new pasture

[Rod]

I bought a farm with poor pasture but good soil(mostly bottom land) and you couldn't find a rock on the place if you tried. About half is just pasture thats been brush hogged about once a year for the past 20 years and the other half was cleard two years ago,stumps and all, and leveled up nice but no good quality grass. I sprayed with grazeon and got a pretty good kill at the end of the summer. I put cattle on this december and have unrolled hay here and there where I could without getting stuck. The cattle have broken up the ground real well pretty much all over so I thought It would be ready for some seed when it warms up a little more.

Whats the most effective and expensive way to seed or start good pasture on this place? I'm getting a soil sample and plan on littering litely, but on todays market I'd like to keep all expenses down.

 

[Jogeephus]

We have good luck with lightly harrowing the land and broadcasting bahia grass seed on new ground. Don't know what you grow there but this is an inexpensive way to get it going.

 

[Rod]

bermuda is the choice, but some pastures tend to get johnson grass , some fescue, and the well known but not popular prarie grass. My goal is a good stand of bermuda but might be costly. I would also like to have some legumes and or fescue along with other beneficial native grasses. Is lespedeza a beneficial grass as well?

 

[Angus Cowman]

bermuda is the choice, but some pastures tend to get johnson grass , some fescue, and the well known but not popular prarie grass. My goal is a good stand of bermuda but might be costly. I would also like to have some legumes and or fescue along with other beneficial native grasses. Is lespedeza a beneficial grass as well?

Lespedeza is a good legume but only a few varieties will reseed themselves effectively and that is only if you let them go to seed so you have to pull the cows off and let them get mature
I would say to try an orchard grass clover mix and the time to seed them is now for your area

 

[Jogeephus]

Establishing bermuda doesn't have to be expensive if you are willing to do the work yourself with the help of some friends or high school kids. If I wanted to establish bermuda as cheaply as possible I'd Roundup the field in early spring and let it all die. Then harrow the ground as smooth as possible about a day before you go to sprigging. Then I'd go cut some rank bermuda from another field and spread it on the harrowed ground and disc it in. Then pack it with something. But do pack it cause this is important.

Also, if you can't part with the loss of production in the whole field just do a portion of it. This will create a nursery for you next year. Also since bermuda runs you can take a sprayer and kill the grass in front of it and let it gradually spread across the field. I've planted strips in fields before. Though it worked, I don't recommend it.