old tame grass stand

[charliep]

Can't help you with the CWB strategy and competitive
pricing other than noting our competition is Australia,
some out of the US Pacific North West and Europe.

The export numbers are in a Canadian Grain
Commission publication (sadly only one year so would
have to set up a spread sheet). Look specifically at
pages 17 and 18.

http://www.grainscanada.gc.ca/statistics-
statistiques/cge-ecg/annual/exports-07-08-eng.pdf

To put the numbers to 2007/08, Canada exported
73,600 tonnes of Soft White - 36,300 to S.E. Asia and
37,300 to western hemisphere. Not sure on what
share goes into the domestic milling market.

A little checking shows the CGC didn't brake out SWS
wheat in the previous two years and rather shoved
into other category I assume - maybe because there
was so little it would bring up buyer confidentiality
reasons.

Perhaps the real story is western Canada is not
competitive in soft wheat world markets and should
really only be growing for the domestic one - milling
and ethanol.

Given the CWB has separate fpc contracts for soft
white, not sure why the CWB doesn't go to separate
pooling for this wheat at worst or 100 % cash pricing
as a best solution.

[grassfarmer]

I guess it depends how quick you want results, how much you want to spend and what caused the pasture to be played out and unproductive in the first place.
I've tried most of the above suggestions at various times with varied success.
Aeriating was a waste of time and diesel, I also wouldn't put fertilizer on my worst piece of pasture in a dry (or any?)spring. Probably more economic to fertilise a fairly good pasture and rest this one completely for a year if you want to use fertiliser. My experience with renovating old, abused pastures is that it takes time - I like applying legume seed through cows mineral to reseed(although we have had zero success with cicer milk vetch done this way). Intensive mob grazing once you have a good quantity of forage growing (like after a whole season rest) might kick start the pasture. Bale grazing, winter feeding or spreading manure all work too.
The thing that is most likely to work is patience - if you haven't got that work it up and reseed. I did that with a couple of my very worst pastures and you know despite the initial cost the extra production has more than paid for it compared to my next worst pastures. Sometimes working up and reseeding isn't the worst choice.

[per]

All the good nitrogen fixing biology is in the aerobic zone. If it is compacted and it most likely is then it need to be flocculated (fancy word for breaking the bond of the clay that keeps it compacted). Water soluble calcium applied to the soil will do this. Aeration mechanically will also help and give a compacted soil a start at being aerobic. Of course in a perfectly well managed healthy aerobic zone soil it is not necessary. That doesn't sound like the case we have here. As far a Cicer goes, I like it better than Alfalfa as a food source. Not much experience in the mineral though and I defer to GFs experience there. If the grass types are acceptable to you I would always try to regenerate rather than reseed especially in a dry area. When reseeding there are outside risks in the seed like weeds you have never heard of and luck of bad timing with rain etc. I am working on a newly seeded stand of Alfalfa that came with hawks beard. No one solution works everywhere. Good luck.

[Reitnorf]

I've had some success with spiking a old stand at 90 degree angles, harrow the sh#t out of it, then roll it. However this is done after a winter of bale grazing. Anything you could do to get a legume in there would also be great, possibly before it was harrowed.