new pastures for horses

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I'm going to plow a weed infested 3 acres and want to plant new for horses to graze on. but I don't know what is best to plant?

-- tim olstad gleason WI (bjanay@centurytel.net), January 13, 2002

Answers

Hi Tim, I am also interested in this question. I do not have any answers for you but would like to add something. If a field of weeds is plowed, will that bring up every weed seed dormant in the soil and make it more difficult to grow good graze? Is there an alternative? I know for my future garden I have spread cardboard on the area and will add soil/compost to plant in. I will not be digging up the ground as it has been fallow with weeds for 100 years. This is certainly not practical for a whole field! Thanks for reading,

-- Susan in Northern Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.

In New Zealand, I have read, they create new pastureland on steep slopes by "mob stocking" The word mob is used there instead of flock or herd. Intensive grazing tramples weeds, chops up a thin top layer of soil and then they broadcast seeds of the varieties of plants they want to take over. Use electric fence to make temporary small paddocks.

Similar use in Britain, on flatter land with fewer animals, includes mowing after undesirable species have flowered but before they set seed, spike harrowing lightly, then broadcasting seeds.

The varieties you will choose for horses are important as some plants are toxic to horses although not to ruminants. Also consider your climate and soil types, drainage etc, same as for any crop. There are books on the subject of intensive grazing and most horse magazines have covered the topic. Pastures and hayfields are two different eco-systems. For Hay fields you want varieties which will reach their most nutritional level at the same time which is your best weather for haymaking.

For pasture you want a greater variety, to extend your grazing season and survive trampling.

In both cases, timely mowing of weeds is important. Hay fields can be huge for efficient use of machinery, but pastures should be subdivided with temporary electric fencing, so that your stock graze most of the plants down to a few inches and then be rotated to a new small pasture where there is new growth. In the old pasture, droppings should be picked up or harrowed, animals will not graze near their own droppings and weeds will grow up rank, and then the area mowed to an even height to control weeds.

If weather won't permit taking hay off all your fields, it's a good idea to mow the rest any way to prevent weeds reseeding, and the dead growth from clogging you machinery and filling next year's bales with mouldy, un-nutrional bulk.

I'd be more specific about varieties but my books are packed away while I'm building my house. Ask your neighbours which grass, usually timothy, and legume - usualy red clover, they use. Mowing frequently will usually allow the best suited varieties to dominate.

-- Deborah Hardy (virgil@igs.net), January 14, 2002.


You will get cheaper and better results if you DON'T plow and reseed the existing pasture. Brush hog it very short at frequent intervals, you can run the horses on it as you do it, the more you brush hog it the better. Check the soil at your local county extension office (costs 8 dollars a sample) to see what it needs most, could just need lime, and apply that in early spring as suggested by the extension agent. Wait and see how it does, if it still does not suit you, in early spring you can rent ( from the extension office)the no-till seeder that will seed the pasture for you without plowing or disking.

We have rehabilitated the worst pastures doing this and it is cheaper and quicker to get results this way, if you plow everything up it takes many years for the sod to return to a thick enough state to support the wear horses put on a pasture. Like 5 years minimum.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 14, 2002.


I, too, need to plant pasture this spring. The field I will be planting was in corn last year. I rented the field out and it has been in no-till crops the last few years. The previous year it had soybeans on it and I did not see them spray at all this past year before planting. It now has corn stubble on it. Do I need to plow it or will disking break up the stubble enough to sow a pasture mix on it?

-- Deb Foster (DFoster987@aol.com), January 14, 2002.

Deb, if all you want is pasture, disking would work just fine before sowing. But, if you think you want an hay field you would probably want to plow and fit it out good to make wagon loading easier and less troublesome. We made pasture as Annie discribed from a weedy field and it work wonderfully for us. We still brush hog the pastures a couple times a year to keep the noxious weeds from going to seed.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.


Tim, I'm not familiar with what grows well in your area, but I would follow the advice of Annie. Check with your county extension agent and use the brush hog now to get the unwanted weeds knocked down. This will give what grass that is there a chance to get growing. We use our brush hog frequently and it really does help turn a pasture around. Best of luck to you!

Cowgirlone in OK

-- cowgirlone (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.


Hi Tim,

Ditto on all of the posts that suggest you do not plow. The weed infested pasture is still a pasture type matrix. If you mob stock after seeding you will get good seed-soil contact and decent germination. If you manage the pasture and perhaps work on its fertility you can easily change the species distribution and make up with in a couple of seasons. Certainly no longer than if you plow and plant. Get some legume seed and grass seed and broadcast it around. Manage where you let the animals feed and keep them moving to new areas. Use the mower to put the "weeds" at a dis-advantage.

If you have no aversion to chemicals, burn off the vegetation with crop oil...fairly harmless stuff assuming there is no pesticide or herbicide in it. Then you can either drill in your seeds or frost seed or broadcast and let some animals tromp it in. This works pretty well too. I have used both crop oil and mob grazing to severely mow the vegetation and I have no tilled corn into the pasture and let the cattle graze that off in the fall, leaving a nice lefume grass pasture underneath. I also know of folks who do the same preparation and drill in grazing turnip for early winter late fall grazing. Not sure if horses dig that much variety though. Lots of ways.

Plowing is fun and an old way, but it is disruptive on the soil ecology and really makes it easier for the establishment of weeds all over again. And yes, it is possible that the seed bank in your area is rich and diverse enough that you will get a nice mix of annual and perennial grasses, legumes and other nice pasture salad species. You might end up with a thistle patch too, so you might experiment with that method ona small 50 x 50 foot area before committing the whole thing.

What ever you decide to do, it will work for you.

I would think that you might get a mix of orchard grass and red clover or perhaps alsike clover established by any method. If orchard grass is not recommended in your area, try smooth brome although it is stoloniferous and can spread and it is not as resiliant to heavy grazing or multiple hay cuttings per season. You might go for a total of 5 species such as:

1. Alsike Clover 2. Red Clover or lespedeza, or some other deep rooted legume that is not very bloaty. 3. Orchard Grass 4. Smooth Brome 5. Find a warm season grass that works in your area...perhaps crested Gamma (not grama) grass, wheat grass, little or big bluestem. Warm season grasses can get you through the late summer. Switch grass is another possibility but it can be very aggressive in some areas and it does not stay that palatable as the season progresses. 5* Substitute chicory for one of your 3 grasses

If you plow, you might consider overseeding with rye or wheat or even annual rye grass to help with weed control while waiting for your mix to germinate. If your current pasture includes quack grass (Agropyron repens) which looks like a slender wheat grass, if you plow it will likely take over. Abusive grazing is about the only way I know to get rid of that...although it makes fine pasture and decent hay, in most counties it is classified as noxious and you could get hassled for letting it grow.

What ever you do, you will need to manage the pasture with mowing and your animals to avoid the situation you are in now again in the future.

What an exciting prospect. Good Luck.

Oscar

-- Oscar H. Will III (owill@mail.whittier.edu), January 14, 2002.


I would no-till a mix of red clover and timothy into the brush hogged field in the early spring, that mixture works well for horses and hayfields that have existing grasses.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 14, 2002.

Check out this site- I love it: Purdue Forages

-- Debbie in Mo (risingwind@socket.net), January 16, 2002.

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