First Time for Everything ...

It seems like every week I'm doing something for the first time on the farm ... and all too often I'm trying to figure out how to do that thing by myself. That is what is going on today. I'm trying to figure out just how this Truax no-till grass drill works. I'm starting to get it figured out and I have a plan, but I'm worried about getting the settings right for the pounds per acre that I want. I do have the manual, but it doesn't seem like it explains as much as I would like it too. Such is farm life ...

So, with that being said ... I'm going to head out and try to defeat this thing and get my pasture seeded!

Comeback Farms :: Chapters 12 Book Report

Greg Judy does not use a tractor (at least that's what it sounds like in this book). He purchases all the hay he needs and moves it around with his truck and a bale trailer. He uses this set up to move the bale around and to unroll it. Besides that it sounds like he uses his ATV quite a bit for everything else. So, the topic of chapter 12 seems to be right up his ally. In this chapter he talks about reducing his fuel consumption and letting the animals do the work. I think I need to agree with him!

Just yesterday I looked out and saw all this brush sticking up in the pasture that I'm going to reseed in the next week or two. I decided that I need to go out there and knock those down with the mower (you have to realize that these are basically just sticks coming out of the ground because the cows striped them bare last summer). So, I fired up the tractor and hooked up my 5 foot brush hog. After a couple of passes I realized how wasteful this was really going to be. It wasted my time and my money and all to knock down a few sticks! There are a couple patches that I need to knock down with a saw, but really I don't think they will hamper the no-till drill any and once we get out there grazing I'm sure they will disappear under some cattle pressure.

This all leads me to what is really on my mind right now ... pasture seeding (I know that was a short book report, but it was the end of section one of the book so it was a good break). I am now on the list to use the no-till drill that is housed at our County Park (funds for it coming from multiple sources) and I need to get my pasture seeding mixes nailed down.

Last week I mentioned the Grassfed Webinar that I listened to online and I was very excited to see the "pro" (in this case Doug Gunnink) offer a good pasture mix for Iowa that he likes to see people use. Here is the mix he suggested:

• 35% Pradel Meadow Fescue
• 35% BG 24T Perennial Ryegrass
• 13% Baraula Orchardgrass
• 10% Green Spirit Italian Ryegrass
• 7% Alice White Clover

I think all of these varieties are from the Barenbrug company and I'm not sure yet if I will be able to find them in my area. So, I was wondering if anyone out there had any suggestions for pasture mixes. Mr. Gunnink suggested seeding that mix at 25 lbs. per acre. I'm going to hit part of my pasture this year and then see what happens next year. Thanks for any thoughts or help!

Putting Together a Pasture Mix

As the cows have gotten out and grazed our pastures this spring I have really started to notice how much work they need. I have mentioned previously that our 40 acres was in the Conservation Reserve Program for at least 13 years before we purchased it and in that time nothing was really done to it besides the initial seeding of switch grass and various prairie grasses. As you look over the ground on a whole late in the summer you see plenty of tall prairie grass, but once it has been grazed and once you take some time to walk through it you really begin to understand how overgrown everything is with brush and weeds.

Which leads me to my question. Do you have any thoughts on a good pasture mix that I could broadcast on before or after the cows hit an area? I attended a little round table discussion on the subject at the PFI conference this winter and I need to find my notes from that because I realize that this is a subject that is very regional. But, I know that there are people around my neck of the woods that read this blog and I always love to get ideas from other parts of the country.

What kind of grasses, legumes, and even weeds (or at least what some people call weeds) have you had the best success with? And, do you have any suggestions for seeding down areas? Now might not be the best time I realize, but I would like to tackle this as much as possible.