Pasture maintenance - overseeding?

[frazzlehead]

I have about 15 sheep on about 5 acres of pasture. It used to be cattle pasture, and is a mix of whatever sorts of prairie grasses seem to grow here (and generous doses of Canada Thistle and the odd tansy plant, which are tackled as they appear).

I have it separated into 3 paddocks & will be rotating the sheep through this year (last year was their first year here and they just roamed at will through 2 of the 3 pastures - before that it was cows, then it lay unused for a year, then sheep). Eventually I'll crossfence into smaller paddocks so I can rotate better, but there's only so much fencing I can do each summer (summer is short here!).

My question is this: now that they've spent a year eating down the 2 paddocks they were in, should I overseed with ... something ... to improve the grazing?

If so ... what? When?

I will also try to locate the appropriate person at the provincial ag department & ask them, but figured I'd ask here too!

[Scrounger]

Yup. Your best bet is to contact someone local who will know what grows in your area. You can also "frost seed" this spring.
Another trick is to feed some of the grass seed to the sheep. They will distribute it out and "fertilize" it as they go. It works with goats, anyhow. I also spread manure and used bedding/waste hay onto my pastures. Some of the seeds will survive and germinate in the spring. Just make sure that what is in the straw/hay is what you want in your field.

[Liese]

Scrounger I met a cattle guy who said he fed clover to his cows to reseed the field but when I suggested doing this with sheep & goats others told me that they digest the seed too much for that to work so could you explain the what's and how's of your experience?

[Scrounger]

I dunno - I've been feeding my goats brome seeds and there is brome in my pasture where there never has been before. I have also talked to several other "goat people" and they do the same thing. I've even had wheat pass through the goat before. I usually do it in late winter/early spring, or wait until late summer. It works either way. Never tried it with cows, though. The first time I tried it, I had a 5 gallon bucket of brome seed I needed to just get rid of, so I fed it to the goats. I rotated them out of the pasture after a couple weeks and later on I had Brome growing in that one. Decided to keep doing it.

[travlnusa]

In the fall, let them eat a paddock down to just about nothing, then frost seed.

The timing of this would be best advised by neighbors or extention agents.

I did this in WI. It took a few years to get all my pastures done, but the cost was as close to zero as one can get.

[minnikin1]

We are using the frost seeding method, and adding seed to the manure before we spread.

We're also trying a technique I don't know the name of - but
since we want to establish a good mix of herbals, grasses and legumes, we're doing it like this:

we are frost seeding is long strips, alternating each row with a different seed. (The rows are as wide as I can throw seed, by hand, in one direction only as I walk along. I throw to my left. )

My idea is that the plants like to grow in natural "drifts" like this, and it will decease competion a bit, but we still won't have a monoculture field.

If I want to cut hay, I will cut and bale in strips going the opposite direction, so each bale will have a good mix of all the varieties. They will be at different stages of growth, and I'm hoping it will provide a superior, balanced feed.

[minnikin1]

Originally Posted by travlnusa

The timing of this would be best advised by neighbors or extention agents.

You are really fortunate if you have neighbors or extension agents who even know what frost seeding is!

We do it anytime after the January thaw.

[Kevingr]

Two books I would highly recommend are "Quality Pasture" by Allan Nation and "Grass Productivity" by Andre Voisin. The Allan Nation book is real good, plain english and not to technical, the Voisin book is more technical.

[Kevingr]

Came across this link too, it's for Wisconsin, but could provide some good info for you as well.

http://www.uwex.edu/ces/crops/frostsd.htm