Sprigging a new Hay Field

[M-5]

Some might be interested others maybe not but I am starting this thread to document my progress on this project.

I have 12.5 acres of plain ole pensacola bahia that joins my 20 acres of tifton 85. I have been wanting to replant this field for a couple of years. If things go well the next couple of months I am gonna give it a go.

Soil test and Amendments have been done. Last spring it was burnt and sprayed to eliminate any weeds. cut hay off of it before seed heads matured last year. no fall seeds because of hurricane. Fed cows on it all winter. drug it early to distribute the manure . grazed it hard and short and let it come back about 3" or 4" and sprayed a little over 2qts of Roundup this Sunday will be 2 weeks. Should be ready to disk this weekend. Donor area had 100# N 40# P and 100# K put on it Wednesday 2 weeks ago.

My aunt has a spreader I could have borrowed (everyone knows what happens to borrowed equipment ) but I decided to build my own. Picked up an s-10 rear end and fabbed up most everything last saturday in about 4 hrs . Still have to finish welding the bottom plate on the turn table and build the chute and tongue.

 

[M-5]

[image]https://i.postimg.cc/LgJQZdZ3/IMG-20190428-100302503.jpg[/image]

 

[hurleyjd]

Keep in mind that you are destroying a grass that is native and likes your area. Try fertilizing it like Tif 85 and see what happens. To make good hay you need to cut at the right time regardless of the type of grass.

 

[hurleyjd]

Some might be interested others maybe not but I am starting this thread to document my progress on this project.

I have 12.5 acres of plain ole pensacola bahia that joins my 20 acres of tifton 85. I have been wanting to replant this field for a couple of years. If things go well the next couple of months I am gonna give it a go.

Soil test and Amendments have been done. Last spring it was burnt and sprayed to eliminate any weeds. cut hay off of it before seed heads matured last year. no fall seeds because of hurricane. Fed cows on it all winter. drug it early to distribute the manure . grazed it hard and short and let it come back about 3" or 4" and sprayed a little over 2qts of Roundup this Sunday will be 2 weeks. Should be ready to disk this weekend. Donor area had 100# N 40# P and 100# K put on it Wednesday 2 weeks ago.

My aunt has a spreader I could have borrowed (everyone knows what happens to borrowed equipment ) but I decided to build my own. Picked up an s-10 rear end and fabbed up most everything last saturday in about 4 hrs . Still have to finish welding the bottom plate on the turn table and build the chute and tongue.

Got any kids or grand kids if so load a trailer and tell them it is a hayride but the plan is to throw all of the hay from the trailer in small handfuls.

 

[M-5]

Keep in mind that you are destroying a grass that is native and likes your area. Try fertilizing it like Tif 85 and see what happens. To make good hay you need to cut at the right time regardless of the type of grass.

I have plenty more ;-)

Can not make Pensacola bahia = the tonnage or protein % of Hybrid Bermudas no matter what you do.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Keep in mind that you are destroying a grass that is native and likes your area. Try fertilizing it like Tif 85 and see what happens. To make good hay you need to cut at the right time regardless of the type of grass.

I have plenty more ;-)

Can not make Pensacola bahia = the tonnage or protein % of Hybrid Bermudas no matter what you do.

No money in selling Bahia grass hay either.

 

[callmefence]

Some might be interested others maybe not but I am starting this thread to document my progress on this project.

I have 12.5 acres of plain ole pensacola bahia that joins my 20 acres of tifton 85. I have been wanting to replant this field for a couple of years. If things go well the next couple of months I am gonna give it a go.

Soil test and Amendments have been done. Last spring it was burnt and sprayed to eliminate any weeds. cut hay off of it before seed heads matured last year. no fall seeds because of hurricane. Fed cows on it all winter. drug it early to distribute the manure . grazed it hard and short and let it come back about 3" or 4" and sprayed a little over 2qts of Roundup this Sunday will be 2 weeks. Should be ready to disk this weekend. Donor area had 100# N 40# P and 100# K put on it Wednesday 2 weeks ago.

My aunt has a spreader I could have borrowed (everyone knows what happens to borrowed equipment ) but I decided to build my own. Picked up an s-10 rear end and fabbed up most everything last saturday in about 4 hrs . Still have to finish welding the bottom plate on the turn table and build the chute and tongue.

Good deal looking forward to it.
I sprigged 18 acres in coastal I late Feb. Got dry for a few weeks and got a pretty thin stand.
Overseeded with giant. Rolled it smooth with a dually pick up and a quarter mile roll of tornado net wire with a pipe run through it. Got a pretty good stand in spots. Plan to start filling bare spots with tops. Using a contraption I'm building for skid steer and irrigation.
I would love to share but apparently I have been banned from posting pics.

 

[wbvs58]

[image]https://i.postimg.cc/LgJQZdZ3/IMG-20190428-100302503.jpg[/image]

I like that dash, very innovative, well done. What is the plan, a hopper going on top?

I look forward to seeing this series how it goes. We are just going into winter but our past summer was a severe drought, the only grass to survive was the running grass kikuyu which propagates from runners. I want to get much more of it on my place so might copy your spreader if you don't have a patent on it.

Ken

 

[M-5]

[image]https://i.postimg.cc/LgJQZdZ3/IMG-20190428-100302503.jpg[/image]

I like that dash, very innovative, well done. What is the plan, a hopper going on top?

