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Jim Gerrish's fescue-plus grazing and stockpile mix
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<blockquote data-quote="Mossy Dell" data-source="post: 1543410" data-attributes="member: 24261"><p><strong>I just finished Jim Gerrish's book Kick the Hay Habit.</strong> Very interesting. Basically he says to stock for winter grazing, not summer. Winter pasturing should set the size of your herd or flock.</p><p></p><p><strong>The actual costs of hay are staggering, as he presents them.</strong> When I was doing MIG for 10 years in SE Ohio fescue country with a flock of sheep, I moved away from stockpiling. I liked it, but I was paid so well for lambs. I kept increasing the size of my flock, running three ewes per acre. That was a conservative year-round average there. It allowed for some winter grazing but much less than if I had run two per acre on average. Hay was a huge expense, however. And it was the labor of hay that was beginning to get to me as I got older and lazier.</p><p></p><p><strong>Anyway, I found Gerrish's pasture mix he used in Missouri interesting—a mix of tall fescue, orchardgrass, smooth brome, and timothy.</strong> Now, he is Mr. Stockpile, so what was anything besides fescue doing in there? He likes diversity. And he said he found that if a pasture was at about 40% fescue, the fescue formed a protective canopy for the other grasses in winter.</p><p></p><p><strong>He did not specify a seeding rate, so I sat down with seed charts and tried to come up with rates for that mix that would result in a pasture of about half tall fescue:</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Fescue = 10 lbs</strong> [227,000 seeds/lb = x 10 = 2.27 million]</p><p><strong>Brome = 5 lbs </strong>[135,000 seeds/lb = x 5 = 675,000]</p><p><strong>Orchardgrass = 4 lbs</strong> [416,000/lb. x 4 = 1.6 million]</p><p><strong>Timothy = .5 lb</strong> [1.15 million/lb x 1/2 = 500,000]</p><p></p><p><strong>Check my math! </strong>And I have always seeded at high rates, so you could probably use less. Would be interested to hear if anyone has tried a mix like this. I am not familiar with smooth bromegrass, at least I never planted it.</p><p></p><p><strong>Of course, what you manage for, on purpose or accidentally, is always what you end up with. </strong>Strategic abuse of our KY 31 tall fescue was the key to having bluegrass, timothy, and some orchardgrass too.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mossy Dell, post: 1543410, member: 24261"] [b]I just finished Jim Gerrish's book Kick the Hay Habit.[/b] Very interesting. Basically he says to stock for winter grazing, not summer. Winter pasturing should set the size of your herd or flock. [b]The actual costs of hay are staggering, as he presents them.[/b] When I was doing MIG for 10 years in SE Ohio fescue country with a flock of sheep, I moved away from stockpiling. I liked it, but I was paid so well for lambs. I kept increasing the size of my flock, running three ewes per acre. That was a conservative year-round average there. It allowed for some winter grazing but much less than if I had run two per acre on average. Hay was a huge expense, however. And it was the labor of hay that was beginning to get to me as I got older and lazier. [b]Anyway, I found Gerrish's pasture mix he used in Missouri interesting—a mix of tall fescue, orchardgrass, smooth brome, and timothy.[/b] Now, he is Mr. Stockpile, so what was anything besides fescue doing in there? He likes diversity. And he said he found that if a pasture was at about 40% fescue, the fescue formed a protective canopy for the other grasses in winter. [b]He did not specify a seeding rate, so I sat down with seed charts and tried to come up with rates for that mix that would result in a pasture of about half tall fescue:[/b] [b]Fescue = 10 lbs[/b] [227,000 seeds/lb = x 10 = 2.27 million] [b]Brome = 5 lbs [/b][135,000 seeds/lb = x 5 = 675,000] [b]Orchardgrass = 4 lbs[/b] [416,000/lb. x 4 = 1.6 million] [b]Timothy = .5 lb[/b] [1.15 million/lb x 1/2 = 500,000] [b]Check my math! [/b]And I have always seeded at high rates, so you could probably use less. Would be interested to hear if anyone has tried a mix like this. I am not familiar with smooth bromegrass, at least I never planted it. [b]Of course, what you manage for, on purpose or accidentally, is always what you end up with. [/b]Strategic abuse of our KY 31 tall fescue was the key to having bluegrass, timothy, and some orchardgrass too. [/QUOTE]
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