# Hay Field



## victor (Feb 21, 2011)

Does anyone run a light disc over their established coastal fields? I have told this will thicken the pasture. If so when should this be done.


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## Customfarming (Oct 8, 2009)

Spring time when it starts greening up but be careful that its not to dry and there is plenty of moisture in the soil. Dont disk to deep just shallow enough to cut the runners.


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## chetlenox (Jun 5, 2008)

Victor,

Your timing is remarkable, I just purchased an old tandem disk myself to run over the top of my coastal pasture. In my case, I'm trying to overseed with a little winter ryegrass to try and help out with weeds in my first cutting. I know overseeding is a little different from what you are trying to do, but the Ag extension documentation on overseeding rye over coastal suggests 1" to 2" deep disking (followed by seeding and dragging to cover the seed just a bit). I'm going to be doing this in the next week or so though.

My concern is that I've waited too long and that the little sprigs of spring grasses that have started coming up since the ice/snow storms will interfere with the ryegrass planting and germination. Time will tell.

Come back and post on how lightly disking your coastal once it starts coming up helps. I may try that come May myself...

Thanks,

Chet.


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## Rosso (Sep 24, 2010)

I've been considering doing this to about 40 acres of coastal but have been told that it would only help the sandburs to germinate. The property hadn't been maintained for the five years before I bought it last spring and the sandburs covered about 40% of the field. I tried Prowl H2O, which really didn't do much, so I figure that it can't really get much worse if I disc it.

Anybody have any ideas?


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## hmcohay (Jul 27, 2010)

I know when I was a kid my granddad and dad would VERY lightly chisel leased Coastal pastures that were in poor shape and then run a tandem back over it to smooth it out. I also recall hauling a lot of hay out of those pastures a year or so later. We are in some south central Texas black dirt and just running a tandem over it won't do much. Now have a couple pastures we haven't been baled in several years and just grazed and they are not in good shape. I am headed out this morning to remove the sweeps from the chisel and attach points in preparation for the weather to get right and I am going to try it sometime this spring. However, I am finding it hard to gather the nerve to actually chisel my Coastal at any level.

What time of year do you guys plan to run your disc over your fields? I thought I would wait until late March til first part of April. Is this too early or to late?


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

The old time farmers around here did it all the time on an alfalfa field that was getting tired. They'd get another couple of years out of the field.

Ralph


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## dixietank (Jan 26, 2011)

Wouldn't using a renovator do the same thing?


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## chetlenox (Jun 5, 2008)

hmcohay said:


> I know when I was a kid my granddad and dad would VERY lightly chisel leased Coastal pastures that were in poor shape...


Hmcohay,

I'm sure the other folks around here know, but I'm curious, what do you mean by "chisel"?

Chet.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

chetlenox said:


> Hmcohay,
> 
> I'm sure the other folks around here know, but I'm curious, what do you mean by "chisel"?
> 
> Chet.


Use a chisel plow set shallow I imagine.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

"Hay Guys,"
Many answers to your questions can be found in the Texas AgriLife Extension publication E-179 Forage Bermudagrass: Selection, Establishment and Management. You can find this publication in the AgriLife Bookstore at https://agrilifebookstore.org/publications_browse.cfm

Once on this web site, click on "Forages and Pastures", and then scroll down and select E-179. This publication briefly discusses subsoiling chiseling, disking and plowing. To add to information in this publication, it mentions that hybrid bermudagrass takes up N, P, and K in a ratio of 4-1-3. A better ratio for stand maintenance and production is a 4-1-4, and if it is Tifton 85, use a 4-1-5, unless you grow bermudagrass on the Houston Black clay soil of north and central Texas, or on other high-K soils. Even on these soils, application of too little potash will cause the bermudagrass to mine potassium from the soil. Hybrid bermudagrass stand decline usually is caused by application of insufficient potash. In lieu of disking, try application of increased rates of potash supplied in the blend as 0-0-60, muriate of potash (KCl). Both the potassium and the chloride in potash help increase production.

When mentioning tillage of hybrid bermudagrass stands, this publication misses a very important point. Although it mentions doing tilling at bermudagrass green-up when the soil has adequate moisture, it fails to caution that immediately after disking, the soil must be packed with a roller to seal it and help prevent moisture loss.


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## hmcohay (Jul 27, 2010)

I have decided to leave the equipment parked and rely on soil test, proper fertilizer application throughout the year, proper rotation of cattle, and finally good ol father time. The fields in question have been hit with N and weed killer annually and thats it. Suspect we have a huge P and K problem. That probably means we have been growing the top of the grass and doing very little to promote root growth. Chiseling up that problem seems counter produtive to what I need to be doing. I am loading some cull cows here in the next week or two to sale. Don't plan on replacing them until I get my ground in better shape.

I just can't make myself sub-soil (chisel) and disc ground that is decent grass when the nights are dropping into the low 30's and talking about rain is just a cruel weathermans joke to keep you tuning into their station.


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