hay field improvments

[plbcattle]

I am looking to add 40 acres and possibly 20 nest to it for hay production. The field is mostly bermuda that has been used soley for hay production. Most cuttings round hay and maybe 1 cutting for square for horse people. My question is what would you do to make this as good a field as you could. I would like to plant rancho frio or cheyenne in it next year. Would you just spray it and overseed common or is disking the field up and using a drill to seed. I want the best grass I can produce and cost isn't a concern. I am worried if I am spending to much time trying to improve it only to have it resort back to common anyway. I already have 40 acres that is sprigged and it is hard to keep it clean. These new hybrids are supposed to produce 2-3 times the grass per acre. Also I have heard about a roundup ready bermuda. AAnybody used it yet.

 

[MikeC]

Aren't Rancho Frio and Cheyenne just a variation/strain of a common bermuda?

I do know there are hundreds of varieties of "Common" bermudas. I can walk across a pasture I have and see several different ones in the same pasture.

Kind of like the Tifton 9 "Bahia" is just a specific version of Pensacola bahia.

If you want a real "Hybrid" bermuda, like Coastal, Russell or Tif 85, it aint cheap........

 

[Stepper]

Well this is what i would do if it were me. First i would get soil samples and if your not familiar how to take them get the extension agent to come out and take them the first time arround so you will know how to go about taken them.

With out knowing where you stand at on your soil. It does not matter what or how exspensive of grass you plant. If your ph is off for that picticular type of grass you are tring to grow it is not going to grow very good.(depending how far off the ph is)

And now would be a good time to do just that. Because if you need to add alot of lime (or any lime) it is going to take about 6 months to change the ph of the soil. So if needed to you could add that after your last hay cutting this summer to start getting the ph where it needs to be.

And another thing to keep in mind. Unless you are lucky and the feild has been already taken good care of and producing the best it can. You may be looking at 2 possiably 3 years to get it doing what you want it to do.

As far as the best grass goes i guess that is a matter of prefrence. I myself like bemuda grass, the last feild i sprigged was world feeder. And i was not all that impressed with it after i got it established. Mainly because it does not produce very much tonage per acre.(about 3 tons to acre tops) But the man i bought the sprigs from said he paid like $50 a bushel for the sprigs to sprig a 10 acre feild that he later bought a sprig digger to transplant another 50 acres with. He gave me a good deal on the sprigs so i went with the world feeder.

If i ever sprig another feild. I would probably go with a hybrid that produces as much tonage as possible. I have herd some good things about the tifton 99.

The only other thing that i think i would be interested into looking at is alphalpha.(probably is not spelt right) And the only reason i myself would consider planting that is for small squares to sale to horse people. I really dont know enough about the cost that would go into planting that. But i know of a good market for it in my area.

But the first step to get to where you are wanting to go is to talk with your local extension agent and get some soil samples. That would be my advice.