Seeding Pasture

[TheMan419]

As many of you may recall SWMBO and I bought acreage and brought the horses home.

This fall we want to roundup the weeds and plant pasture grasses. In looking at farmers to contract for the job they want a lot of money. For the money they want I could spend some time doing the job myself and end up with some equipment to keep or sell to recoup some of the investment.

So sprayers are fairly cheap and easy to come by..... also simple to use. I just need to download a program for the smart phone to show me how fast the tractor is going. That way I can get the application rate right.

I am looking at how to plant the seed. I want to do a no-till method. It is grass.... not corn or soy etc. So it does not seem right that I can just broadcast spread it. I have googled to find where I can rent a seed drill around here. No luck.

I can rent something to "overseed" my lawn. Is that the same thing?

I have not had a chance to call the local Ag extension yet.

 

[M5farms]

All you need is a spreader and disk harrow . If you want to spray and kill everything do that then lightly disk to get a good bed , broadcast your seed then set the gangs straight and disk again , you will most likely need a drag behind the disk to get it smooth. then pray for rain

 

[PJSprog]

I think you might be overthinking this. As you said, it's grass. Grass is a voracious weed. It spreads itself by dropping seed directly on the ground. You certainly can disc or drill it like a row crop, but then you'll have rows of grass that will have to fill the voids on its own. Any broadcast or drop spreader will do just fine.

"Overseeding" is just spreading the new seed over the existing turf. Sounds like you don't want to do that.

 

[Ford850]

Check with your Ag Extension, and your Soil and Water Conservation office. Our Soil and Water office rents out no till drills.

 

[jeff9366]

Horses hooves will pack any pasture they are confined in, which will eventually kill the grass.

If the horse pasture is not packed too hard a $900 Field Cultivator will both open ground for seeding and aerate it. Field Cultivators are Secondary Tillage tools. If the pasture is packed really hard a heavier Primary Tillage pasture renovation implement is required.

Dirt Dog makes Field Cultivators with three to fifteen tines.

Pasture grass in photo #1 is Bahia.

LINK: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/339095-dirt-dog-all-purpose-plow.html?highlight=

 

[Egon]

How big an area are you working with?

 

[TheMan419]

How big an area are you working with?

Approx 12 acres.

 

[AGRIMAN]

All you need is a spreader and disk harrow . If you want to spray and kill everything do that then lightly disk to get a good bed , broadcast your seed then set the gangs straight and disk again , you will most likely need a drag behind the disk to get it smooth. then pray for rain

I agree this is the simplist method. I have done it several times and it works good. My favorite method is sprigging. You can also do it your self without buying the specialized equipment. A peanut plow will do a good job of digging sprigs. You can spread them by hand a use the same method to harrow them in.

We planted some problem areas in an existing hay field with an hybrib coastal a few weeks ago. It was seeds and we used the small seed attachment on a no till drill. Still waiting to how well it works.

Praying for rain is the most important part of any method.

 

[Egon]

For twelve acres:

After the spraying a couple or three passes with a Harrow (not disk) at different directions. Diamond harrows preferably. Then the seeding; perhaps a rotary spreader type. Go with a very light distribution and make passes at different directions. Then harrow again from two different directions and hope for rain that evening.

Mixing pelatized fertilizer or othe granular items with the seed may make the spreading go easier. Depends on the equipment.

[video]http://www.farm-king.com/Region-US/landscaping/drag_harrow/index.php[/video]

The diamond harrow was a very popular piece of farm equipment. Changes in farming methods have resulted in different equipment so perhaps they can be purchased at a very reasonable price.

 

[RPW]

You're right about the costs. However there's more to it that you might not have considered. Each piece of equipment you buy$$$, fuel $$, licenses for the chemicals $$$, time $$$$. Now you're wanting to do it yourself. I'm with you on that as I do most of my own work myself. My 2 cents. Prep the soil yourself. Rent the sprayer from your local ag company with your fertilizer and weed control. They have the chemicals and the licenses. The spray rig will be setup in such a way that you don't have to worry about speed and they are usually larger and it won't take nearly as long to get the job done. I do have my own sprayer but it's only 14ft wide where the one I rent is more like 40ft. Makes a big difference. Also cost of chemicals will usually be less. Many things to consider.