I look forward to seeing this series how it goes. We are just going into winter but our past summer was a severe drought, the only grass to survive was the running grass kikuyu which propagates from runners. I want to get much more of it on my place so might copy your spreader if you don't have a patent on it.

Ken

Thanks, it will have a slide chute that will extend into the back of a wagon pulling it. Some I have seen use a small pully on pinion and large one on spinner shaft. I'm gonna run 13" tires to increase the rotation speed. The one I rode lots of acres feeding was made for square bales. I'm going to do loose tops .

 

[M-5]

http://www.cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=69728

There is a picture of a spreader in this thread. It's just like the one my aunt has . I have no idea where it was made.

 

[wbvs58]

http://www.cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=69728

There is a picture of a spreader in this thread. It's just like the one my aunt has . I have no idea where it was made.

That gives me a lot of ideas, thanks.

Ken

 

[Brute 23]

That's cheating. I walked a lot of miles as a kid shaking out jiggs sprigs behind a trailer.

 

[M-5]

started Friday afternoon discing the field . Cut it north and south , then saturday I cut it SE to NW , It was very dry, Fortunately we got about 7/10 saturday night and I took advantage of the moisture and disced it again early sunday morning. It was perfect cut about 6" deep and the clay galls broke up nice with the moisture. I will let it lay about a week before I cut it again .

 

[Jogeephus]

Good luck with it but be careful and don't plant more than you need unless you want to get in the hay business because as I'm sure you know T85 will produce a lot of hay. (this is one of many mistakes I've made) Around here many think its crap hay because its stemmy but IMO it is the best hay you can grow. Latest tests on mine showed it to be running nearly 16% protein on the stuff where the weather cooperated and I could bale properly but many here still insist Alecia is king and end up having to supplement their feed during the winter months. Personally, I think $50/ton for a 15.7% feed is pretty darn cheap. Good luck and remember to grease your tedder! :lol: :lol:

 

[M-5]

Good luck with it but be careful and don't plant more than you need unless you want to get in the hay business because as I'm sure you know T85 will produce a lot of hay. (this is one of many mistakes I've made) Around here many think its crap hay because its stemmy but IMO it is the best hay you can grow. Latest tests on mine showed it to be running nearly 16% protein on the stuff where the weather cooperated and I could bale properly but many here still insist Alecia is king and end up having to supplement their feed during the winter months. Personally, I think $50/ton for a 15.7% feed is pretty darn cheap. Good luck and remember to grease your tedder! :lol: :lol:

Well Dam,

What am I gonna do now ? ;-) High quality Hay , more tonnage on less acres . my G-pa was wrong your supposed to work harder not smarter. I've got 2 much invested at this point and what would the neighbors think if I planted something Conventional. I told the deacon at the church last week (which borders this field) I was planting Hemp and was gonna build a small commune in back corner.

 

[Jogeephus]

What am I gonna do now ? ;-) High quality Hay , more tonnage on less acres . my G-pa was wrong your supposed to work harder not smarter.

Yep, you done gone and screwed yourself now! What are you gonna do with all the time you're gonna free up by not having plant that cheap low cost winter grazing that you can break even with just 120 days of grazing? And what are you gonna do with all the money you would have spent on supplements during the winter to prop up the nutritional value of that Alecia? And whose gonna want to buy a bunch of fat calves that will surely be foundered from a diet too nutrient dense?

Yep, you are going away from home by not following the conventional wisdom and don't be surprised if your accountant calls telling you the bad news that you owe a pile of money to your rich uncle Sambo because you made too much money with your cattle when you could have easily just fed your profits and gotten a nice right-off. Yep, you going away from home.

Once you get it established and if you plan on grazing it some, you should try planting some Durano in the field - if no grazing use Dixie. I believe you - like me - are too far south for Durano to give much grazing height but what it will do is spread everywhere between your mother plants during the off season forming a mulch-like layer to keep many weeds out. It will give some grazing but more importantly it will give you a bunch of slow release nitrogen during the growing season. Around 150lbs of N I believe. If you don't use a lot of herbicides in your fields you will also find it will spread all over your farm in just a few years. All my pastures are now covered in it and the grazing pastures don't see any fertilizer which again seems to make uncle Sambo giddy come tax time. I know its going away from home but what can I say if you gonna leave home you might as well go all out since your neighbors are already laughing at you for growing twigs.

 

[M-5]

getting closer , The weekends weather was perfect to sprig but grass is not ready to transplant yet.

 

[Brute 23]

Wish I had a bunch of country sprigged right now... it's been raining for the past 2 weeks.

 

[hornedfrogbbq]

We can't get into our fields because of the rain. I'm not complaining though because the folks in Nebraska and Missouri and Iowa just have a sh*t show on their hands. I'm really praying for them to all be able to rebound but I've seen pics that make your heart sink.

Plus we are in north/central Texas. It will get dry and hot soon enough.

 

[M-5]

Over 3 weeks of no rain 100 deg temps and things are parched. My sprig patch is in fair shape but really needed some rain but I think it will work. We are supposed to have moisture the next 5 days so if I get a shower Thursday or Friday to wet the field that i"m planting , I will attempt to sprig this weekend . We got a new used firetruck a few month back with a 2000 gal and a nozzle Gun I can use to dampen the dirt the first few weeks if necessary. Fingers crossed it all works out.