# overhauling a wet sloped old pasture



## Andy Poat (Jul 29, 2016)

I have an existing 10 acre pasture that was originally ran on by dairy cows then horses and now is just overrun with broad leafed weeds and tough reed grass. There are large areas with good field grass on them but I could not say if the field has ever been seeded with anything. It is bone dry from june through september but there are two wet paths coming from the top of the hillside that fan out as they come to the bottom. The farmer put in clay drains all over the property that we have found through various projects. Many of the tiles seem to be clogged and we do not know where they start or end. Do we hire someone with a subsoil plow and start fresh? We have hayed it for three years now and the cows eat it weeds and all but we would like to seed it and sell a crop. Any suggestions or questions?


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Andy, welcome to haytalk. First I would suggest you go to your local NRCS office and ask for soil maps. Here they also have one that will show wet area soils and this might be helpful in understanding your particular drainage. I have a few places that are just as you described. Timothy does very well and Orchard grass does OK also. Mine are not tiled so I just pick my times to go over them during the wetter late winter early spring when they get very soft.

Ask the NRCS about tiling and they may refer you to another agency there or give you recommendations. You will likely use a slotted plastic 4" pipe for drainage.

As far as sowing grass, if you are going to tile you would need to do that first. If not, I would have the 10 acres sprayed with a mixture of 2-4d amine and 41% glyphosate and kill everything now and then reseed in 30-45 days.

You can establish your grass and then tile another year as funds permit.

Regards, Mike


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Welcome Andy,

In MY area canary grass, can stand 'wet feet' better than timothy (which does OK), last choice would be OG, as Mike says, and with no alfalfa, it will drown.

I would also suggest a soil test as a step before planting anything.

Larry


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

There really is not enough information here to give a good answer. If the area is sloped and just has a few spots that naturally sag and drain then it does not sound like it is a wetland area at all. And if it is bone dry for most of the growing season then your choice of grass seed would be almost limitless.

Your best bet is to go to the NRCS and get a contour map of the field done in 2 foot increments which really helps you to ascertain where the drainage is. I am not a huge fan of tiling only because it does plug up after awhile. My preferred remediation method for fields is to plow them up, drain the wet areas by shaping by swales (WIDE sodded ditches), then reseeding with a mixture of clover, alfalfa, timothy, orchard grass and rye.

A picture might be really handy in this case.


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