Field/Pasture management

Alexz7272

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Excuse my stupidity with this one guys. If you've seen any of my journal (Ausra Farms) you know that our field/pastures were overgrown, full of weeds and not taken care of for 2-ish years before we came along. We have spent the last 3 years just trying to combat weeds and have finally succeeded in doing so this spring when we could finally got hay out of it! Yay victory! :celebrate
However, we have had little growth come back since we cut & baled it. I know we are heading into the fall months but is there anything special we should do to help its growth be positive next year? With so much going on with the farm and life, we have completely overlooked the field :(
We are in the process of legal proceedings to obtain our water rights that were SUPPOSE to been given once we moved in but the previous owner and the bank messed up. (Long story) So we do not have a lot of water for maintenance at this time. Maybe we'll just have to wait to make it strong until we have that?
Thank you
 

WildRoseBeef

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Cutting and baling is exporting nutrients out. You need to put nutrients back into the field in order to get any sort of growth and vigour in your plants. Get some manure if you don't want to use commercial fertilizer, and or consider using the field for both grazing AND hay so you start getting nutrients on to that field from your animals.

To know how much manure needs to be put on, get a soil test done, preferably of several sites in the field, mixed together, and at two depths should do it: 0 to 6 inches, and 6 to 12 inches (do NOT mix up these two depths! You need to have a couple separate buckets to collect samples from the 0 to 6 layer, and then the second for the 6 to 12 layer. For the 0 to 6, remove some of the residue, but not all of it because that will help the lab folks determine your SOM content). The test will tell you what nutrients you are deficient in. And from there you can calculate how much manure needs to be put on.

Some questions for you: What plants or species are in the hay field? What is your percent legumes to grass? How dense is the stand, or is it still quite thin? How much litter is on the ground, or phrased another way, can you still see soil at base-plant level? What was your yield in hay that you got off, in estimated lb/acre (or, how many bales did you get off in how many acres, and what size/weight/type where the bales)?

It sounds like you may also need to reseed, if you haven't done so already. I may be jumping the gun and you may have already done some reseeding not too long ago. Otherwise, those other questions above are pretty important to know so we can help you increase your forage biomass on that pasture you're in the renovation process of.
 

greybeard

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Any time one acquires new ground for grazing, hay or crop production, the soil sample test WRB mentioned is in order--first rattle out of the box. Mainly, because you don't know what the last owner was doing with it. He may have grazed or hayed all the nutrients out of the soil for years and not replenished what was taken--I've seen it done more times than I can count, and people wonder why their new property does so poorly. You have to know 'where' you are nutrient and soil wise before you can make any plans.

You mentioned water rights--I don't know anything about that since ours comes from the sky, but if it has been dry since you baled the property, it can account for the poor regrowth. Soil has to have moisture for the nutrients to become soluble enough for the plant roots to uptake them to the leaves and stems. Temperature can also be a big factor.

A rough indicator of soil conditions can be see thru an analysis of the hay that was most recently baled off of the property. Assuming it was cut at the right time and baled correctly, and good rainfall had accompanied it's growth, low numbers on a hay analysis indicate poor soil conditions before haying, and you just removed some more nutrients when hay was cut. (that hay analysis should never be used in place of soil sample analysis)

An example:
The yard around my house. I mow as needed and that's it-I let the cuttings decompose in place-done it for nearly 10 years now and have a great looking lawn. My sister about 4 miles up the road, by all accounts should have better soil and a better lawn, but she has always mowed and pulled a vacum bagger behind the mower and hauled the cuttings off to a compost pile for her garden--says she hates looking at those lines of cut grass when she gets done mowing. He "lawn" now is basically just weeds. She is taking from the soil and putting nothing back.

I am not a big fan of using grazing as a primary way to replenish soil nutrients.
Plant takes nutrients out of the soil.
Livestock eats the plant.
Livestock uses a great deal of the plant's nutrient value to maintain condition, and to grow muscle, fat, bone and make milk.
What comes out the back of the cow doesn't equal what went in it's mouth.
The old "They'll mow and fertilize at the same time" usually doesn't work very well.
It can help, but that process needs some supplement too--sooner or later.
 

