clipping pasture

[keh]

Using Bush Hog to clip pasture. Trying to control dog fennel and persimmon sprouts while grass is short. Weather is so dry some of the dog fennel is dieing. I'm having to sell off part of my small herd and may wind up selling all which I hate to do because of giving up the breeding program.

We got 3/4 inch of rain about 2 weeks ago. Can tell which varieties of grass respond best to rain.

Fescue is in bad shape and I may lose some of it. It needs more rain for it to bounce back.
Bahia grass which has volunteered responded quickly to the rain. Common Bermuda grass responded fairly well. No Johnson grass in pasture, but in hay fields it has withstood the drought fairly well and the little rain helped it stretch up a little.
There is a couple of native grasses that I don't know the name of that come back good when it rains.
I really don.t like Bahia grass for hay. It will yield less than half that of Coastal Bermuda in this area(Western SC). It is also tough to cut. The mower needs to have sharp knives and you need to slow the tractor by dropping back one gear. It will choke out Coastal Bermuda. On the plus side, it will choke out common bermuda and broomstraw. It will not compete with Johnson Grass. Don't know how it will stack up against Kudzu, LOL. It does make good warm weather grazing, the cows love it.

Sericea which is growing outside the pasture looks healthy. Its strong point is that it is drought resistant. I don't have a sericea hay field now but wish I did. Yes, I know it is considered a weed in Kansas but it makes very good hay if managed properly. If someone is interested I'll describe proper management for hay. It also can be managed for grazing, but constant grazing kills it.

I'm going to try some rye grass for hay this fall if I can get to it.

KEH

 

[Davis In SC]

Is Dog Fennel that tall weed, sort of a stalk, with the real fine leaves? What ever it is called, I hate that weed, it will grow almost head-high, over the summer.. I have heard some folks call this Bitterweed.

 

[keh]

Dog fennel is as you describe. Bitterweed is a short plant with a yellow flower. This dry weather they are about 6 inches tall, wet years they will be twice that.

KEH

 

[Davis In SC]

Thanks for the info... That sure is one pesky weed..

 

[Anonymous-0]

KEH
I always thought broomstraw (broomsedge or broomsage) was a product of a soil imbalance.
Old timers told me it was a sign that soil needed lime. I've found this to be true - I've never seen it "choked" out. It has always disappeared when that lime was applied according to soil samples.
I've had to sell half my cows as well. I just hobby farm here in Middle & West TN. Don't know how folks who need an income get it from a farm! It's brutal dry but rained a little this afternoon. I usually topdress fescue and a little rye on my 2 acre yard each fall about this time - stays green most of the year except in the heat of July and August.

 

[John M]

We put 30 acres in sericea about 20 years ago. Some of it is still there but for the most part fescue has taken over from an older planting. Where my old mobile home, and another one that dad rented out were at the sericea came back and it showed exactly where those two mobile homes were. It still does a little after 6 years, but it has faded now too.I remember when it was going good we used to get about 200 - 250 squares here and the smae off of the other 15 acre plot up the road no matter how much rain we got and we almost always got two or three cuttings a year

 

[Anonymous-0]

Johnson Grass? I thought that was a noxious weed! 'Round here if you have it you better spray it to kill it and if you get caught planting it you will go to jail and get a huge fine. Unless you have a different version that stuff will spread real fast and take over everything.

 

[keh]

BC,
Correct on soil having broomstraw needing lime, and fertilizer. On a field I cut for neighbor it's obvious the otherwise good soil needs lime and has broomstraw, but you can see the Bahia grass coming in and choking out the broomstraw. If they didn't occasionally use the little 2 acre field for a go cart track I would lime and fertilize it, but it's their property and I guess they figure the kids will grow up some day.

KEH

 

[keh]

Joe,
It's a noxious weed here and its illegal to sell the seed here as far as I know. However, the Johnson grass dosen't read the laws and spreads whenever it can. It does make good hay if cut at the right stage, which is before it makes seed. After it makes seed the stems are tough and cows don't clean it up too well. To get rid of Johnson grass put cows on it from frost to frost. One year will get rid of most of it but some will come back from seed in the ground. Grazing for 5 years will get rid of it. Johnson grass also come back from the roots called rhizones, but grazing will starve out the roots. Regular mowing as in a yard will get rid of it also.

As dry as it has been this year, I'm not in a position to be choosey about hay. Sure would like some Sericea like John M described.

KEH

 

[Anonymous-0]

i'm in Kansas and sericea is spreading rapidly through the native bluestem pastures. spraying merely suppresses it for a few years it seems. I've sprayed twice in the last six years and will need to spray again. i've heard that story before about it making good hay. for the life of me i don't understand. because here nothing eats it at any stage of growth(maybe goats if theres nothing else to eat). it has a very bitter taste. is it possibly the difference in soil type? spraying with an airplane is right at $28/acre. that's prohibitive to commercial cow/calf operations. for decades fire has been the best native pasture management tool, but burning increases sericea population,i guess it scarifies hard seed causing it to germinate. i guess all the hours i spend fighting it i jump when i hear someone say they wish they had an entire field of it. if you can make it work you're a better man than me. knowing that it has some value somewhere, maybe i wont cuss it quite so much.

 

[keh]

You may be right about different soil types or possibly some different variety. I wonder if the cows refuse to eat it if they are on it from the first of the growing season in the Spring?

When had Sericea for hay it was necessary to cut it when it was about knee high. If it gets much taller, the stems get too tough and large to make good hay. Cows will pick through the hay and eat only the tender tops. I would get two cuttings a year here.

To cut for hay, the problem is leaf loss. If it gets too dry, the leaves shatter off. Cut about an hour, check the very tip of the stem. When the leaves at the top are dry and crispy it's ready to bale. Bales will be heavy and seem too green, but they will cure out and keep fine. Cows like the hay. Don't know about horses, but years ago a relative sold sericea hay on order to a horse owner who had definite ideas about how it was to be baled.

This time of year the sericea is too big to cut for hay. Don't think its a good time to spray it. Spraying with 2,4d probably works better in the Spring when it is young and tender. If you have problem spots in your fields and it is feasible to do so, I would clip it before it makes seed. My opinion based only on reading about it is that nothing beats native grasses for grazing on the Great Plains and that other invasive species are bad.

KEH