pasture improvement tips

[plbcattle]

I have a fairly good pasture land on a new piece of property I just bought. I am looking for any tips on improving the existing grass or what to plant to improve my grazing ground. i asked about sprigging but that is not feasible to do just to run cattle on. any tips would be recommended. the tract is only 80 acres. it has a fairly good stand of burmuda/common grass mix

 

[eric]

I have a much smaller pasture, but sounds similiar to yours in quality. I fertilized this summer with 46-0-0 around July 4th, and then we had a good rain, and now I have knee high coastal and the cows are just loving it! The straight nitrogen really greened it up and from there it just took off.
I recently sent off 2 soil samples to be tested, havent gotten results back yet. I guess the soil tests would be the place for you to start. I just had my neighbor with the greenest hayfield come and do to mine whatever it was he did to his at the same tiome.

 

[Texan]

I guess the soil tests would be the place for you to start.

Great advice, Eric! I agree completely! Newsworthy, huh? And PLB, if you've got a "fairly good stand" of bermuda/common mix, I would probably spend my resources on improving what I already had growing and maybe adding clover/ryegrass to extend your grazing.

 

[Craig-TX]

I guess the soil tests would be the place for you to start.

Great advice, Eric! I agree completely! Newsworthy, huh? And PLB, if you've got a "fairly good stand" of bermuda/common mix, I would probably spend my resources on improving what I already had growing and maybe adding clover/ryegrass to extend your grazing.

Great points both of you. I'll add the obvious because sometimes for some reason it's not that obvious. One of the best ways to improve a stand of grass is to undergraze it. If you keep cows off to let it rest for a season it will really help. If not, at least pull enough off for the grass to get ahead of them. In this case going to seed is not a factor but in any case good grass will dominate the weeds if it has a chance.

Craig-TX

 

[dun]

I'm a big fan of adding a clover component to pastures, but I don't know how it would do with the bermuda. With grasses that do have open spots clover can really help.

dun

 

[eric]

Maybe I should also add that I had this land for 2 yrs before we built our house and fenced it in and put cattle on it. During these 2 yrs, I had the man across the street fertilize it whenever he fertilized his, spray it whenever he sprayed his, and do whatever he did to his, done to mine also. So, yes, I had a good 2 yr head start on the under grazing before I ever put any cattle out here. All I did was mow it and write checks for the first couple of yrs, but it really improved from when I bought it till we moved out there.

 

[hillbilly]

I have a much smaller pasture, but sounds similiar to yours in quality. I fertilized this summer with 46-0-0 around July 4th, and then we had a good rain, and now I have knee high coastal and the cows are just loving it! The straight nitrogen really greened it up and from there it just took off.
I recently sent off 2 soil samples to be tested, havent gotten results back yet. I guess the soil tests would be the place for you to start. I just had my neighbor with the greenest hayfield come and do to mine whatever it was he did to his at the same tiome.

The soil samples are the most important.
That 46-0-0 didnt do much for your ground, just made the grass jump.

As I've heard Dun preach, get your PH levels balanced, then your fertilizer buck will go much further.

Hillbilly

 

[dcara]

I planning to stockpile bermuda in the ground this year on just a 4 acre tract since I had never done it before. I had read that this is done by fertilizing around mid September and not grazing it until the end of October or later for the Texas area. Below is a link to a paper on this I read awile back out of Texas A&M. The part on stockpiling is towards the end of the paper. Have any of you ever tried this? If so, what were your results?


http://forages.tamu.edu/PDF/scs2000-23.pdf

 

[Campground Cattle]

I planning to stockpile bermuda in the ground this year on just a 4 acre tract since I had never done it before. I had read that this is done by fertilizing around mid September and not grazing it until the end of October or later for the Texas area. Below is a link to a paper on this I read awile back out of Texas A&M. The part on stockpiling is towards the end of the paper. Have any of you ever tried this? If so, what were your results?


http://forages.tamu.edu/PDF/scs2000-23.pdf

Better keep the armyworms out tis the season.