Turning Crop Land into Pasture Land

[majortom]

I'm looking for information about turning land that has been used for a few years to grow corn into pasture land. The amount of space is about 40 acres. Specifically, what is involved in doing this? Costs, timeline, etc. is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[eric]

Can't help you much on the pasture land, but somebody will. But, I did want to extend a welcome to the boards and say "howdy neighbor", and how did you like that stuff that fell from the sky this morning? Been awhile but it actually did rain again. I am sitting here in my office right by Tx Stadium at this moment.

 

[flaboy]

I'm looking for information about turning land that has been used for a few years to grow corn into pasture land. The amount of space is about 40 acres. Specifically, what is involved in doing this? Costs, timeline, etc. is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Our farm used to be row crops years ago. We just cut it up and bladed it out. Left some swales for drainage. Have you soil tested to see if it needs anything for growing pasture grass. Around me, many row crop farms are either ranches or sod farms now.

 

[jt]

my recommendation would be to get a soil test or 2 and contact your county extension agent... they can be alot of help in this area.

good luck

jt

 

[Chuckie]

I am not sure how things go in your area, but in Tennessee, I am coverting 18 acres of crop land into pasture. With liming, seeding, fertilizing, fencing, running water to the area, it is going to run me around $12,000. I am not sure of the grasses and legumes that grow there. I will be seeding with orchard grass, clovers and bermuda grass.
If I were in your area, I would go to my County Extension agent and the NRCS (Natural Resouce Concervation Service) and tell them what you are planning on doing. I work with a man from the ASCS office and he tells me what is going on there. There are programs that will fund you up to 90% of the cost to change your land over. They have a 6 year program that you remain in, and it requires rotational grazing. All of their practices are good to follow. It lets you get more out of your land per acre. I am not sure how Texas parralells with Tennessee on thier programs.

 

[majortom]

WOW...$12K is WAY more than we were planning on spending. We are VERY new to this...we don't even know what an Extension Agent is. This is land purchased as an investment and our agent says we need to convert it from crop land to pasture land to help sell it in a few years.

There are crops on it now that will be cleared in a few months. We were planning on dragging it, and...then...uh....

That is where we are right now.

Eric....it rained pretty good here in North Dallas.

 

[gabby]

You could get the crop farmer to disk it up nice and smooth next spring and then sow fertilizer and bahia grass seed pre-mixed in the spreader truck. Cover it by dragging with a peg tooth drag harrow.

Bahia seed is pretty cheap and it makes darn good grazing. Buy scarified seed for quicker germination.

My pastures are bahia and my cows and horses are fat and happy.

gabby

 

[eric]

I'll throw in my 2 cents here...what I did was had a neighbor of mine come in with his motorgrader, level off all the high spots, some of the swales, and then had another guy come out and sprig it with coastal bermuda. That was in 2002 and I've got a full pasture of bermuda nowadays. This was done in Sept. '02, actually Labor day weekend. By the spring the pasture had grown back. I gave the grader guy $500 for 5 hrs work, since he already had his equipment in the area and just drove it from Carrollton to Flower Mound,(thats why I did it in Sept rather than springtime-saved me the $500 delivery/hauling fee!) and paid the sprigger about a $100 bucks an acre if I remember right. I know it was less than $3k for the whole 18 acres.

 

[eric]

By the way Tom, you need to call the county tax office pretty quick and get this land classified as improved pasture in order to keep the ag exemption, if you havent already. If it sits dormant for 2 out of 7 yrs with no ag activity, then it resorts back to residential class, and the taxes will probably tear you up pretty good. I've found that the tax savings will usually pay a good part of any improvements you might need!

 

[majortom]

Thanks for the info! This is really helping. What is a sprigger?

 

[msscamp]

Don't mean to rain on your parade or anything (and please correct me if I'm wrong), but isn't most of Texas unusually dry this year? Unless you have a pivot on this particular acreage, regardless of what you do the grass isn't going to grow without rain.

