Thoughts on this process

[jdcarnathan]

I feed round bales in rings to keep waste under control. With 12 Dexters and a couple goats, the bales are lasting roughly 3-4 days. Anyway, I have heard of some people throwing seed down underneath their hay bale they are feeding and just moving the spot they feed everytime or couple of times. I am in Arkansas, and wonder what everyone thinks of that, and what seed they would try. I know Bermuda wouldnt do good as temperatures are cold currently. Majority of the field is orchard grass/bahia. Maybe try Fescue or more orchard grass. I figure the hay will act as a mulch and the manure should give it some goodies since I only move maybe 15 feet. I think it will let them work the seed in the ground and maybe improve pasture. Ok, I am gonna hang up a listen.....GO!

[Gravytrain]

I move my bale ring every time I feed a bale. I consider the bale to BE the seed source as long as you are not feeding weedy hay.

[billinwv]

I would skip the fescue.

[Gabriel]

That method works fine, if you give that area enough rest for the grass to get established. You'll need some sort of rotation in order to see the benefits.

[myheaven]

I use an oat, alfalfa, clover, Timothy mix. I move my bale every time.

[dlskidmore]

Feed the kind of hay you want to grow, move the bale every time. Or... a fellow that was talking at an agricultural show locally said he places bales every 20 feet on center, enough for the whole winter (he buys extra because this is rather wasteful method.) Lets the cows tear up the bales and trample them in whatever order they like, mulch in the whole field, then move the cattle off when the new grass is ready elsewhere. It will look awful, but come back better than before. He uses this for fields that need rejuvenation. He buys the hay from off-farm so any "waste" hay is nutrient import for his pasture as well as seed and mulch source.

[1shotwade]

I don't like the fescue thing. It's a great grazing grass but if you ever want to get rid of it good luck. It is very hardy and seed will stay good for 50 years.Every time you think you've got it and replant with something else,it'll come back and eventually choke out your new crop on that piece of land.

Just my thoughts on that.

Wade

[ramiller5675]

Originally Posted by dlskidmore

Feed the kind of hay you want to grow, move the bale every time. Or... a fellow that was talking at an agricultural show locally said he places bales every 20 feet on center, enough for the whole winter (he buys extra because this is rather wasteful method.) Lets the cows tear up the bales and trample them in whatever order they like, mulch in the whole field, then move the cattle off when the new grass is ready elsewhere. It will look awful, but come back better than before. He uses this for fields that need rejuvenation. He buys the hay from off-farm so any "waste" hay is nutrient import for his pasture as well as seed and mulch source.

That sounds like a form of "bale grazing". I've been using a modified form of bale grazing for about 4-5 years where I put about two days worth of hay out in bale feeders and then move them across the pasture so that I end up feeding about 40 bales/acre (which is about every 30-35 feet).

At the end of winter, the area will be covered with a layer of manure, urine, and hay. By the middle of summer, the grass has usually grown enough that you can barely tell that it was covered with all that hay (up to 20 tons/acre).

[Gabriel]

It's a great way to mimic mob grazing, which works wonders.

[dlskidmore]

He does it a bit thicker, has some loss of productivity the first cutting, but boosted productivity after that.