New Pasture

[Donnie Frazier]

This year I am taking 11 acres of row crop land and putting it into pasture. I am enrolling it in the 10 year contract where the government pays a 90 % cost share when converting crop land into pasture. Over the next 5 years I will be putting another 20 acre field along with another 10 acre field in this same program as my cow herd grows. All this land is basically the same farm. I live in Eastern NC, 50 miles east of Raleigh. What is everyones opinion on the best pasture for me to plant. I want summer and winter grazing and would also like to get some hay from these pastures. Thanks for your input.

Donnie Frazier

 

[dun]

For spring and winter I would lean towards on of the friendly endophyte fescues. For summer, whatever of the WSG mixes does the best in your particular area. Contact your local USDA-NRCS office, their grasslands people should be able to point you in the right direction.

dun

 

[brownmule]

For spring and winter I would lean towards on of the friendly endophyte fescues. dun

the NCRS man told me the fescues would be a problem in the summer,we are working on a contract with usda also, i dont have much fescue, just along the roads, was wondering how advasive this grass is.. they are gonna come up with a mix for us.. just waiting to be picked up on the contracts. waiting on the gov... would like to have it already sowed by now Rose

 

[dun]

For spring and winter I would lean towards on of the friendly endophyte fescues. dun

the NCRS man told me the fescues would be a problem in the summer,we are working on a contract with usda also, i dont have much fescue, just along the roads, was wondering how advasive this grass is.. they are gonna come up with a mix for us.. just waiting to be picked up on the contracts. waiting on the gov... would like to have it already sowed by now Rose

There fescues and then there are fescues. The old KY31 high endophyte stuff can be a problem unless you dilute it with legumes or other grasses or your cows don;t develop a tolerance for it. The enophyte free stuff lacks persistence. The friendly(novel) endophyte stuff has better persistence then the endophyte free stuff and doesn;t have the toxicity of the KY31.
Fescue isn;t all that invasive, spread mostly by windborn, cattleborn, or critterborn seed.
The WSGs are hard to establish but they do well in the summer and provide good grazing, but they take a lot more managment (or less mismanagment) then fescue.

dun

 

[J. T.]

My pastures consists primarily of KY31 fescue. In the summer I have Dallisgrass, common bermuda, Bahia, and crabgrass that pops up. The fescue persists to a certain degree because I have a lot of bottomland with heavy clay soil that keeps the moisture in. Dr. Don Ball of Auburn University (War Eagle!) says that you can favor WSG in a mix by fertilizing in the spring, and favor CSG by fertilizing in the fall. It just depends on your objectives. He recommends a fescue/ common bermuda mixture for my area in north Alabama. That might be an alternative for you. Good luck.