hay field

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Need some advice !! I recently purchased 3 acres of a very old hay field. It has not been seeded for over 10 yrs. I want to know from you good folks, what would be the cheapest but best way to seed it for hay for goats and beef. My neighbor cut it last year and bailed it in those large round bails for me. I have been buying hay and want to get around that if I can. Is it possible to just disk it up instead of plowing? What would be the most practicle and productive approach? Thanks!!!!!

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), March 18, 2000

Answers

My husband discs and reseeds ours and also limes it every few years. Works good for us. If you have any grass at all, I wouldn't plow it. Mowing the weeds helps keep them under control if you are not grazing it. We reseeded this year with orchard grass. Don't wait too late to do it. Early spring is best.

-- barbara (barbaraj@mis.net), March 18, 2000.

Good advice in the first response. I have used electric fence around my hay field after the hay is cut to let the goats graze it for a few weeks. They cleaned up a lot of poison ivy and underbrush along the permanent fence rows and fertilized without our lifting a finger. A soil test might be a good idea to get an idea of the fertility of that ground, if it needs lime or not, etc.

-- Marilyn (rainbow@kits.net), March 18, 2000.

Always get soil test befor doing anything drastic. If letting pasture just remain fallow for a year doesn't rejuvinate it using proper amount of ag lime usually will. We keep a few goats in with the cattle. they keep the weeds down & do little or no harm to grass.

-- Okie-Dokie (www.tommycflinstone@aol.com), March 19, 2000.

We let our neighbor rotate his three horses through our pastures so he can rest his own few acres since we do not have any grazing animals at this time and I like keeping the grass down so I don't get snakes and other unwanted guests in my backyard. But, since horses are picky about what they are eating and I did have areas of brush type growth rather than grass, I was interested in rejuvenating my pastures so when I was ready to get sheep I would have nice pastures. I read somewhere that mowing helps the grass overcome the weeds so now in the spring I mow the pastures with my garden lawn mower and the grass is coming in very nicely. It has definitely improved the pasture and it only cost me the price of the gas and a few hours of work.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), March 23, 2000.

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