Stockpiled Feed

[Sugar Creek]

I have several acres of sloping ground in mixed fescue and clover that was not cut for hay. It has very few weeds in it. Would it be better to bush hog it off now and let it regrow or just let it alone if I plan to use it for stockplied grazing this December and January?

 

[Crowderfarms]

I have several acres of sloping ground in mixed fescue and clover that was not cut for hay. It has very few weeds in it. Would it be better to bush hog it off now and let it regrow or just let it alone if I plan to use it for stockplied grazing this December and January?

If you are anywhere near as dry as we are, I'd go ahead and bush hog it. Hopefully we'll see a good bit of rain from Dennis this week. Should make for a good re-growth.

 

[jgn]

I would go ahead and cut it for hay and then if you can keep the cows off it till fall or winter you should have a good stand of grass. If it wasn't cut for hay because the slope is to steep then I would turn the cows in on it now for a week or two and let them eat what they can then run the bushog over it and let it regrow for later on. You'll probably waste a lot of grass by just mowing, why not let them eat the majority of what you'll be mowing down to rot.

 

[Medic24]

Kind of in the same boat myself, and cant make up my mind about it, I have a couple of winter pastures that I rent, and the grass is about 12-20 inches tall, was wondering if it would be worth while to lease it for a month in august to get some of the tough grass eaten down, and then let it grow again for the two months of winter pasture it will be good for.?????

Dont have a desire to spend the hours, or even all day doing the rotary mower thing, and kinda steep for pulling hay equipment behind my tractor on these slopes. :cboy:

 

[preston39]

sugar creek,
Bushogging is a waste if it can be pastured. Feed it...and save some other pasture for winter grazing. Save the diesel and time also.

 

[Bama]

If I don't plan to cut for hay I sometimes set the bushhog high and knock the top off. This will help encourage new growth and spreads the seed heads.

 

[Crowderfarms]

If I don't plan to cut for hay I sometimes set the bushhog high and knock the top off. This will help encourage new growth and spreads the seed heads.

Clipping these pastures can help eliminate eye problems at times too.

 

[Sugar Creek]

Some interesting responces. An older farmer who was my neighbor and mentor back in the 1970s always told me, " a bushog makes more grass than any tool on the farm" and I can still remember the sound of his old bushog hitting rocks carrying across the hills to my place all summer long. I bought his old bushog from his estate when he died.

Is there not some beneficial long term effects to the land from the repession of brush and weeds and nutritive value in the organic matter leaching back into the soil from mowed grass?

I've always thought that after a rain the grass greened up better by the windrowed mulch left by the mower. Several years of bushogging can convert rough and brushy covered sage grass slopes into lush grass pastures with little other treatment than grazing and maybe a little lime.

The internal debate leading to this post was that in a drought do these benefits still exist to the same degree. I stopped bushogging but now that the rain spigot has been back on for a few weeks I am out mowing again.

 

[preston39]

sugarcreek,
When we bushog we remove weeds and with them gone.... more nutrients are left for the grass.

Most weeds will die when even partially cut. The...."wind rowed mulch left from the mower"..... must go thru a decaying process before giving back nutrients to the surrounding vegetation. Effects won't be seen for months....depending on weather pattern. But, the available current nutrients will be received by the surrounding grass quick.

 

[Crowderfarms]

My experience with weeds is cut the tops off and they grow 10 times faster. This is when an application of 2,4,D or other Herbacide is necessary.

 

[dun]

sugarcreek,
When we bushog we remove weeds and with them gone.... more nutrients are left for the grass.

Most weeds will die when even partially cut. The...."wind rowed mulch left from the mower"..... must go thru a decaying process before giving back nutrients to the surrounding vegetation. Effects won't be seen for months....depending on weather pattern. But, the available current nutrients will be received by the surrounding grass quick.

Someone must have forgotten to tell the local weeds about dying if cut. All it does is make their growth pattern change, but they do still grow. If you cut them late enough it will kill them, but that just shakes the seed loose faster.
The windorw of dried grass thing seems like it may be just because it retains the soil moisture better. But I can tell 6 months later where the edge of every pass is from the brown streak through the pasture.

dun

 

[MikeC]

sugarcreek,
When we bushog we remove weeds and with them gone.... more nutrients are left for the grass.

Most weeds will die when even partially cut. The...."wind rowed mulch left from the mower"..... must go thru a decaying process before giving back nutrients to the surrounding vegetation. Effects won't be seen for months....depending on weather pattern. But, the available current nutrients will be received by the surrounding grass quick.

My personal opinion of bushogging is that it's a waste of money. Spraying will kill weeds for less.

Especially down here where the fireant mounds get the size of a small houses. ;-)

 

[Bama]

Bushhogging does little for weed control. Like Mike said most of the time it just spread the seeds. I bushhog when the fescue seeds are mature and the stems are high. Cutting at this stage will encourage new growth. Unless you have a drought then it will make matters worse. I don't have any weeds as I sprayed a while back. I did have a very small section that was to wet to spray and the thistle came up. The sage is an indication of low lime in the soil. If you have a lot of sage chances are you need lime. Cutting sage does kinda thin it out next year.

 

[Sugar Creek]

I know I started this with a question, but it was specific to mowing in drought conditions. I have learned more than I asked for.

I have never sprayed a weed on the place other than Round Up under electric fences. Well over thirty years of watching fields of blackberry briars, goldenrods, honey locust and ironweeds turn to swards of fescue, bluegrass, jap clover and Korean must have been some kind of illusion. The only agent applied has been light to moderate grazing with yearly or twice yearly mowing.

Aren't some nutrients water soluable and available to regrowth before decomposition? Just asking? I do not mean to offend, it is just that some of these replies do not jive with my experience.

 

[Bama]

Bush hogging twice a year will take care of ironweed and blackberry but around here the honey locust must be sprayed to get rid of from what I have seen. Several of our weeds dogfennel, wildbuttercup, thistle,... must be sprayed. I have a neighbor that cut his close twice a year and he still has a lot of weed problems. Even in hayfieds of bermuda that are cut three times you still have to spray or wick.

 

[J. T.]

Graze it low, remove the cows, and fertilize it this fall and put the cows back in Jan or Feb.
J.T.