how to get field ready for hay

[ronbo3]

I have 5 acres that has a moderate amount of Coastal Bermuda mixed with Bahia, along with lots of wild berry vines and other weeds. Any advice on getting rid of the weeds? Should I use RoundUp, 2-4D, or another herbicide and then overseed, or should I disc it all up and just start over with a new Bermuda crop? Eventually I want to be able to sell/trade the hay with the local dairy farmers, but now there are too many weeds for good quality hay. Any advice from TBN members???

 

[riptides]

IMHO,

I'd disc it up and reseed. A good growth will eventually choke the weeds out, without help from chemicals.

-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Egon]

Quality grass will require quality preparation.

One method would be roundup and then overseed. This would be the quickest.
Another method would require cultivation practices designed to encourage all present seeds to sprout and then cultivate them under. This may have to be done more than once with the process requiring time and cultivation. During this cultivation process soil nitrogen may be lost.

Another consideration is smoothness of the present land. Haying and rough land are not compatible.

Egon

 

[cowboydoc]

If you want to sell to dairy farmers you would be best to kill everything there first. Your best bet when going to alfalfa, which is what dairy farmers will want, is to kill everything as alfalfa does not compete well with grass at all. By just discing most of the grass will come back and you won't get a good stand of alfalfa. After you have killed everything off I would go in and either plow it or chisel plow it. Then go over it with a disc and cultipacker. This will give you a nice seedbed. Then come back and seed it. This will be your best chance to get good alfalfa. I assume you have already done your soil test and have your ph and soil in the right condition for hay.

 

[ronbo3]

I didn't mention that this field was used for hay 25-30 years ago, so it is fairly smooth already, but nothing has been done to it since then. I'm really trying to get rid of the wild blackberry vines and honeysuckle growth to give the grass that is there a better chance. I may have to disc it and reseed, but I was wondering if there was something else I could do to encourage the grass I already have.

 

[Egon]

Regular mowing should eliminate the blackberry vines and honeysuckle. It may also eliminate some of the taller grasses and leave you with less than quality hay or volume.

If you wish to grow proper hay then some of the procedures that Cowboydoc mentioned will have to be used.

Egon

 

[cowboydoc]

Egon's right just mowing will greatly improve the grass. Get someone who knows grass to come out and tell you what you have. Then overseed with a good overseeder what you need. Do soil samples and see what your soil needs. Fertilize a couple times a year and spray for weeds to kill the annuals. As far as haying grass I highly doubt dairy farmers are going to want it. All a dairy farmer wants is excellent high protein and quality alfalfa. Rarely will dairy farmers feed grass hay.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( All a dairy farmer wants is excellent high protein and quality alfalfa )</font>

I think that's true in most places; however, a neighbor of mine had contracts to provide hay to a number of dairies and what they were buying was a grain sorghum/hybrid sudan mix. Of course, he disked the fields and planted that every year, and when he harvested the hay, he sent samples for analysis, etc. because the price per ton depended to a great extent on the protein content. Folks in my area called that "hay grazer", and I know what the seeds were because I helped him load those two 20' drills from 50# bags. He bought equal quantities of the sorghum and sudan seed and we mixed it as we loaded it into the drills. You get more exercise than I wanted loading those two drills. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Onthelake]

I would contact the local County Ag Extension office and ask the question. Coastal is probably the best grass for Tx. You don't want to kill it out. The other problem you might have is that someone might not want to deal with just 5 acres. Maybe a friend or neighbor will bale it for you. To prep it, I would suggest you contact someone with an applications license for chemicals. Some locals will do small applications. The best thing I found is Grazon. It will kill out the weeds and if I remember correctly, most other things if applied heavy enough without killing the Coastal. It might take a year or two but it should start taking over.

Rod

 

[cowboydoc]

Are you sure they weren't buying that for sileage Bird? That's a popular sileage mix where alflafa doesn't grow well. Either that or they will use it as grind feed.