Seeding clover/timothy

[canadianfarmboy]

Has anyone used a boradcaster to seed clover and timothy seed just over top of pasture which is already beening grazed with any success . Would this work if the cattle are in the pasture will it is being done . Thanks

 

[Stocker Steve]

Depends on conditions... You need open spots to get seed on the ground and the right weather to keep it from being choked out or dried out.

High risk approach at any time. Too late in the spring for my area.

 

[agmantoo]

I have my pastures established. Broadcasting is the only method that I use to sow new seed. I broadcast grass in season in areas where the grass gets suppressed and I frequently try new clovers species. At this time I am attempting to get Teff interseeded with the fescue and clovers so that I possibly can increase the available grasses for grazing come July and August which is too often a dry period for us. I seeded some red river crabgrass last Spring for the same purpose with the broadcaster. I have a modified Herd seeder for the small seed that will let me precision adjust the feed gate. This seems very beneficial for the Teff. Teff has extremely small seed, 1,300,000 /lb. here is a pic of the modified seeder.

 

[Lucky_P]

CFB,
Timothy is almost an annual here - just doesn't persist - but, seed is cheap, and when I'm frost-seeding clovers, around mid-February, I mix timothy seed in with the clover seed - they're similar in size - in order to get better/more even distribution of my clover seed. Any timothy that comes up and actually grows is just 'gravy'; but I don't count on it providing grazing for more than one season.
I'll be broadcasting annual ryegrass on one 25-acre pasture that's got a relatively thin stand of Max-Q fescue, just as the cows make their last rotation through those paddocks in late Aug/early Sept, before we pull 'em off to stockpile that field. Annual ryegrass works great down here to provide lots of late winter/spring grazing, and it usually reseeds well enough that I don't have to re-seed any more for several years.

I long for one of those Herd ATV-mounted seeders agmantoo has - they're the best! Before I knew about the Herd, I bought one of those crappy Moultrie Feeders models - guess they're OK for folks planting wildlife foodplots, who have plenty of $$$ to spend, and don't mind if they put out more seed than they need to, but if you're trying to accurately and evenly distribute 2-2.5# of ladino clover seed/acre...good luck.
I'm getting a Herd before next spring.

 

[Douglas]

^ Lucky where are you located, i am assuming the south? I was just cliping some maxQ and one pasture has way to much bermuda and crabgrass, and the fescue is too sparce, and your idea about the ryegrass is a great idea i had not thought of. Normally you would not want to add competition to the fescue but i need the stockpile forage and don't really want to mess with reseed the maxQ now.

 

[agmantoo]

Douglas

Marshall annual rye grass is a top performer in our part of the country. I usually broadcast some each Fall in with the existing fescue that I was grazing while to stocking pure fescue in other paddocks. In so doing this gives me some backup grazing when the stockpiled paddocks are playing out in late Winter. I distribute about 20 lbs per acre as I do not want to stress the fescue by crowding it.