Our pasture grass isn't doing well...

amysflock

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We have just under 3 acres total, of which probably 2.25-2.5 are pasture. Last year when we moved in we just brush hogged, and brought the cows home about a month later. This year we harrowed in March and applied fertilizer (late...and it was a 21-7-14, so maybe not the right kind for spring?).

We had a pretty dry spring. The cows ate the orchard grass down, and it's not really growing back. And the shorter stuff headed out short and they won't eat it. It looks like the pasture is frozen in time...and not a good time, either.

We're concerned about the grass for the rest of the summer. What can we do to remedy this, anything? We did have a good rain yesterday (most of the day). We were told we lack water rights and can't irrigate, but a neighbor told us to ignore that and do it anyway (maybe under the cover of darkness, and pulling the sprinkler in the early morning before other neighbors see it??).

(We have shallow-rooted grass b/c we have a ton of rocks. We are thinking of aerating and overseeding with an orchard grass/red clover mix in the fall or early spring.)

HELP!!
 

Farmer Kitty

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Dry spring isn't going to help growth rate no matter what fertilizer you used. Has it been cold too? That also slows down the growth.

I'm not sure there is much more you can do right now, other than try irrigating. :idunno
 

wynedot55

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your just into what sounds like a dry year.fert has to have rain to make the grass grow.you may need to get a round bale for the cows.
 

2468herdsrgr8

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We feel your pain.....we also grow rocks..and have about 3 1/2 acres .Each year we have reseeded our pasture in the spring and now were starting to do it in the fall also..We have alot of weeds and certain chemicals/weed sprays have now been band unless you take a course to get a card to buy some(usually farmers)
But we have horses and I know nothing about cows ...what we do with the horse pastures is we have divided them each in half ...we dont need electric with our girls...and we rotate them all the time...So far we have had a rainy spring ...also we put the horses in a mud paddock at night with a flake of hay each...and their feed.
 

amysflock

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Our pasture is divided into two sections, and the bigger one we plan to divide in half as well. We've had the cattle locked in the paddock the last several days eating haylage, which is a bummer. I never thought we'd have to feed haylage this late (we don't have our hay yet...next month).

I'm thinking of calling to see if an extension agent can come give us some advice. We had a County Conservation District agent out last year...but I'd prefer to hear from someone else this time. He thought our grass last year was great for some reason, but also told us we didn't have water rights. (The land hadn't been grazed in probably 10 years.)

On the good side, DH did just buy some sort of metal stand yesterday at a garage sale he thinks he can fashion into one of those tripod (short) sprinkler stands people around here use in their gardens...and we could use that with the garden hose (several together) to water the pasture a bit (in the cover of darkness).
 

Thewife

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Amy our high ground is already brown, it should green up a little with the rains we had! (I hope)
Is orchard grass commonly grown on your prairie?
 

jhm47

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Question---You say you applied 21-7-14 fertilizer in March. How many pounds per acre of this mixture did you apply? If you applied just a little fertilizer, you did little good. You would have had to apply at least 300 lbs/acre to do some good. That would mean that you should have applied 750 lbs total.

By applying 300 lbs/acre, you would have applied 63 lbs of nitrogen, only 21 lbs of phosphorous, and 42 lbs of potash. And, if the fertilizer was not "worked in" to your soil fairly quickly, the nitrogen could have volatilized (gone into the air as N gas). The P and K will not volatilize, and will stay put.

I am not familiar with the soils of Washington state, so my suggestions might not be appropriate for you. Here in South Dakota, we routinely try to apply 75 - 100 lbs of Nitrogen (N), and 50 - 70 lbs of Phosphorous (P) to our pastures. We usually don't need to add potash (K).

I would suggest that you take soil samples and find out just how much fertilizer is available in your soils. It could very well be that you have adequate fertility, and just need rain. Or---you might just need one or two of the above nutrients, and it would be a waste of money to apply the other(s).

It would be helpful for you to contact your local county extension agent, and get his/her advice.
 

mully

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The first thing I would do is get a good soil test so you know up front where you stand. The PH might by wrong and you may have to lime but all that would be guess work without a soil test.
 

GrassFarmerGalloway

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Droughts are always hard on pastures. It might come down to corralling the cows and feeding them hay during the summer so the pasture won't be beaten down anymore, just until the rains return and things green up and grow up. That's what I would do, I have no clue on your current situation and setup. It's never fun to feed hay in the summer, but it will help your pastures SO MUCH.

:idunno I'm no help.
 

amysflock

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Thanks for your replies, everbody.

We had been advised last summer to buy triple 16 or triple 18 fertilizer for immediate (July) application, but we didn't have a spin spreader and by the time we had it there was no rain forecast for weeks, and we had to give it back. Also, the Wilco folks advised us to do the 21-14-7 instead of the "triples" as it was less expensive.

The tractor was borrowed, too, and had to go back. We finally got our hands on a borrowed spreader that would fit on a 4-wheeler, and DH rigged the hitch on his pickup to hold it. That was March. As advised, we applied our fertilizer at a rate of 250 lb/acre...but that had been advised for the "triples". So...it sounds like we probably short changed our grass with what we used AND when we used it??

Yes, Kitty, it has been cool, except for a wicked, unseasonably hot, dry streak there in late May/early June. We had good rain the other day, but back to just some sprinkles now, which probably isn't doing much.

thewife, I'm not sure if orchard grass is common in the prairie...I see it on a lot of the farms around but some are wetter than ours. We do have some, and the cows LOVE it, but it's just not growing back well. We have stuff that headed out burgandy/purple and some that headed out gold...and I don't know what either one is (the Conservation District guy named orchard, timothy, rye and sweet vernal when we walked the pasture last year, plus some vetch).

The cows are currently eating haylage (happily and greedily). The neighbor across the street had his pasture brush hogged today. Since most of our grass is headed out, should we hire him to brush hog us, too, and then start irrigating, or just irrigated headed out?
 

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