# pasture health



## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Ok. Moved here in 2009. Have small field (2.5 acres) which i turned into pasture. It was overgrown when i moved in. I think since it was last sold in 2002. It was plowed in the fall of 09 and disked and planted in a pasture mix maybe June 2010. It came up thin and weedy with no cover crop. I mowed once or twice that year. Last year i fenced and grazed starting in june. By fall overgrazed. I have not let the cattle on it yet this year. Parts seem very thick lush and ready to graze. I see the nice clover alfalfa and grass. Other spots are short and thin. I did not soil test or fertilize. My question is the lushness due to just fertilizer left by cattle (obvious this is where it is lushest) or does it also have to do with overgrazing (they leave that area alone)? It seems obvious that the soil is lacking. Where manure was left it is more green and more lush. Should i spread some composted msnure here or save for newly acquired hay field and let future grazing help fertilize here?


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## Richardin52 (Aug 14, 2011)

Well if you have alfalfa and clover then you must have fairly sweet soil. Overgrazing is really bad and grazing too early in the spring is even worse. Remember the size of a grass root is about the same size as the top. If you overgraze so the top never grows your roots will be the same. Also the only thing grass has to get started in the spring is the reserve in the roots if you graze that off before the grass has a chance to start producing it's own food then you stunt can even kill what's left.

I had a place that was overgrazed for several years. When I got it one half the field had been hayed and half over grazed. I put the same amount a chicken manure on both halves. It took three years before the over grazed side cought up the the other side.

If you plough and harrow the bacteria in the soil will eat up all the vegetable mater that you killed. After the feast the bacteria die and release nitrogen, up to 60 lbs. per acre. If you seed after this has happened your field will respond very strongly.

If I were doing it I would seed with at least 5 or more varieties with at least three being legumes. This will give you a very diverse ecosystem and allow the fungi and bacteria to thrive. If you intend to pasture this I would hold off for one year and hay it instead so the cattle do not pull up the roots.

When you do graze it do not over graze or you will be right back where you started. Better to move your cattle through the field grazing a small area for a short time, one or two days, then move them on and give the area a rest period until the grass is restored. In the spring around here this happens quickly and slows down as the summer goes on. Remember when grass is eaten down the root dies back. Letting roots die back and regrow adds humas to the soil.

You can of course just keep putting on fertilizer but it will take longer to bring the field back. Remember an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Cattle graze about 8 hours per day. (unless they are starved) If they can get a mouth full with every bight they gain a lot faster than nibbling on one inch tall grass.

Hope this helped a little.


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