Wheat Field to Pasture

[ksnewb]

I was considering buying some a wheat field and converting it to pasture land. How much work is involved when doing this? Is it complicated? Thanks.

 

[dun]

Other then the fencing and water issues, it's not particularly complicated. Soil test, chemically burn down the weeds, bring the soil up to test, drill the seed and hope for rain.

dun

 

[jkwilson]

One thing to consider if you ever plan to cut hay off of it is leveling. When we seeded our back pasture after we bought it, I just cross disked it and planted. The previous tenant had harvested the corn when the field was too wet and left some pretty significant ruts running east-west. Not too noticable unless you are zipping along with a flail mower going north and south. Your teeth start clicking and the mower starts bouncing and you start mowing dirt.

 

[dun]

One thing to consider if you ever plan to cut hay off of it is leveling. When we seeded our back pasture after we bought it, I just cross disked it and planted. The previous tenant had harvested the corn when the field was too wet and left some pretty significant ruts running east-west. Not too noticable unless you are zipping along with a flail mower going north and south. Your teeth start clicking and the mower starts bouncing and you start mowing dirt.

The idiot that had lived here before had cropped ta 27 acre field and had left ridges a foot high. We planted winter wheat and it did great. Soil test when we planted showed a ph of 6.2. We disked the snot out of it, drug it, rolled and now it's finally where you can drive across it. Still a little rough but not bad. The bad part is that working the soil enough to get it relatively level we turned all the good stuff under and brought the junk up. The soil test after leveling was 5.1.

dun

 

[NorCalFarms]

Should work just fine. I rotate ground with some guys who are row cropping marginal ground. They usually do a row crop for 1-2 years and then wheat or barley crop, then I plant it back to grass for a few years. Some places are fenced, on others I will do high tensile or just two strands of electrified barbed wire. If you are talking large acreage a soil test will pay, you will probably need lots of Nitrogen as wheat uses lots of N for a grain crop. I have found that usually little ground work is needed, I have a large heavy offset disk that will make a nice seedbed in one pass if the straw from the wheat has been burned. Dealing with the stubble if you cannot burn can be tough if it was a heavy grain crop, and the straw will tie up even more N as it decomposes. I know that some people no till grass into stubble, I have no experience with it. If it is dryland (I am in an irrigated area) that might be a better option.
Seems as though this land ALWAYS grows more grass than land that has always been in pasture. Only real problem I have had is there is never a loading chute around, always dragging panels around to load them.

 

[ksnewb]

When do you plant the grass? Right after wheat has been harvested? Also, should this new pasture land be grazed less intensely?
Your replies so far have been very good, Thanks!

 

[dun]

Depends on the grass, the grazing also depends on the grass

dun

 

[NorCalFarms]

I always plant in the spring, I wouldn't be afraid to plant in the fall if I could get it in right after wheat harvest (Aug-Sept) but we have harsh winters and I'm always busy doing field work elsewhere, and haying. I've always felt that spring seedings do better 'here', but you do loose some grazing the first year while the grass is getting established.
As far as grazing, I spray the field early so they stay clean and hay it at least once before grazing. This lets the plants get well established before the cows start tromping on them. I have planted a couple 20 acre places that were to small and out of the way to hay, we just let the grass grow until late fall and then grazed them. I also try and graze new grass when the water is off and it is dry, in the fall I will wait till the ground freezes, so the cows don't damage the plants. The first year it is all about letting the grass get well established and off to a good start, it will more than pay you back in the years to come.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Should work just fine. I rotate ground with some guys who are row cropping marginal ground. They usually do a row crop for 1-2 years and then wheat or barley crop, then I plant it back to grass for a few years. Some places are fenced, on others I will do high tensile or just two strands of electrified barbed wire. If you are talking large acreage a soil test will pay, you will probably need lots of Nitrogen as wheat uses lots of N for a grain crop. I have found that usually little ground work is needed, I have a large heavy offset disk that will make a nice seedbed in one pass if the straw from the wheat has been burned. Dealing with the stubble if you cannot burn can be tough if it was a heavy grain crop, and the straw will tie up even more N as it decomposes. I know that some people no till grass into stubble, I have no experience with it. If it is dryland (I am in an irrigated area) that might be a better option.
Seems as though this land ALWAYS grows more grass than land that has always been in pasture. Only real problem I have had is there is never a loading chute around, always dragging panels around to load them.

How many strands of high tensile?
Why sometimes two strands of electrified barbed wire rather than high tensile?

 

[NorCalFarms]

I usually do 4 strands of high tensile, 2 and top hot. The reason I use barbed is I'm dumb I guess, never saw high tensile until about 3 years ago. I like high tensile better for temp fencing. Most of the ground I graze is leased, 5-7 years so I don't want to dump a bunch of cash into fencing. Usually when the lease is up, we pull the fence. That is how we got to using the barbed, it was about as little a fence as we could get away with. Most of my owned ground is cropped, but the pasture and drylots I have are all fenced with 5 strands of barb, with a seperate hot wire to keep em honest.