My my. How unpredictable is life. Read this article and responded....didn't think all that much about it....didn't have a clue as to what plant is Vetch.
Out spraying fire out mounds this afternoon in one of my pastures and come upon wads and wads of something I had never seen in this pasture with little purple flowers and vines........ remembered this posting....curious....did this: "https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/pastures/Html/Common_vetch.htm:
and wala....I inherited some Vetch. Wherefore hast thou originated asked the wise man?????? Beats me. Never saw it in the pasture before, sprayed weeds with 2-4D couple of years ago, put on some balanced chemical fertilizer last fall, no steel in the ground for at least the last maybe 3 years.....just popped up from nowhere.
Having read the mentioned article, pasture is on a gently sloping hill, slightly alkaline clay, a Legume...like my Austrian peas in another field, have a drum mower that doesn't care what kind of forage it cuts.....I think I'll let it mature, seed out, and cover the pasture.
Have another field of KY 31 and volunteer Rye. Checked it today and seed heads are starting to brown up, height is over 24" and coming right along, real thick. This year I am going to wait till the weather warms and dries so I can get it cut and baled properly which is a lot easier for me to watch it do that since i am wanting it to reseed itself to get solid coverage and smoother riding across it. Cubes can make up the protein deficiency if it gets to be a problem and if bovines can eat and digest 1 ½" SS hay, they can surely digest mature Fescue and Rye stems.
About time things went right.