How to pick good pasture

[denoginnizer]

I have been looking at some row crop land and thinking of making it into pasture. Anyone tried this? An old cattlemen told me that row crop land makes very good pasture.
This particular place has a irragation system.

 

[Conagher]

Logically, I would think if you could grow row crops, you could grow pasture grass. I think the benefit of row crop land is the crop farmer has probably corrected any drainage problems and has eraticated the weeds and brush; and assuming he was pulling soil samples for his crops, he probably kept up the fertility of the soil up to produce his crops.

I bought some old pasture land which was highly neglected for several years; weeds, brush, low fertility, etc. My ag ext. agent suggested I rent it out to a sweet potato farmer for a year to clear the land and kill the weeds - then establish my pasture after the harvest. I chose a different route, but it would have been a good way to establish a good seed bed for sprigging.

Good Luck.

 

[jkwilson]

Depending on the area, the soil, farming methods and crops grown, it might take a few years to get it into shape. I bought some ground that had been in crops since the days of farming with horses. Been no-tilled for several years before I bought it. Plow pan down about a foot, and surface soil was hard. Never saw an earthworm in all the postholes I dug. I wish I'd had the opportunity to have a subsoiler pulled through it, but I sold other ground to buy it and couldn't wait for conditions to improve before seeding.
After several years of pasture, I can see a big improvement in the feel of the soil and pasture productivity. Soil nutrients seem much more stable per soil tests as well. Ground coming out of CRP or hay would be the best non-pasture to convert, IMHO.

 

[flaboy]

I have been looking at some row crop land and thinking of making it into pasture. Anyone tried this? An old cattlemen told me that row crop land makes very good pasture.
This particular place has a irragation system.

Our place was a row crop farm 50 years ago. Took us about several years to flatten it, plant it, and get cattle on it. Much of this time was fencing and such also. We started with a Bermuda grass and it worked well here for years but eventually gave up. I hope to cut some up this year and try some Tifton 9 on some acreage that just has grass that grew after we cut and leveled those fields. We never really planted anything in them other than a small amount of Bahia. Now that I think back on it many of the places around me used to be row crop farms. Most have now turned into cattle/horse or sod farms.

 

[jerry27150]

here , it makes real good pasture. yours should if the guy using it put anything back into the soil. ask how his crops looked the last few years. his neighbors could tell you. if crops were good grass will be