Baymule

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If you can find some old, last year's hay, from a good field, you can unroll it on your field to add humus to the field. If there is no humus, when the hay is cut, the roots are exposed to the hot sun. The soil heats up and damages the roots.

To remineralize the soil with trace elements;

https://www.amazon.com/Azomite-Micr...S&ascsubtag=994297027-16-490213760.1463189763

http://www.getseacrop.com/

Are you going organic or with N,P,K fertilizer? What are your goals? Long term or right now? Have you made a long term plan or projection and written it down, month by month, year by year? If not, I suggest you do so. It will help you formulate where you want to be this time next year and the year after.

I subscribe to Acres USA magazine and find lots of pertinent information in it. I also buy books from the magazine and there is a good selection on grass and soil. You might want to look into it.
 

Alexz7272

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I will get a soil sample done, are there any places better then others to get it done or any is good? We got 170 bales from about 2ish acres, each bale weighs 55lbs and was 90% just grass hay with a little weeds. We have not reseeded yet, I keep telling my partner we need to. Is it too late in the season to do so?
The grass species (from best we can guess) is mostly tall fescue and western wheatgrass, i think. I'll recheck when I get home today and try to identify it better, sorry. I do know we also have been fighting cheatgrass and field bindweed which we are trying to find a way to eradicate. The previous years we had plumless thistle and cutleaf teasel and have removed that from our field. Our local guy said our side and back sections has the best grass as it was protected during the properties neglect. The front field was just a disaster after sitting idle for 2 years against the only road into the city of Longmont besides highways.
Is there a pro/con of using fertilizer vs manure? We have some of our own but it will not be near enough to cover the field. I know there are plenty of places close that we could get manure from, I'd imagine it may be cheaper then fertilizer.
I do not have a plan laid out but after reading all this I will start a binder. I've been meaning to as I have notes and schedules all over the place.
I am looking for long-term solutions. Right now I am dry lotting the livestock so I can reclaim and grow the field healthy before putting them out there and doing rotational grazing. We don't know what fertilizer we want and honestly it will probably come down to cost, at least initially.
I'll look into Acres USA and the books as you suggested. I know we have been failing in this department, so now it is time to jump in! Thank you guys all so much!!

The space they hayed:
Untitled.png
 

misfitmorgan

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Our Grass fields are doing the same thing ours is a combination of a played out field and the weather. Spring was to cold but nicely wet for grass growth then summer was way hot and dry. For grass hay to grow best you need overnight temps of over 60F and day temps can be anything really as long as you have rain....a good indicator is if you mow your yard and it turns brown...guess what your field is gonna do?

Least thats how it works here.
Many here will mow off alfalfa to the dirt and then smother their field in fertilizer, it goes all brown and burned off and then comes back with a vengeance full green as long as there is some rain.

There are some visual indicators as well for each area of the country to show ph of your field...such as wild strawberries, if the field has a lot of wild strawberries it is to acidic.

This also looks fun for soil ph testing and doesnt need a kit.
http://www.wikihow.com/Test-Soil-pH

I would still recommend sending in a soil sample but the simple tests shown can be done while you wait to give you an idea of ph at least.
 

greybeard

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Best place to get a soil sample assayed is your county extension agent. He/she may or may not do them personally, but will provide the address to send it to--usually to a state's land grant university.
In Colorado, that is Colorado State Univ.
Physical Address:
Soil, Water & Plant Testing Lab
Campus Delivery 1120
NESB Room A320
Fort Collins CO 80523-1120

Phone:
(970) 491-5061
http://www.soiltestinglab.colostate.edu/documents/farmer_sampling_instructions.pdf
 

Baymule

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Are there any chicken houses in your area? Egg or broiler? The long barns get cleaned out between "batches" of chickens and the litter is sold, usually to farmers to spread on their fields.
 

Bossroo

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One point to consider when getting manure / bedding from outside sources is you don't know what weed seeds that it contains , so you are potentially spreading more or other weed seeds onto your land thereby going backwands by reinfesting and / or infesting your fields with new weed species in your hay/ pasture forage yields. Going cheapest , more often than not, is the wrong coice.
 

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