Going from overgrown to hay

[littletom]

For the last 2 years I have bushhogged a over grown field. Two years ago it was pretty large trees 3 inch size I rode down, today just a lot of saplings that sprouted of those stobs. Going to disk down and put in hay this spring. My question is should I spray this down first, to keep from coming back through my new hay? If so what is the best thing to kill trees and briars. About a 8 acre field.

 

[Banjo]

any field will try to go back to the 'wild' if not touched for a few years. Just keep mowing it once a year or so and it will stop trying to grow trees. If you can get some livestock on it too will help.

 

[bird dog]

I think I would spray it with Surmount and see what is already there. You might be surprised.

 

[Deepsouth]

I think I would spray it with Surmount and see what is already there. You might be surprised.

I agree.

 

[dun]

If I was going to go through the effort of disking it and reseeding I would grub out as much of the brush/tree roots as I could before planting.

 

[littletom]

Not much there this was owned by family then I bought last summer. Trees and broom sage going to test it but I know the ph is low. However a preferred soil type. Not that much trouble to disk down I will be on that farm doing tillage on tobacco ground. I just want to make sure to get the trees and weeds killed if I am going to the expense to fix it right. (If that is what I need to do) I also have the spray eqt.

 

[dun]

Not much there this was owned by family then I bought last summer. Trees and broom sage going to test it but I know the ph is low. However a preferred soil type. Not that much trouble to disk down I will be on that farm doing tillage on tobacco ground. I just want to make sure to get the trees and weeds killed if I am going to the expense to fix it right. (If that is what I need to do) I also have the spray eqt.

This is one of "those" kind of deals. Spraying now would be a waste since plants need to be actively growing for the herbicides to work other then pre-emergent types. Years of neglect/abuse cannot be fixed in a year, it takes time. Come up with a plan of what you want to accomplish and how you can best do it. I would attack the woddy growth problems first. Cutting and grubbing out the roots. Second step would be to get the soil up to test and identify what is growing in the field now. I would try to not have yo disk the field for the simple reason that you will just aggravate/stimulate the existing weed seed bank. I would no til in some type of annual cover crop, sudan/sudex oats wheat rye then attack whatever broadleaf weeds show up. After psrying the broadleaf stuff I would probably mow and bale the annual crop you sowed then no-till in the grass mixture you want to deal with. That would be year one, year 2 would be to keep attacking the broadleaf weeds. Depending on what you are growing for the hay crop, if it's something that will reseed I would mow it late and bale it letting the seedheads shatter and add more seed to the seed bank. The next year you should be in good enough shape that you can start dealing with it as a normal hay field.
When we bought this farm it was a disaster through neglect and abuse, basicly because of poor farming/grazing practices. It took a few years but people that were familiar with it before and see it now can;t believe the difference. It took 3 years to get it in good shape, now it's very little work to keep it that way. Now it's mostly a matter of handling the encroachment of the blackberrys and cedars.