Sprigging got done today

[rf33]

The ground here finally dried out enough for the guy to come out and sprig our pastures today. My only mistake was that I forgot to bring along the camera. The equipment these guys use was pretty darn neat. They brought a Deere 7210 4WD tractor pulling the sprigger behind it. The sprigger was a huge pull behind beast consisting of a set of scarifiers on the front, followed by a row of discs, after the discs were the beater bars and the chain setup which functioned alot like a manure spreader. and dropped the springs into the furrows left by the discs. Above this section was the hopper where they loaded the sprigs. Behind this, at the back of the sprigger, they had a 200 lb steel I beam which was used as a drag to knock down the ridges from the discs, then behind this they towed a water filled steel roller. Really a neat setup... They had another tractor (a Case with a cab also), and on the loader they had a modified set of hay forks, with a sort of a cage looking setup they used to load the sprigs into the sprigger hooked up behind the Deere. They planted 12.5 acres of sprigs in about 3 hours. Not too bad. Tomorrow they come to put on some 2-4 D as a pre-emergent weed killer. Sure wish I had my camera today, cause that sprigger was something else. They said in about 10-14 days, I should see some grass starting to come up. A little rain would help (I am doing my rain dance), but hopefully not too much as to create alot of ruts and washouts... I'll get some pics of the finished pastures tomorrow. Next its time to start on the fence.

 

[Alan L.]

rf33, I plan to have coastal bermuda sprigged sometime (when I get my soil in shape). A couple of questions - Can that equipment dodge a few trees? I have some trees on the area I plan to sprig, but only about 15 or 20 trees on 10 or 12 acres I plan to sprig. Also, what kind of cost are we looking at?

 

[Mike_Dumond]

OK, I'm gonna show my ignorance again. What's a sprig????

 

[Bird]

Mike, the guy who owns the 27 acres adjoining my place had coastal sprigged 5 or 6 years ago just about like rf33 described except they didn't roll it. Sprigs are the grass roots used instead of seed. They come baled and that spreader tears up the bales and feeds them into the ground. And of course after sprigging, you hope it rains in a reasonable length of time.

 

[Mike_Dumond]

One of the things I like about this place, is that every time I visit, my ignorance level drops a bit. Pretty quick, I'm gonna be one of them there bona-fide rocket scientists. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Thanks Bird, I can see where that would save some growing time.

 

[rf33]

Alan, I think that these guys can get pretty close to your trees, but you might need to trim the branches up pretty high as the tractor with the cab and the sprigger are both pretty tall. I do not know what they charge for coastal, but for Tifton 85, it is $160 per acre. Coastal should be somewhat less, as it is alot more common, and easier to find good grass to dig sprigs from. You might check with someone who does sprigging in your area for a price, as well as how late into the season they will plant. The guy who did mine said that mine and one more he did today were the last two he was going to do this year. He stops sprigging around June 1 for two reasons, one is that it starts getting less likely to get enough rain to keep the sprigs alive, and two because he is busy cutting and baling hay - his other business. He told me that he put up around 70,000 square bales last year/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

Mike, The reason that they plant sprigs instead of seeds for hybrid bermuda grasses like Tifton and coastal, is because these types of grass do not produce a viable seed. They only spread via runners, and cannot be seeded. I think that if they could seed it, they certainly would do so, as digging the sprigs, and planting them is time consuming, very weather dependent, and takes pretty high dollar equipment.

 

[rf33]

After sprigging, they came by this morning and sprayed 2,4 D on the pasture as a pre-emergent broadleaf weed killer. This should give the grass a chance to get a good hold and keep the weeds from using up all of the fertilizer we put down (3.5 tons). BTW, I am never going to spread fertilizer again. THe fertilizer contractor who spread the fertilizer for us here charged less than I would have paid just to buy the fertilizer itself. He had the whole 12.5 acres spread in about 30 minutes. He used a big dump truck looking thing with about 24" wide R1 wide tires on the back, and the spreader on the back put the stuff out in about a 80' swath. Sure beats the heck out of loading bags of fertilizer into a TPH spreader.

Here is a picture of spraying the 2,4 D. It is being sprayed with a 6410 JD tractor. Note the drops of foam being left on the outside edge of the boom. The trail of foam dots helps to tell where you have already sprayed. After this, all that is left to do is wait and hope for a little light rain.

 

[rf33]

here is a picture of the ground after they planted the sprigs and rolled it.

 

[rf33]

Oops, here is the picture

 

[Alan L.]

rf33, Hopefully when we get that cool front later this week you'll get your rain.