Pasture rejuvenation

farmerjan

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I would lime, disc and seed. With that little of needed lime, which is really great, you could just disc and seed. Lime when it is convenient. If you do lime at a different time, make sure that it is not too windy or you will be liming everywhere... or use the pelleted kind that doesn't blow away in the wind.
Many clovers are actually "planted" by broadcasting during the winter months of Feb-Mar.... with thawing and freezing the seed gets into the cracks in the soil. Clover seed and many other grass seeds and such are only planted 1/4 to 1/2 inch in the soil. So you definitely want to do the seeding last or you will bury it too deep and it won't come through and grow.
Are you going to completely redo the 5 acre pasture? If so, you really will need to kill off all the other grasses and start with plain soil..... so to speak. If you are only going to try to add to it, diversify, then broadcasting the lime and then broadcasting the clover seed.... that will add nitrogen to the soil as it grows also. To just rejuvenate the pasture, I would ask the local soil and conservation what are the best grasses for your area. I am not familiar with the soils or grasses in that area.
You could also no-till the seed in. That is what I did with all the wheat and barley and all this fall. We harvested the sorghum-sudan, and also the corn that we chopped. The frost had hit the fields so pretty much killed off most anything left in them To no till pastures, I think you have to mow down to "nothing" or the drill will not be able to get down into the sod to make little rows.
Really, I would talk to the soil guys or extension.....
 

Baymule

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Red clover or crimson clover? We have the crimson clover here, only seen red clover in pictures and to me, it looks pink. LOL Crimson clover is used by the highway department on the roadsides along with other wildflowers. We plant it on our place, it sure is pretty.

White ball clovers are good clovers too, they reseed and come back rather well.
 

farmerjan

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I'm thinking that some broadcast seeding of clovers will be a good start. Do it when there is thawing and freezing to get the soil to open up into little cracks in the surface.
Yes @Baymule , red clover is more pink in comparison to crimson clover. It makes a good hay IF you can get it cut and dried right. It can cause some bloat with animals that aren't used to it and will overeat it.... but it needs to be managed like alfalfa. Most people here in Va don't like it and horse people refuse any hay with it in a bale.... I like it but then I grew up with it as being more common up north.

Talk to the forage specialist at the extension service.... that is what we pay our taxes for........their service.....
 

Grant

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For the grass you could do fescue, but I wouldn’t. I would try to put orchard grass out. More nutrition, resends itself well and fairly drought tolerant. I’m in southern Mo so our weather is at least pretty similar. If you can drill it in now it will come up great in spring. Your pastures are probably pretty short now, but the soil isn’t frozen yet. I’d do it now. Local soil management may have a drill you can borrow or rent.
 

farmerjan

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Stay away from fescue. It grows rampant here and personally I hate it. It has it's benefits.... decent drought tolerance, grows fast, great for covering. That's all I can say good. It has an endophyte toxin, that can cause abortion in cattle.... if you "force them to eat it down"..... but it is not palatable as a green grass to graze, except when real young and tender, and then it gets starchy. After it is frosted, the starches turn to sugars and is much more palatable. It is used by many as a way to "stockpile grass for fall grazing. It takes some good management. We have it in many of the unimproved hayfields and you can tell, the cows do not clean it up as well when fed as hay. It reseeds everywhere. There a couple of newer strains that are endophyte free, but they are not near as hardy and need reseeding more often.
I was not sure how well orchard grass did there but since @Grant says he is in similiar weather, then if it does good, that is what I would go for. Or get a pasture mix as long as it doesn't have fescue. Does timothy grow there? It makes a great hay and grazes okay but not as hardy as some of the others.
 

Baymule

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You are on a roll with misspelled words and getting your tang toungled up. LOL LOL Are you testing a new batch of beer? :lol:
 
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