger planting dates on purpose or is that due to rain in the forecast?
We ran 80 calves on 30 acres last year but used a hot wire and moved them every 5-7 days and gave 25ish days of rest per paddock. Could have used a little more rest last year hence the reason I've set aside another 30 acres (12 of it being the Ray's Crazy Mix other 18 is really good mixed grasses) for this year. We are going to run 125 weaned calves together this year. Worse case we throw back on summer stock piled pastures and let the annuals get a few more rest days.

We stagger planting because if you don't everything comes ready to graze all at once then you have to cut some for hay or it will get anyway from you before the calves have a chance to graze it. It happens really bad with Sudan Sorghum, it will get to 48" plus in a blink.
 
That machine does a nice neat job. What preparation did you do, if any to the ground?

Ken
Usually I would just run a Kuhn vertical tillage disk set at 5 degrees running around 3.5" deep that I borrow from a row crop farmer. But this was rough ground so I had to run an offset disk through it first. The 30 acre piece just saw the vertical disk then the drill. This no till drill is HEAVY and it pulverizes the ground when it drills. Breaks up a lot of the dirt clods. The last piece I still have to drill will just get sprayed then drilled since it's fairly smooth already.
 
I'm going to try some Canamaize for winter stockpile. It's a 69 day corn. I'll plant on 15" rows but it would work well for summer grazing. Seed cost will be around $50 an acre. I'm hoping to get it in the first half of September.
 
I'm going to try some Canamaize for winter stockpile. It's a 69 day corn. I'll plant on 15" rows but it would work well for summer grazing. Seed cost will be around $50 an acre. I'm hoping to get it in the first half of September.
I've heard of Canamaize but I don't know much about it. Seed cost sounds great would love to hear the results of it.
 
I've heard of Canamaize but I don't know much about it. Seed cost sounds great would love to hear the results of it.
If it looks like the beans won't be out in time to make a crop of it I'll probably plant part of it in a four acre dry lot and a couple acres where I've fed hay in another pasture. I got enough to do around 25 acres so plan B will leave me with a lot of extra seed.

I was hoping to plant my short season beans in April but weather didn't cooperate. That field was planted around may 10-12 so it's gonna hurry it to get out in time.

What's the price on your crazy mix? Would it work for winter stockpiling? I like the idea of having the legumes in there. I'm going with the corn because A. I know it will grow well here and B. No annual stockpiles like corn that I know of. Not sure whether to put cows or stocker calves on it. All I know is if it works it'll be better than most of the fescue hay around here.
 
I am very interested in grazing annual cocktails. Have been shy to give it a go. But with the costs of feedstuff and fertilize it may be the better route for me.

What kind of gains do you all expect to see on these mixes?
 
If it looks like the beans won't be out in time to make a crop of it I'll probably plant part of it in a four acre dry lot and a couple acres where I've fed hay in another pasture. I got enough to do around 25 acres so plan B will leave me with a lot of extra seed.

I was hoping to plant my short season beans in April but weather didn't cooperate. That field was planted around may 10-12 so it's gonna hurry it to get out in time.

What's the price on your crazy mix? Would it work for winter stockpiling? I like the idea of having the legumes in there. I'm going with the corn because A. I know it will grow well here and B. No annual stockpiles like corn that I know of. Not sure whether to put cows or stocker calves on it. All I know is if it works it'll be better than most of the fescue hay around here.

First year I've tried it so I have no clue if it would work for a winter stockpile. I'd imagine most of the nutritional benefit would peter out once it starts to cool off so my gut is telling me probably not.

It was $70 a bag and you can plant 40-60 pounds an acre. I went with a 45-50lb drilling.
 
I am very interested in grazing annual cocktails. Have been shy to give it a go. But with the costs of feedstuff and fertilize it may be the better route for me.

What kind of gains do you all expect to see on these mixes?
Last fall with my annual cocktails the calves did close to 1.75 lbs a day. They need to be on them longer I've figured out to really make it pencil but I'm working on it. Still a work in progress..
 
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