Mini Horses
Herd Master
You say you planted late. Possibly, as the ground warms, you will see germination for seed that "wintered over". 
Pasture development
- Thread starter enggass
- Start date
soarwitheagles
True BYH Addict
We plan on irrigating with well water. I found a 1.5 inch outlet on the well tank. Well company came out and let us know we have a well with 3 HP, and watering a couple of acres is not problem at all IF we set it up to keep well motor running the entire time during the watering cycle [NO on/off repeated cycles].
I tried various sprinklers....and chose sprinklers that threw the water 60' radius. But later last year, I won a whole bunch of super serious industrial sprinklers that can throw much more water...hope to experiment with those this year...
We experimented with the water last year and it worked well...but the pasture was annual and it did terrible once we moved into summer, so we gave up on it...
I hear you on the glyphosphate, but we figured for one application, it was ok. I did not have a nice tank sprayer for the tractor so I sat on my ride on mower with a 5 gallon backpack sprayer and did it that way. It was uncomfortable but sure beat walking it!
Ag agent said if we did not kill everything [esp. the wild annuals] then the weeds and native annual grasses would choke out the young perennial sprouts in the spring and would ruin our pasture...
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soarwitheagles
True BYH Addict
You say you planted late. Possibly, as the ground warms, you will see germination for seed that "wintered over".
We are fairly certain two of the late planted rows had the seed rot in the ground. It has been warm here for some days, but no new plants...
Late December was too cold, too wet, and too late....
WildRoseBeef
Range nerd & bovine enthusiast
Where are these sparse spots, on hills or low areas or no real difference with topography? If low areas, too much water. If on the hills, it may be a packing issue.
I too think, for your area, it might have been that the seedlings were slow coming because it, as you said was too cold, maybe too wet, and maybe too late, but when you get that final spring thrush of heat and warmth, those plants will take off like crazy.
I don't think you should've seeded double, otherwise you get way too much competition and not enough chance for the little seedlings to get enough moisture, light, heat, and nutrients to themselves to grow. You may need to touch-up on the sparse spots, but if the rest of the field is coming up well, then let that grow.
I know the issues around glyphosate, but the thing is, if those seedlings didn't come up at all, it would be because of the glyphosate and the sensitivity to that chemical. I honestly don't believe that's the problem in your fields, @soarwitheagles; it's something more mechanical or environmental. The glyphosate did it's job with the weed emergence, to reduce competition, which is good.
But here's something to think about. I remember we had to re-seed a pasture, and did something similar with deep-plowing it up, cultivating, discing, harrowing and cultivating and discing it again and again until most of the clumps were broken up. Then it got packed, and packed well. We didn't use a land-roller, but the old seed drill we had with the packer wheels did wonders with the job. Let it sit for a bit, then seeded it, but note that I don't think we sprayed it with a pre-seed burn-off because the working of the soil itself basically suppressed any attempt of any sort of weed plant coming up. And we put it into a nice mix of grass seed.
Boy did the weeds come, when I first checked the field a week or so after. Pretty much every single weed that could grow in northern or north-central Alberta came up, including volunteer crop plants. But instead of spraying it, we went over it with the swather, baled up quickly after as high-moisture feed bales, and fed it to our steers. The steers gobbled the bales up, and the grass underneath all that weed growth just took off like crazy. I couldn't believe the turn-around from when had previously checked.
So you can certainly seed a pasture without using chemical, but just be ready with a swather or windrower to knock it down and bale it up in the same day so that a) the weeds don't choke out the new seedlings any more than they already had, and b) the swaths are not laying down so long that they too kill the new seedlings. If you don't have the equipment and can't get someone out there on a timely manner, then the way you did it was the best way to go!
I too think, for your area, it might have been that the seedlings were slow coming because it, as you said was too cold, maybe too wet, and maybe too late, but when you get that final spring thrush of heat and warmth, those plants will take off like crazy.
I don't think you should've seeded double, otherwise you get way too much competition and not enough chance for the little seedlings to get enough moisture, light, heat, and nutrients to themselves to grow. You may need to touch-up on the sparse spots, but if the rest of the field is coming up well, then let that grow.
I know the issues around glyphosate, but the thing is, if those seedlings didn't come up at all, it would be because of the glyphosate and the sensitivity to that chemical. I honestly don't believe that's the problem in your fields, @soarwitheagles; it's something more mechanical or environmental. The glyphosate did it's job with the weed emergence, to reduce competition, which is good.
But here's something to think about. I remember we had to re-seed a pasture, and did something similar with deep-plowing it up, cultivating, discing, harrowing and cultivating and discing it again and again until most of the clumps were broken up. Then it got packed, and packed well. We didn't use a land-roller, but the old seed drill we had with the packer wheels did wonders with the job. Let it sit for a bit, then seeded it, but note that I don't think we sprayed it with a pre-seed burn-off because the working of the soil itself basically suppressed any attempt of any sort of weed plant coming up. And we put it into a nice mix of grass seed.
Boy did the weeds come, when I first checked the field a week or so after. Pretty much every single weed that could grow in northern or north-central Alberta came up, including volunteer crop plants. But instead of spraying it, we went over it with the swather, baled up quickly after as high-moisture feed bales, and fed it to our steers. The steers gobbled the bales up, and the grass underneath all that weed growth just took off like crazy. I couldn't believe the turn-around from when had previously checked.
So you can certainly seed a pasture without using chemical, but just be ready with a swather or windrower to knock it down and bale it up in the same day so that a) the weeds don't choke out the new seedlings any more than they already had, and b) the swaths are not laying down so long that they too kill the new seedlings. If you don't have the equipment and can't get someone out there on a timely manner, then the way you did it was the best way to go!
