Neglected Pasture/Hay Field Help Needed

[ClinchValley]

I wish they would have brought the water my way. This spring water tastes good but it is such a pain in the arse.

They have already gotten it to Sneedville and this year suppose to put it down Treadway road 131 going west. I would get a bunch of people around you to sign a petition to have the water brought in your area and present it to the county commissioners, water authority, and/or Mike Harrison. That was the only way we got the city water or fast internet. My wife and I went and got everybody on our road that we could to sign that they wanted the water and the internet.

Three years ago we had a well dug and a pump installed. Put waterers throughout the fields and hooked up the house. But the water has so much sulphur. Double filtered and can still taste it from time to time.

I am East of HWY 31 unfortunately. Of course they would head west. LOL. The thing is this, I live in a different county than Sneedville. I wonder if they will give it to the entire Clinch Valley or just Hancock County…Time will tell I suppose…

 

[jltrent]

You must be in Hawkins county close to Clinch school. There is a Restaurant close to you called the River Place that is good.

 

[MFPolledHerefords]

I think if it was me I'd try the non herbicide route with mowing the first year if it would save my clover. You will probably knock a big dent in the weeds.[/quote]

I agree, although I would add burning at the first of the season and then mow throughout.

 

[City Guy]

Listen to Ebenzer.

Don't want to make this about politics, but I can't help myself.

Government programs aren't there to help us, they are there to get our vote!! If the government had allowed us to keep our money in the first place, we wouldn't need to beg for it now. The hand that feeds us is the hand that enslaves us.

 

[ClinchValley]

Well, how about that! This has been on my mind non stop since last year!

We put 2 ton/acre of lime this spring. Which hopefully will be able to see an affect next year.

As far as pastures go, I have been seeing some progress. We started rotating this year. The large pasture has been cut in half. With plans to cut those in half once more with permanent fence. From there We will use temp fence to get our pounds/acre up when grazing. I mowed all of our pasture two times so far with a rotary mower. I sprayed herbicide on the back 30-40, as the weeds were THICK! Spraying and mowing has knocked about 90% of the weeds back.

This place looks like a new farm already. Very few bare spots. Grass is thickening up. I can definitely see an improvement in areas where pounds/acre were higher. They seem to be growing much better this year, even with the lack of water we have had.

I am going to frost seed clover back into the back pasture that was sprayed, because it definitely wiped it out! Very little survived. But the grass is VERY thick and healthy.

Still have too much broomsedge IMO. But that's a work in progress.

This winter, I am going to try bale grazing on the worst pasture ground, and unroll every bale i feed throughout the rest of the farm. Hoping it will feed the soil. Hard to pay for fertilizer right now. Besides, I would much rather take a mother nature friendly approach to rebuilding the soil.

I honestly think that the mowing has had the best affect.

Thanks all!

 

[ClinchValley]

I am fearing some of our hay ground is beyond repair though. Lots of bare ground. Have considered giving it a break from hay for a year. Grazing it next year in hopes of building it back up. Possibly bale graze throughout the whole field this winter. Does this sound like a terrible idea? It seems like a low input option. And I have been all about low input fixes as of late. LOL.

Seriously, there is absolutely zero organic litter on the soil. No top soil by the looks of it. The lack of ground cover during this drought has cooked what little grass we had. Then my Pops cuts it at about 2" this last time we cut from it. It has really hurt what little we had. :(