# Turning cattle pasture into hay meadow...Help



## TBS (Apr 22, 2021)

Texas

I'm new here and looking forward to learning from everyone's experience.

So a little history, I have an 80 acre place in NE Texas. My father and I ran cattle on it until he passed away about 12 years ago. Since then I have leased the pasture to others. The place has not been taken care and I did not renew the lease at the end of last year. It has had cattle on the place and it has not been cut / mowed / shredded in probably 10 years. Lots of weeds, but use to have nothing but good grass. The place is so rough you can't go faster than idle speed in a truck. I want to turn it into a smooth hay pasture.

I grew up working cattle and horses, not farming, so I am getting a little out of my comfort zone. My uncle is a rancher and farmer and I have got a lot of good advice from him, and he is very familiar with the land, but wanted to reach out to this forum as well. My uncle said I needed to wait until winter to shred the place and then come back and disk it in both directions while dragging a hire. I asked about seeding or spraying and he said the place had and probably still does have good grass. Need to cut the weeds and growth down so the grass can grow and disk it to smooth out and aerate the land. He said to let it go a year and then determine if we need to spray or seed it.

So I was able to shred most of the place in late January. The place is divided into three meadows. I disked and then cross disked one meadow in early April. I was fortunate and got a lot of rain the following week. This is a weekend thing for me and I am only able to get out there about every third weekend, so I realize this may take a long time to get it where I want it.

So now my first of probably many questions. I feel like I have lost my window to disc the rest of he pasture until fall. If I understand correctly, you want to disc when the grass is dormant. If I disc while the grass is growing in the spring and summer I may kill more grass than help it. Is this correct or can I disc any time of year and not harm the grass?

I am grateful for any input form everyone's experience.

Thanks


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## siscofarms (Nov 23, 2010)

Depends on the grass , disc may kill it no matter what time of year . If your discing deep enough to actually do any good as far as leveling the field up your probably not helping any of it . Speaking from a kentucky point of view . Given your schedule and how fast you want to be getting hay off it , I would work it when you have time and conditions are right . If you get the field into the shape you want in , june lets say , put a summer annual on it . All this in the plan for sewing down this fall . Gets you some hay this year and then go in this fall and no till what you want into it . Depending on what your doing with the hay you can do teff for the horse market all the way to a sudan or millet for the cattle people . Some of your planning is related to the equipment you have for the hay .


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## TBS (Apr 22, 2021)

The pasture has a good mixture of grasses, but a lot of Bermuda and clover. My plan is to sell the hay standing and I already have someone interested in cutting it. I know it will take a year or two to get this back to a good quality field. As far as equipment, I have a 75HP tractor, 12' drag type disc, 12' grain drill, and misc. other implements.


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## ttazzman (Sep 29, 2019)

i have renovated many fields from fescue pasture to timothy/brome hay fields

when i disk ....it cuts the ground and turns a strip of sod/soil over.....ie slice n dice.......i disk to kill the ground cover just like if i plowed ...each time i take the disc over it cuts deeper

also how the disc digs is related to the angles of the gangs

i guess i dont understand what you actually did when you disced and cross disced ......did you just cut some lines in the dirt or did you actually turn soil over?

usually for us when we renovate pasture to hay field it involves a year long program of discing....spraying ...leveling...box bladeing....harrowing....rock removal....planting....limeing....fertilizing...soil testing... etc.......we usually plan on re-planting in the fall


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## TBS (Apr 22, 2021)

Sorry, guess my terminology is off. I pulled the disc north to south and then pulled it again east to west on the same meadow. I was cutting 4+ inches down. We definitely turned some dirt. I know its not like pulling a ripping plow, but it turned some dirt. I was puling a large power pole behind the disc to help smooth out the land. It worked. No rock removal or box blading to be done.

My plan was to see what comes up in the disked field, hoping the turning of the dirt would spur a little growth.

I totally agree tazzman, expect this to take a year or two.

My question is....what do I do next to the disked meadow?

Should I wait until fall or winter to disk the remaining land?

If I disk it now, am I doing more harm than good as far as the grass growing?

Thanks


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## ttazzman (Sep 29, 2019)

if your turning dirt your killing whats currently growing

what will happen is your field is reseeding itself with what ever seed is in the soil plus anything you didnt kill will regrow.......usually the weeds will out compete the grass especially if the grass was grazed down to where it never really reseeded itself

if your trying your shortcut method ....of disc and drag .....i would have followed with broadcasting seed at twice the recommended rate and rolling to set the seed and to flatten out clumps and see what happens

no matter what you need to do a soil test and just see whats going on PH and Fertility wise

also the best time to put in a grass type seed is late fall here in SW missouri we shoot for around Oct 1st


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## TBS (Apr 22, 2021)

Thanks Tazzman, from what you are saying it sounds like I did not totally mess up, but I probably need to get some seed on the area I just worked.

Also sounds like I should wait until fall and then try to disc and seed the other areas.


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## TJ Hendren (May 12, 2017)

It is still early enough to disc it and get a good stand of bermuda providing you are not dry then if you can find a cultipacker or roller make 2-3 passes with it. I have done it this way and gotten good results, think of it as sprigging. Any other grasses you want to include you can establish at the correct time to do so.


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## ttazzman (Sep 29, 2019)

TBS said:


> Thanks Tazzman, from what you are saying it sounds like I did not totally mess up, but I probably need to get some seed on the area I just worked.
> 
> Also sounds like I should wait until fall and then try to disc and seed the other areas.


seed will germinate no matter what time of year as long as it has moisture, ground contact, good temps........will grow if it has sunlight and nurition

so fall seeding is not a rule .....just a normally best time ....the second best time is early spring ...

broadcast seed does need positive ground contact which is best done by some form of rolling....2nd best would be to light drag after seeding ...(obviously drilling is the best but requires expensive equipment)

good luck sir


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## TBS (Apr 22, 2021)

I have a 10' or 12' grain drill with all the different gears for different types of seeds.

I assume that it can be used for this as well.


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## Stxpecans123 (May 18, 2020)

If you have coastal Bermuda and it's rough and full of weeds i would disc it to smooth it out. But what I would really do here in my situation is I would goto my local feed/fertilizer store. They have areator/renovator that is basicly a small chisel set at 12 inch spacing and it will inject liquid fertilizer in it is free to use. I would pull a soil sample. Figure out what you need, chisel in fertilizer disc it up smooth and pray for rain. North east texas you shouldn't have much issue but really your a couple of months late. Then if you want good weed free coastal Bermuda I would spray rezilon on it each year. Coastal Bermuda thrives when it is disced.

Now I have no clue what your disc situation is but I would probably offset disc after chiseling in feet but that's just becuase my wife disc is more of a finishing disc. So I would offset then use my finishing disc. In my situation that would yeild a 7mph field (in the tractor) as far as smoothness goes. And I am talking going from hog rutted terriable. 
Everyone has a different situation


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