Suggestions wanted

[jhambley]

I have a place about an hour south of Kansas City, KS. I started a new pasture last spring by planting brome. My questions is, what other legume should I plant this winter or next spring? I plan to use this pasture for a few cow/calf pairs to start and then trying to riase a few grass-fed only Herefords.

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

 

[El_Putzo]

IMO you can't go wrong with a good stand of clover.

 

[jhambley]

I've been reading about the differnet clovers but must admit I'm confused as to which to plant (white, red, kura) how to plant, and how often I will need to replant. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[El_Putzo]

We try to frost seed some red clover each year in different areas of the pastures and some of the fescue fields. I'm not sure what the application rate is right off the top of my head. Maybe Dun will chime in, he's the forage guru.

 

[dun]

First thing is that I wouldn;t have planted brome. You're west of us but about the same distance north and brome here is a one crop a year deal. If you hay it you rarely get enough regrowth to make it worth while grazing, if you graze it maybe it would hold up ok. If you frost seed a legume, I'm partial to red clover, around 4 lbs PLS per acre would give you about a 50:50 brome clover ratio.
We have a 5 acre area of brome and I've never found a decent use for it so we just neglect it now and let it do whatever it wants. Next spring I'm hoping to burn it down with herbicides and plantr soemthing that works better in this environment.

dun

 

[certherfbeef]

Different are than you but I like the ladino clover mixed with red clover. 2 lbs of ladino to 5 lbs of red.
Frost seeding the pasture the cattle just left. Might be a little heavy but it was a drought burnt pasture and hopeing to snuff out the fescue. Or at least thin down the toxicity. I hate fescue.

 

[jhambley]

Dun,

Thanks for your reply...I'm just grazing this small pasture. Curious what you have in your pastures?

 

[El_Putzo]

First thing is that I wouldn;t have planted brome. You're west of us but about the same distance north and brome here is a one crop a year deal. If you hay it you rarely get enough regrowth to make it worth while grazing, if you graze it maybe it would hold up ok. If you frost seed a legume, I'm partial to red clover, around 4 lbs PLS per acre would give you about a 50:50 brome clover ratio.
We have a 5 acre area of brome and I've never found a decent use for it so we just neglect it now and let it do whatever it wants. Next spring I'm hoping to burn it down with herbicides and plantr soemthing that works better in this environment.

dun

I can't remember, dun, but do you all bale any of your own hay? If so, we have a 15 acre field of brome and it makes excellent hay. The cows and calves love it. I'm not positive of the protein content, but I'm thinking somewhere around 12-15%. On a good year with plenty of moisture, it will come back about 6 inches and can be pastured some. Does anyone know the protein content of brome off the top of their head?

 

[dun]

First thing is that I wouldn;t have planted brome. You're west of us but about the same distance north and brome here is a one crop a year deal. If you hay it you rarely get enough regrowth to make it worth while grazing, if you graze it maybe it would hold up ok. If you frost seed a legume, I'm partial to red clover, around 4 lbs PLS per acre would give you about a 50:50 brome clover ratio.
We have a 5 acre area of brome and I've never found a decent use for it so we just neglect it now and let it do whatever it wants. Next spring I'm hoping to burn it down with herbicides and plantr soemthing that works better in this environment.

dun

I can't remember, dun, but do you all bale any of your own hay? If so, we have a 15 acre field of brome and it makes excellent hay. The cows and calves love it. I'm not positive of the protein content, but I'm thinking somewhere around 12-15%. On a good year with plenty of moisture, it will come back about 6 inches and can be pastured some. Does anyone know the protein content of brome off the top of their head?

Our brome field is some of the better ground, it's a collapsed cavern but the soil actually has some depth. The plenty of moisture is usually the problem, we rarely get mcuh, but more then this year, during the early summer.
We have some ladino and lots of red. The ladino quits doing much during the summer but the red keeps growing and blooming. We have red clover blooming now but no sign of the ladino.
Our pastures are KY31 fescue primarily with some orchard grass and all are around 30-50% red clover. The OG grows back better then the brome but the pastures that have more OG then fescue also get very weedy, I think because of the poorer regrowth of the OG.

dun

 

[Susie David]

Late bloom brome is about 10%, higher in it's vegatative state ~14%.

 

[Emgen]

I'm certainly not an expert when it comes to forage, but I liked the info passed on by a well informed mgr at our Co-Op. He noted that Durana - a white clover variety by Pennington Seed was cattle tolerant. I plan on mixing in the Durana with rye over about 10 acres this weekend. Website is informative regarding nutrition info, benefit of nitrogen value and such.

http://www.penningtonseed.com/section/f ... ucts&id=46

Note that I have note witnessed any of the product's results. Hope the info helps. Good luck

 

[jhambley]

Thanks to all for your input!

Jerry