Overseeding Pastures For Sheep and Goats

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

My local seed merchant has pretty good prices on seed for overseeding my Bermuda grass pastures. I plan to seed with a mix of German Foxtail Millet (produces even when it is dry - 4 inches of rain for a full crop), Hubam Sweet clover and Hubam clover mixed with native sunflowers. The native sunflowers have very small seed and are planted as a forage crop. Each acre will get about 15 lbs of seed with about 6 being Hubam, 2 being the sunflower mix, and 7 being the millet. There is still a mixture of oats, triticale and winter rye in the fields that has not germinated due to its being so dry. There are also lots of native grass seed from this past fall. Our native grasses that we have are little bluestem, side oats gramma, indian grass, and a few more I can't remember the names of.

I also have to go and treat the Yucca plants and thistle with herbicide to keep them under control. I will also treat any fire ant mounds with DE and insecticide if necessary.

[ET1 SS]

I can see that for sheep, but goats?

Our goats prefer to stay under the forest canopy; stripping the bark off trees, low branches, and brush. They rarely venture out into the open pasture areas. Mostly when the weeds are tall and they want a change in forage.

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

My goats love sunflower plants. Everything loves hubam sweet clover and the millet.

[Rowdy]

My goats love the oak trees, greenbriar, and all the other brush, but they also love sunflowers.

I've got just about the same thing as you growing for my goats. Last fall in one of my paddocks I sowed a mix of oats, triticale and wheat. The goats loved it, and promptly grazed it to the ground. I almost did not get them moved before they killed it. Then we hit that dry spell, so it was really slow to grow back. It is about ready to graze one more time before the trees and ect come back for spring. In another paddock I did ryegrass/clover (though the clover did not come up) They did eat it to the ground.

In another paddock last spring I seeded a sandyland mix of mostly native grass. Lovegrass, little bluestem, Haskell side oats, side oats gramma, indian grass, etc. That was when we were really wet, and I did not move the goats into it in time. They grazed it, but did not seem to like it as much as I hoped... though I do not know if I let it grow up too much, or it is just the plants.

Here are the goats in the native grass paddock, wading through grass.



I've wanted to try millet, but have never gotten around to it.

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

"I've wanted to try millet, but have never gotten around to it."

German Foxtail Millet grows very well in Texas and it only takes about 4 inches of rain to make a crop. Very forgiving here in Texas.

[Rowdy]

Well, I ran over to http://www.turnerseed.com "Turner Seed" today to get my grass and field seed for my spring/summer planting this year. Picked up some german foxtail millet. I'm going to try a few strips of it to see how the goats like it or not.From what I have read though, it seem kinda like a one shot thing as far as grazing goes, so it will never replace the wheat/tritcale I plant in the fall.

I also picked up some more sandy land mix, some bermuda, and some BOSS. I think I will take my winter grazing paddock and sow strips of BOSS, millet, and blackeyed peas and see how things turn out.