Any advice?

[cowman]

Getting out of cows this fall. Am going to break up the hay and pasture. The hayland isn't a big problem...going to spike it and then disk and harrow. Some of this old pasture land is a really tough fescue/brome type mix. Very sod bound. Some is even prairie wool.
Would I be better to bite the bullet and pay big bucks to have it roto-tilled? Or even plowed? Should I do a burn down with Round-up? It is so dry there isn't much green and I doubt if Round-up would even work, although the thistles are doing okay.

[dalek]

Are there any offset disks around? We broke up a field that had been in hemp 30 years ago, flooded 20 years ago, been under 2 feet of water spring and fall ever since until we had it drained 4 years ago and had 10 foot willows growing all over it with all kinds of grasses and some leftover hemp. Worked it 2 or 3 times with an offset disk, picked the big chunks of wood off, cultivated 3 or 4 times and planted corn.

[rodbradshaw]

Cowman
I have a pretty good idea of what it might look like after driving around our local area. I would be hesitant to work anything unless we get a ton of rain. About ten years ago we did some trials with seeding crops into sod ground. The Alberta government followed it up with some Farming for the Future work. To make a long story short we found that roundup in the spring worked just as well as working the **** out of it. This was in years where moisture was not the limiting factor. If it were mine I would leave it till next spring and seed through the sod with a zero till drill and spray it either just before seeding or shortly after. It will not be pretty like a welll worked field but the economic return will be just as good or even a little better. If it does not rain you might make more renting it out as hay or pasture land than grain land as there will still be a few cows in this area that will need to be fed.
Rod

[rodbradshaw]

Cowman
There was a thread in Crop Production and Forage, "Direct Seeding into Pasture". I have posted a question to the person who posed the idea to see if it worked this year. Might not hurt to check it out.
Rod

[cowman]

Never even thought of that. I've got a neighbor who has this big heavy yellow drill that he direct seeds into hayland after he sprays it with Round-up. I think its called a haybuster or something like that. I'll go talk to him.