Scrape or Disc and Harrow or?

[glfgy74]

Since closing on our ranch in Dec, I've been struggling with the idea of smoothing out the pasture or just living with it for a couple of seasons. I've learned that the pasture was sprigged Coastal Bermuda but that was over 6 years ago. The neighbor had been baling and grazing it during that time and his cattle certainly stayed happy but I'm sure the guy baling it wasn't!!

Now that I've had to mow it and replace several shear pins, I'm headed more in the direction of smoothing the ground. What would you recommend doing to smooth the pasture yet not completely ruin the pasture grass?

I did run a disc and harrow over about 4 acres as an experiment and it turned out alright but not perfect...I probably should've ran the harrow over it a couple more times when it was dry...It needs a good revitalizing and if I have to re-grade and re-seed the pastures in phases, I'm more than open to that. Having a smooth pasture to mow and play in is better than saving the grass thats there....i think!

Appreciate the Feedback!

 

[M5farm]

coastal will take discing fine. best practice would be to burn in spring and disc it level and cultipack it. It will come back with a vengence. downside is you will have alot of weeds that will come up after you disk it. My :2cents:

 

[skyhightree1]

coastal will take discing fine. best practice would be to burn in spring and disc it level and cultipack it. It will come back with a vengence. downside is you will have alot of weeds that will come up after you disk it. My :2cents:

Agree with all but I never burn my pastures that I had to fix. What kind of disc do you use? do you have a chopper on it to break up clods of dirt? Do you have a board on the back to help smooth it off if you dont have a chopper?

 

[M5farm]

burning it gets rid of most debris and it is dry when you burn so the ground is hard. A 12 to 15 foot scalloped pan won't cut to deep but it usually takes a couple of passes the last pass use a drag board after that run a cultipacker or roller over it. If it still has clods a pasture drag tines up will get it real smooth.

 

[highgrit]

Burn it off in the spring and shank plow it first then disc it smooth. I like to shank plow every 4-5 years, it breaks the hard pan up and lets the moisture in and out of the ground. Use a cultipacker or a good drag for the final go round.

 

[skyhightree1]

I never burned a pasture before and disced it maybe I will try it sometime.

 

[glfgy74]

I certainly appreciate the responses.

I have a New Holland 55 Workmaster that I pull a 6' disc with. I hook a Chain harrow on to the disc and do it all at once. I do think a shank would break up the ground a lot better with the ability to go a bit deeper. Quite often the disc wouldn't work so well on the uneven areas so repeating the rounds proved fruitless at times.

How do you think running the bucket in the dumped position as a grader would work?

Burning sounds pretty intriguing especially down the fencelines and front ditch! how would one go about burning his pasture?

Thanks Again!

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I never burned a pasture before and disced it maybe I will try it sometime.

I think you would be happy with it.

 

[skyhightree1]

cool I just need a place where I can burn now lol my pastures are in pretty good shape and hay fields.

 

[greybeard]

If your soil is low in potash, burning it then discing will work wonders on it, but have your sprayer and plenty of 2,4-d on hand the following months.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

It depends on how big of a field it is and what else is around to know how big of a deal burning it would be, but if you are burning right up next to something that you really can't let get burned, I would pull that 6ft disc around and till the outside 6 or 8 feet of your field up, then you don't have a whole lot to worry about, just go around burning the outside edges then go thru the middle or up wind and let the wind help you. We will also have a couple 4 wheelers with 25 gallon sprayers there too when we burn a field.

 

[skyhightree1]

I honestly dont think they allow any burning of fields around here.. I asked a few people they never heard of anyone doing that. I didn't ask the forestry department though. I hope Kenny T reads this post and chimes in.

 

[glfgy74]

My pastures are low on all accounts....307lbs per acre of 13-13-13 is needed. We are going with a local company to do a custom mixing for us and save a few dollars. We did buy some Chapparal to help control the woody weeds as well as the more common strands! http://www.dowagro.com/range/products/chaparral.htm. We need to get a handle on the harder to control weeds for a couple of seasons then we'll probably go to Grazon Next.

307lbs per acre is an aweful lot...for those of you with more experience on this, once this amount is applied how much will be normal from year to year? I know I may have to play catch up for a couple of years....

 

[3MR]

My pastures are low on all accounts....307lbs per acre of 13-13-13 is needed. We are going with a local company to do a custom mixing for us and save a few dollars. We did buy some Chapparal to help control the woody weeds as well as the more common strands! http://www.dowagro.com/range/products/chaparral.htm. We need to get a handle on the harder to control weeds for a couple of seasons then we'll probably go to Grazon Next.

307lbs per acre is an aweful lot...for those of you with more experience on this, once this amount is applied how much will be normal from year to year? I know I may have to play catch up for a couple of years....

If you put the required mix of nutrients down this year and only take a calf crop off the pasture most of it will still be there next year.

 

[highgrit]

Nope, he's to far out for that to happen. It will take 3-5 years for the soil to equalize itself. Glfgy did you have to add lime also??

 

[glfgy74]

I didn't get a Lime recommendation. Although I haven't been in to see the chemical company just yet. I'm only going off the Texas A&M website. They are the ones who did the soil sample for me.

95lbs per acre of Nitrogen
40lbs per of phos
50lbs per of Potash
5lbs per or Sulpher

Another 70lbs per acre of Nitrogen after a heavy graze down.

What do you normally do for Lime? Seems I've heard a lot of folks using it pretty regularly.....

 

[bird dog]

Usually the A & M soil tests will have the lime requirement on the last line of the report. It is included in the basic test.
Ask your fertilizer dealer where to get lime. It may have to come from Central Texas down close to Austin.

 

[glfgy74]

Completely missed the lime on the report...thanks for telling me that....3 tons per acre recommended. Wowser....is that a lot?? What's a normal application amount?

 

[highgrit]

Yes that's a lot. Don't put all the lime out the first year. I wouldn't spread but a ton out per year, maybe a little more if you're going to disc it in.

 

[1982vett]

Yes that's a lot. Don't put all the lime out the first year. I wouldn't spread but a ton out per year, maybe a little more if you're going to disc it in.

What is your reasoning for that?