Speaking of Tifton 85 ..

[lavacarancher]

do any of you have any experience with this stuff over the long haul?

I've lost all my hay fields. Started getting a little rain after two years but the only thing that's green and returning are the weeds. Someone told me that after this long of a drought the Coastal and Bohia are gone - won't come back. So I was thinking about sprigging Tifton 85 or seeding NK 37 but my little test plots of this stuff didn't pay off too well. Land is sandy loam and depending on the field, the ph is a little low but I can lime it and get it back to more neutral. The T-85 and NK 37 seem to be high maintenance.

By the way. For you folks in Ark., Mo., I really appreciate the help with hay. I got real lucky a couple of weeks ago. There was a feller sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot with 42 bales of Fescue on his rig. I stopped and bought the whole load. He told me he had arranged to deliver the hay but the buyer never showed up (jerk). There were a few folks around but they only wanted a couple of bales but didn't know about Fescue and didn't have any way to unload it or haul it.

My cattle really liked the Fescue. When they finish a bale there ain't much left.

Anyway, sold almost everything (111 head), kept 35 and thought this might be a good opportunity to start over.

 

[Jogeephus]

As for high maintenance I think it depends on what you are comparing it to. Compared to bahia - yes, it is high maintenance. Compared to any other bermuda I have it is the least maintenance of any from the standpoint that with a given amount of fertilizer I will consistently get at least one more bale per acre in the same time period and its better quality than alicia, coastal or tift 44.

As for drought tolerance, I haven't experience a drought yet that would kill my bahia so I'm ignorant on that. I do know the UGA planted some T85 on my friends farm where the soil is what we call sugar sand. This is the poorest driest dirt there is and much of this is suitable for sand mining rather than forage production. They excavated the root system and found the T85 roots went down 12 feet to moisture. I always thought this was impressive.

 

[bigbull338]

we was in a 2 or 3 yr drought about 3yrs ago.an it didnt hurt our coastal meadow.as a matter of fact the last 2yrs it has really thickened the meadow up.

 

[novatech]

The drought in Texas has had one benefit for a Tifton 85 hay field of mine. It killed off most of the Johnsongrass. The only thing left green was the Tifton. The drought also killed off the Bahia. I am certain there is enough seed in the seed bank to last for many more decades of drought.

 

[jersey lilly]

That's odd, because around here people were still able to cut and bale bahia while all the other stuff was dried up.

 

[Brute 23]

As for high maintenance I think it depends on what you are comparing it to. Compared to bahia - yes, it is high maintenance. Compared to any other bermuda I have it is the least maintenance of any from the standpoint that with a given amount of fertilizer I will consistently get at least one more bale per acre in the same time period and its better quality than alicia, coastal or tift 44.

As for drought tolerance, I haven't experience a drought yet that would kill my bahia so I'm ignorant on that. I do know the UGA planted some T85 on my friends farm where the soil is what we call sugar sand. This is the poorest driest dirt there is and much of this is suitable for sand mining rather than forage production. They excavated the root system and found the T85 roots went down 12 feet to moisture. I always thought this was impressive.

We have some sand like that.. call it blow sand. The neighbor planted Tifton 85 in that stuff and it is doing very well. We are looking into planting our part like that also. I keep debating thought because it may mess up my dove hunting.

 

[Jogeephus]

We are looking into planting our part like that also. I keep debating thought because it may mess up my dove hunting.

:lol2: :lol2: Matter of priorities. The value of cows is measured in the $/cwt but there is no measure of the value of a good dove shoot. These are priceless. :nod:

 

[1982vett]

Doesn't dove weed grow just as well in tifton?

 

[1982vett]

This isn't a long haul story. But this patch was started 2 years ago.

Turf is real thick. Handled the drought real well.

It has already crawled the fence by 20 feet. The fence is hard to see but it is the ridge in the turf. Add the 5-6 feed it was planted inside the fence and you get about a 25 foot spread in 2 years.

It was hand planted just like this patch I started this year.

Have to say I'm impressed with it's growth and hardyness.

 

[lavacarancher]

That's odd, because around here people were still able to cut and bale bahia while all the other stuff was dried up.

It's hard to convince folks who haven't seen it but some parts of S. Texas have had a little rain over the past couple of years. My place, on the other hand had 5" in Feb , 2008 and around 4" in March, 2009. Until a couple of weeks ago that was it. Nada, nothing, zip. So maybe your Bohia had a little more moisture than mine. Maybe my Bohia will come back (hope not). Maybe my Coastal will come back (hope so). Gordo Blue Stem has made an effort to come back and I may get a chance to roll a few bales up off of it this year.

There's a few folks in my County that have received rain this year and they have hay.

I'm glad you weren't hit so hard with the drought.