Sprigging a new Hay Field

[True Grit Farms]

It only takes 15 thousand gallons of water to put a 1/2" of water on one acre.

 

[M-5]

got everything set up Friday afternoon and started cutting the tops at 7am Saturday







loading the wagon




the spinner worked good just not as wide as I had hoped . about 8 ft is all it would cover and thats all 2 people could feed it .







after 1/2 way I got another tractor driver and I got started discing and rolling.







finished up about 1pm with getting everything covered completely done at 3pm

There was some moisture in the dirt but not alot and it was not real hot so hopefully they didn't die. started raining real early sunday morning and we got around 3.5" yesterday. Now we wait to see if its going to work.

 

[Brute 23]

That sounds about as perfect of a situation as you can get.

 

[M-5]

That sounds about as perfect of a situation as you can get.

IN theory it sounds goods. The tops were stressed from lack of rain Even tho most had 6 joints they were not as long as I would have liked. Im as anxious as a new father . Dad drove the tractor for me for a few hours yesterday and he stopped by the house yesterday afternoon after we had over 2 " of rain. He said if those don' t come up you might as well quit trying.

 

[Brute 23]

Its always a gamble with the tops. You never really know how many are good or bad when you put them down. Give it a couple weeks and go dig around them with your finger. You will be able to tell if they are taking root.

 

[callmefence]

It seems to me there is a temperature theshhold. I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first.
Been pizz anting in tops in our bare spots. Mostly using a skidstee grapple to rake up the soil and spread them . Then a roller pretty much identical to 5s. In a small bare spot may just mash and back drag with bucket. Heck some days when it's muddy I'll come home pull a 5 gallon bucket of tops & roots, grab a six pack and go put them in by hand. I have a pond I dug just for this project and a thousand feet of pline irrigation run off a 2" trash pump. Works very well until the temps started pushing a hundred. In that heat it seems only about 10 percent survive...I think I'm going to quit until fall.
My observation

 

[M-5]

It seems to me there is a temperature theshhold. I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first.
Been pizz anting in tops in our bare spots. Mostly using a skidstee grapple to rake up the soil and spread them . Then a roller pretty much identical to 5s. In a small bare spot may just mash and back drag with bucket. Heck some days when it's muddy I'll come home pull a 5 gallon bucket of tops & roots, grab a six pack and go put them in by hand. I have a pond I dug just for this project and a thousand feet of pline irrigation run off a 2" trash pump. Works very well until the temps started pushing a hundred. In that heat it seems only about 10 percent survive...I think I'm going to quit until fall.
My observation

I Think your right when the temps get too high the tops could scald real easy. The sun only peaked out on us a few times Saturday and I forked quite a bit into the spreader. I did not get too hot and you had too keep it fed to keep up. I would not be stressing over it if there was just a little more moisture in the ground . There would have been no way To have planted on sunday with the amount of rain we got .

 

[M-5]

I can't leave well enough alone so I rooted around yesterday . just picked a spot that was put out and diced in by 10am .



then I checked other side where We finshed about 1 pm .




This definitely has my hopes up with only 3 days in.

 

[callmefence]

I can't leave well enough alone so I rooted around yesterday . just picked a spot that was put out and diced in by 10am .



then I checked other side where We finshed about 1 pm .




This definitely has my hopes up with only 3 days in.

Looks like you got it. Good show.

 

[M-5]

I can't leave well enough alone so I rooted around yesterday . just picked a spot that was put out and diced in by 10am .



then I checked other side where We finshed about 1 pm .




This definitely has my hopes up with only 3 days in.

Looks like you got it. Good show.

Knock on wood , rub my rabbits foot and lets hope so. Its about time my ducks got back in a row.

 

[callmefence]

I wonder how 5s Bermuda is doing. We snuck a little cutting of square bales off mine last week.
I'm a few months ahead of him. Would sure like to see a update.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

This is a patch of Wrangler Bermuda hybrid I sowed about 7 weeks ago. I've got some broadleaf to fight, and it's been too wet to get across it with a fertilizer buggy, so I bush hogged all of it between rains. Pic was Sunday. We've had 3" of rain since.

 

[jdg]

Just found this thread...I know one thing. Bahia grass can be difficult to terminate. I think I would try a couple seasons of annuals prior to the switch to T-85, just to be safe. Only disadvantage would be the tillage involved.