 

[TheBullLady]

msscamp is right.. if you're in Texas, you won't be planting any kind of permanent pasture this time of year.

Your options would probably be to sow oats in the fall for winter grazing (this is an annual crop, meaning it's only good for one year) or you can till the soil and wait until early spring to plant bermuda grass.

 

[majortom]

Yeah it is VERY dry in Texas right now. This isn't something we plan on doing tomorrow, next week, next month or even next year. We are just trying to figure out our options. We'll probably sit on the property for 4 - 5 years before we sell so I wanted to find out what was involved.

 

[eric]

Don't mean to rain on your parade or anything (and please correct me if I'm wrong), but isn't most of Texas unusually dry this year? Unless you have a pivot on this particular acreage, regardless of what you do the grass isn't going to grow without rain.

Yes, very dry, but we did get some rain today! You're right, there's nothing he can do until Sept at the earliest, I assumed he knew not to be spending any money right now. Unless he just wants go and get it disced up, that wont hurt anything.

A sprigger is a guy who owns a sprigging machine! Sprigs are little pieces of bermuda with the root entact, and the sprigging machine sets the individual spriggs into the ground every few inches. Its cheaper than sodding / hydromulching, but more expensive than just spreading seed out. But you must have water within a couple of days or so (depending on the temperature) or you'll just waste your money as the sprigs will just dry up and die. Once the roots set in, bermuda spreads rapidly when the spring rains come. But if it doesnt rain after you plant them, then you get to do it again, and you get to pay the sprigger again! ;-) There are several guys around here that still do sprigging, mostly older guys who already have the equipment. Let me know if you're interested, and I can get you a couple numbers and you can see what they charge nowadays.

 

[msscamp]

Don't mean to rain on your parade or anything (and please correct me if I'm wrong), but isn't most of Texas unusually dry this year? Unless you have a pivot on this particular acreage, regardless of what you do the grass isn't going to grow without rain.

Yes, very dry, but we did get some rain today! You're right, there's nothing he can do until Sept at the earliest, I assumed he knew not to be spending any money right now. Unless he just wants go and get it disced up, that wont hurt anything.

Once again, not meaning to rain on anyone's parade or anything, and not knowing much about Texas's weather, but if he goes ahead and disc's it now without a cover crop, won't that encourage weeds and possibly cause the top soil to blow away?

 

[majortom]

Our agent said we can "spread a pasture mix". Who does this sort of thing? Should we do some kind of a winter-hardy blend in September ( provided we have water/rain ) and then over-seed in the Spring? Can anyone recommend someone that can do this? Bonham, Texas area.

 

[SF]

Hi Tom;
I'm about 40 miles south of you. PM me if you'd like my help.
Not sure how soon you are wanting to get something growing. If you are looking for winter grass, I'd get the ground prepared and plant some annual rye grass. You will need to prep the ground again in the spring. If you are looking to seed bermuda grass you will need to plan on planting between May 15 and June 15 depending upon temperatures and moisture. Bermuda seed can be challenging, especially when you have a year such as we are having. I planted bermuda seed on a pasture the latter part of May. Have a very light stand of grass coming on. Pulled all cattle off and still have them off. Just the way it goes sometimes. I am going to have to replant part of it next spring.
The term overseeding has different meanings to different folks. I would not try planting bermuda without working up the ground and dragging so that you can get about 1/8 inch of dirt covering your seed. Without good seed to soil contact you will not get a stand. If the seed is covered too deep you will not get a stand.
One last option. If you are going to seed in the fall, you can look at seeding some "unhulled" bermuda seed at the same time. Cover it with the other seed. The unhulled seed should germinate when the temps and moisture are right in the spring. JMO
Greg

 

[majortom]

Thank you for all the responses. I have another question about getting a land survey done. I am going to post it as a new thread so if anyone knows of someone who can do a survey in Fannin, County, Texas please help.