I want to sow some acreage with a mix of clover, alfalfa to mix in with the existing grasses. Do I need to till, or can I seed over the existing grass? Will the seeds fight for position with any kind of luck? Sue

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), June 24, 2000

Answers

Hi Sue. I'm no expert but I will share my experiences. I'm in Central Missouri by the way so I'm going on that.

A lot of the commercial farmers will use herbicides to kill competing vegetation but I've found that allowing animals to severely eat down a pasture will reduce competition if a pure stand isn't important. In the past my only option was to broadcast seed in early spring when alternate freezing and thawing would help bury the seed. It's not the best technique but it has worked for me. The second best is to hope you get your seed spread just before or even during a snowfall for the same result. Last fall, we bought a tractor and I'm looking for a disc to scratch up the soil after seeding. The best option of course is to have some sort of drill apparatus that opens the furrow, lays seed into it then tamps the seed in.

Spring '99 I broadcast alfalfa into my front field, about 4 1/2 acres, then had a drought. I was really disappointed when nothing came up. This past spring I used lespedeza (another legume) in the front field and red clover in the goats' pasture. The drought had continued and I didn't see anything come up until about 2 weeks ago after we'd started getting some rain. I noticed swaths of a different shade of green in the goat pasture and it was the clover coming up beautifully. Encouraged, I checked the front field and not only was the lespedeza thick and lush, there was even some alfalfa mixed in with it. Unfortunately, we didn't get the early spring flush of growth that makes the bulk of our hay and the custom baler didn't want to fool with it. No matter, I'll run electric fencing around it and let the goats graze it too. Good luck.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), June 25, 2000.

Marilyn, We don't grow alfalfa on our place because the ground is just too poor. You say that you just turn out your stock on the alfalfa? Do you not have any problems with bloat doing this? I have always been reluctant to feed alfalfa with out letting it dry down really good. Could be that goats are not as suceptible to bloat as horses & Cattle.

-- Okie-Dokie (www.tommycflinstone@aol.com), July 01, 2000.

Sue, I hand-sowed about three acres of alphalpha two years ago. I was about 30% satisfied with the results, as it took in patches and much seed was wasted. I went out early this Spring and tried to fill in in some spots, and this year it came up better. I think your rainfall and temp will determine your success, and it's a gamble. There are some fast growing weeds that will smother that new seed, so if you already have noxious weeds out there, I would consider tilling it down first.

As to turning out goats and sheep onto rich pasture, I don't do it that way. I gave them a small pasture, then a larger one, and now, sometimes they jump the fence and I let them roam a couple of hours before the children shephard them back in.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), July 01, 2000.

With the price of alfalfa seed you would want to till! You can hand broadcast lepizeda (the poor mans alfalfa) and it will take hold nicely. It is a nice weedy legume that is very high in protein. Clover can also be hand broadcast. Though the local cattle folks keep the cows out of the clover fields, because they are really using it to improve the quality of their hay crops later on in the year, the goats are used to foraging on this type of grass/clover/lepizeda and don't bloat. I am very careful about introducing new stock onto this type of pasture though. Vicki McGaugh

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 01, 2000.