Restoring Pastures

[cswilson]

I read that story too grassfarmer sounds like more fun than i can stand lol.

[nerves]

Caduka one of the first things I would do is go into the pasture and identiy what varitey of grass and legumes you have left. Look at the low spots and high ground. Try figure out what varitey you have the most is it fesque quack grass clover canary grass that type of thing. Next I would take a spade out and dig a few holes in the high spots and low spots. Take a side view of the plants root systems how far down do they go? look for earthworms or any other kinds of bugs in the soil. Look to see how much top soil there is there may be only inches or there may be feet. After I have looked at those things You have to decide how much work do I want to put into this? What are my goals? Do I want high performance pastures or do I want plants that are tough and hardy. What goes well with the animals that you are raising? A good rule of thumb is that plants with narrow leaves and not much folage mature fast. Plants with large folage absorbe sunlight better so they have better root systems and mature later. These are the things I would look at first good luck.

[cakadu]

I guess we're lucky with our sheep - they are hair sheep, so no wool to insulate them from the fence. Experience has shown us that once they get zapped, they tend to stay away from the fence.

We're also lucky in that they really like to eat the broad-leaf weeds and thistles. Even stinging nettle is no problem for them - they let it get to a certain stage and the next day there is only "3-inch sticks" left. Pig weed they will kill each other for - don't ask me why - they just do.

We need to go out and have a look at what is there. I'm actually going to a tame pasture school and thinking about a range management class as well, so we'll know what we should do soon.

Thanks for the pointers - we want to get into this sustainable grazing management and likely will look at putting in grass/forage species that the sheep like.

[rsmith]

Any suggestions on controlling and restoring pasture with areas of yellow foxtail? About 25% of our pasture is now contaminated by foxtail since the drought. It's concentrated in the low areas. Will it work to spray it out and reseed just those areas? Thanks for any help you folks can offer.

[nerves]

rsmith my question to you would be what other plants are there? do you rotate pastures? how rough is the land what type of soil is it? We used to have that in our pastures many years ago don"t see it anymore. The weeds we have a tough time with are buttercup and canada thistle.

[cswilson]

The best animal to clear up thistle with is horses-they love it. The oldtimers uised to cut heads off during a rain storm to control it. All i know is if you hobble a horse out in a meadow with thistles he'll hop over there and start grazing them. We cleared one bad patch also by just totally resting a pasture. It was droughty and we had no water there so were unable to graze it that year-this is a peatmoss pasture no less so guess how wet it usually is. I think alot of thistle troubles on our native pastures up north is grazing too early in spring we hardly ever go into them much before end of June-grass sometimes gets a bit rank but dry potatoes are better than no potatoes.

[cowman]

Rsmith: Foxtail usually indicates akali. I have found a very effective means of changing that around is bed your cows there! It is not a quick fix but it is fairly permanent! In other words get some real organic matter on it and your problem will be eventually solved!
Now I hope people don't jump all over me if I suggest a chemical solution...especially concerning Canada thistle?
Graze-On! Good stuff!
It isn't cheap! $21/acre, but it gives you three years of control and it kills the babies as well as the adults! Also excellent control of pasture sage and absinthe.new appreciation for "living better
If you ever try it, you'll get a whole chemically"! This is a very effective product.
Also Rsmith: MCPA is a very effective killer of tall buttercup...before it blooms. Afterwards it is sort of a waste...still will hurt it but won't go for the knock-out punch! Graze-On will smoke it, during flower, and then kill any seedlings the next couple of years, and there goes your buttercup problem!

[cowman]

Sorry cowman I'll have to jump all over you with those nasty words about chemical. Short term fix. What about our kids. Some better solutions suggested on this thread. I know we are in hard times but profit from short term chemical solutions don't cut it on our farm.

[nerves]

that is interesting cowman but I have also heard that it wipes out clover. Clover is one plant that grows and reseeds itself in our area extremly well. If grazed, to help with the plants growth I have seen it in old pastures without fertilizer as tall as 2 feet and rank. Clover also puts nitrogen back into the soil. So it is the backbone of our pastures fertility. We have also through rotational grazing got clover growing in swamp land were there was only sedge grass growing before. Most of our weeds are in areas were the bush meets the fields and in some spots have drifted it the trees. Cowman is there anything out there that will not kill clover or trees just thistle and buttercup? cswilson I like the horse idea we have about 12 running around here and they do eat thistles at certain stages. But we would need about 40 more to do the job I don"t think I have the patience for 50 the little herd of 12 tests me enough.

[cswilson]

nerves-a little bit of tape fencing and your 12 horses could do some good in a rainstorm.As for the chemicals haven't used any for 15 years-don't miss it. We never spray for hoppers amnd i bet we got 10,000 gulls on our pasture but I guess somebody's got to keep Dow Elanco going.