# Disk or Renevate



## JB1023 (Feb 22, 2011)

I have a few questions about hay field managment. They are located in south central Texas, fertilized after each cut, and the land is gumbo blackland. I have 3 different hay fields with 3 different grasses on each. They are coastal, tifton 85 and jiggs. My question is related to a post a few threads down form here. Would it be better to, lightly disk them or I have a hay king renevator that I can run through them? I prefer to use the renevator - less soil and grass torn up, the shanks run about 8 inches deep to let water and fertilizer in to the roots and soil but it does pull much heavier than the disk and diesel is high. Should this help my stand of grass spread more and become thicker? I am looking for any opinions or suggestions to help myself out. Thanks in advance.

Jason


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## dixietank (Jan 26, 2011)

I'm waiting for replies too, I've had the same question in my head.


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## Dolphin (May 21, 2010)

Bag o popcorn standing by here.


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## Greyhorse (Jun 22, 2009)

If you also have a disc you could try half of each field with each and see what the results are. I renovate but that's because I don't have a disc that is up to the task, would be a good experiment for someone who has both pieces of equipment.


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## JB1023 (Feb 22, 2011)

Greyhorse,

I thought of the same idea. Well, i went a head and decided to renevate some first. When i got in the field some of the coastal and jiggs was turning green and had a little leaf comiing out. So now I am even more puzzled on what to do - do i keep renevating and disc some or not since it is starting to green up. I feel like a started to late and should probably wait till next year and start earlier. If it would look like some promising rain heck I'll put fertilizer on it and see what happens i guess.
Thanks for the post
Jason


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## Greyhorse (Jun 22, 2009)

Yeah, I've got the same thing going on with the small patch of Tifton 85 I've got, The Coastal isn't doing anything yet so it will get renovated for sure. Kind of hard to tell when to do this kind of stuff because you're dealing with temperature instead of a certain date.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

This Thread appears to somewhat duplicate the "Hay Field" Thread a few down under Alfalfa/Hay.


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## jdhayboy (Aug 20, 2010)

I'll start by saying that we are in sandy soils... but you couldn't pay me to take a disc across my hay fields, lightly or not. Thats just a personal preference of mine and we only run the hayking every 3 years or so. Just don't see the necessity to do it every year. There's a guy down the road from here that discs his every year, his does well but the grass is common bermuda which is a carpety type of bermuda. But this year we will see, he has disc it and we havent had any rain all winter and theres none forcasted. I will be watching his fields to see how they do, just seems like a high risk to bring out grass thats already established in the first place. Another note, have no experience with black land soils but as it gets wet it swells and as it gets dry it shrinks and cracks. Isn't that kinda like renovating the soil naturally?


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## dixietank (Jan 26, 2011)

OK, another question along these lines... We got most of our fields renovated before any greenup but one of my main fields is 50 acres and solid clay ground that has clover and vetch coming up pretty good right now. Would you guys suggest waiting until after the first cutting to renovate and fertilize. This soil gets tight and I want all the water and nutrients to go in the ground and not run off into the creek.


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## chetlenox (Jun 5, 2008)

Jason, your Coastal is already starting to come up? That's remarkable, we don't typically start seeing the Coastal until early to mid-May where I am (North Texas). Where in "South Central Texas" are you located?

Now I've got plenty of grasses coming up now, it's just that they are winter/spring grasses (and weeds, of course).

Chet.


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## Mike120 (May 4, 2009)

chetlenox said:


> Jason, your Coastal is already starting to come up? That's remarkable, we don't typically start seeing the Coastal until early to mid-May where I am (North Texas). Where in "South Central Texas" are you located?
> 
> Now I've got plenty of grasses coming up now, it's just that they are winter/spring grasses (and weeds, of course).
> 
> Chet.


I'm curious as well, I'm NW of Houston. My T-85 is still dormant except for some weeds. The Bahia field next to it is starting to green up but I've got another Bahia field that I took over that is still dormant. I've been afraid to take a soil sample from it......


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## jdhayboy (Aug 20, 2010)

Mike, i'm really close to you, I havent checked my tifton but the other hybrids have already started coming out. It was the 2 wks of warm weather we had. Now the temps are semi-back to normal so it wont do very much but most of mine is out. And the weeds are horrible. I sprayed round up with some P+D the other day just to see how much it will clean the field up.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Normally, hybrid bermudagrass greenup this early should not be a great concern in NE Texas. Our average last frost date is April 15. I've seen Tifton 85 green up early and freeze back a number of times in the past 10 or so years. Also, Tifton 85, even though it may green up earlier than Coastal, produces its highest yields during mid-summer. The first growth is slow because of cooler temperatures.

Once Tifton 85 begins showing some growth, be very careful about using Roundup to control weeds that should have been sprayed when the Tifton 85 was totally dormant. Even 11 oz/acre has been known to cause yellowing of this grass.


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## JB1023 (Feb 22, 2011)

@chetlenox

I am about half way between houston an san antonio a few miles south of I-10, Luling area. My tifton 85 is not greening up yet but the coastal and jiggs is.


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## chetlenox (Jun 5, 2008)

Thanks guys, I guess I've learned that a little bit of early-season warm weather (and a few hundred miles of north/south latitude) make a pretty big difference in dates! That, and I guess I should wander out into my pasture again today and check to see if my coastal has "awoken" for the year. It has been pretty warm lately (with the exception of this weekend, with a bit of a cold spell with the most recent front). Just seems bizarre considering we were buried in ice and snow just a few weeks ago!

Thanks guys,

Chet.


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