Finally planted some of the pasture

"SPIKE" · #1 04/11/13, 02:41 PM

I spent several days cleaning up and planting an area about 1 1/2 acre in size. Cleared the area near the woods, restacked some of my extra building parts, and burned the brush pile that was in the way.

About an acre of it is planted in a mixture of orchard grass, white clover, crimson clover, and a bit of hairy vetch thrown in a couple spots. The rest of it was planted with AU Grazer Sericea Lespedeza.

I added a bit of ag lime. Tilled the whole area with a 4' tiller. Hand spread all the seed. That white clover seed sure is small! Drug the whole area with a piece of chain link fence behind my riding mower. Then packed it in a bit by driving the riding mower over the whole area, covering every inch with the tires of the mower.

NOW 2 DAYS LATER, IT RAINS ALL DAY!!!!!!!! CARP!!!!

I may end up with a great stand of grass, or all the seed may have washed away! LOL Most all my property slopes some. It has rained way too much for too long. The water has been flowing over the freshly planted area.

Ignore the stuff pile in the pictures. Weeks from now I hope I can come back to this thread and post updated pictures of a beautiful pasture, but with all this rain at once I am a bit skeptical of the results.

SPIKE

Josie · #2 04/11/13, 02:43 PM

Fingers crossed for you and your goaties to have a nice pasture soon

Minelson · #3 04/11/13, 02:43 PM

That looks like it was a lot of work! I hope and pray it didn't wash away.. I don't think it did

Alice In TX/MO · #4 04/11/13, 03:49 PM

It's pretty flat. I vote for a beautiful stand of grass.

dbarjacres · #5 04/11/13, 05:57 PM

that looks great! I think you'll have a lush field. :-)

billygoatridge · #6 04/11/13, 09:47 PM

Did you get a whole 50# of the lespedeza or did you find some place that would sell smaller quantities? I have yet to find a place.

wmk0002 · #7 04/12/13, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billygoatridge

Did you get a whole 50# of the lespedeza or did you find some place that would sell smaller quantities? I have yet to find a place.

I'm also curious about this too as well as how much you paid for the AU Grazer. I'm considering planting a patch of it in my pasture but there is one area that is not well drained and I am considering getting some work done to it in the fall to help it drain so if it is still really expensive I'd be better waiting another year to go through with that.

"SPIKE" · #8 04/12/13, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billygoatridge

Did you get a whole 50# of the lespedeza or did you find some place that would sell smaller quantities? I have yet to find a place.

I got as whole bag, but was lucky. I only know 2 goat people locally, but one of them knew the president of a local goat group and gave me a phone number. That man knew a guy who decided to get out of goats and he had a bag of seed he was trying to sell. He said with shipping, he paid around $200 for the 50 pound bag. This was in 2011 and the seed was marked for use in 2010, so I was able to talk him down to $100.

I planted some late in 2011 and it did come back in 2012. With the goats and pigs on it, then the no rain last year, I lost part of it. I did not realize it was going down, so I got water to it too late.

I tested the seed this year by planting a 3" pot when I started my tomatoes. I germinated well and I moved my sample outside.
20 pounds per acre is recommended and I only planted about 1/2 acre, so I do have a bit left if I have to replant.

Look around your area for a local club, if you are looking for seed.

SPIKE

"SPIKE" · #9 04/12/13, 10:42 AM

I went out late yesterday after the rain finally stopped. I hate it when you get the months worth of rain in one day!

Here are a few more pictures for fun. I'm sure some of the seed stayed in place, but some areas looked like a high altitude photo of the amazon river basin! LOL

SPIKE

Minelson · #10 04/12/13, 02:06 PM

It will all settle

aart · #11 04/13/13, 05:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minelson

It will all settle

Question is ...where did it settle? You'll know where when it starts to sprout! Man that stinks, have had that happen with grass seed, never seeded a pasture before. Are these plants perennial? If so hopefully they will spread out and fill the gaps eventually. Best of luck to you.

"SPIKE" · #12 04/13/13, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aart

Question is ...where did it settle? You'll know where when it starts to sprout! Man that stinks, have had that happen with grass seed, never seeded a pasture before. Are these plants perennial? If so hopefully they will spread out and fill the gaps eventually. Best of luck to you.

ROTFLMAO

I am doing my best to remain "cautiously optimistic". Possibly, what did not wash away will just rot, if it does no dry quickly enough. The next few days here are supposed to be sunny and warmer.
The clover takes 7 to 10 days to germinate and the orchard grass could take as long as 18 days!

That is a long time to just have to wait and see!
This was to be the start of good permanent pasture for goats and AGHs. I will be cross fencing with some cheaper 39" field fence, mainly to keep the pigs controlled.

SPIKE

Backfourty,MI. · #13 04/13/13, 03:03 PM

Our place looks about like yours right now Spike with all the water we've had, Ice storm, snow then more rain & snow!

Your goats are going to Love their new pasture! I sure hope a lot of your seed comes up because I'm sure that was a lot of work. You can always go over the sparse areas & plant a few more seeds later.

Bearfootfarm · #14 04/13/13, 05:03 PM

Quote:

I may end up with a great stand of grass, or all the seed may have washed away!

The rain is the BEST thing that could have happened.

There's nowhere for it to "wash away" to, and it will give the shallow seed enough moisture to germinate

aart · #15 04/14/13, 07:05 AM

If any of the seeds are easily visible, look downstream of the rivulets and where the rain puddled and you'll find them piled up.....might still be able to spread them out a bit, tho the scale of the pasture might make that a ridiculous endeavor.

Had this happen with grass seed once, very visible congregations of seed where I did not want them. Raked at it a bit and flung it out of the piles anyway, ended up with some thick stands here and some bare spots there, it all filled in after a couple years.

wmk0002 · #16 04/26/13, 12:13 PM

Any update on the germination of your grass?

"SPIKE" · #17 04/28/13, 05:10 PM

Well it can always be worse, but this time it could have bee a DARN BIT BETTER!!

Bad year I guess for tilling pasture and trying to start grass. I should have rented the seed drill. (Hind site, don't you just love it. )

Planted on the 9th. So in the last 19 days, we have had 4 rains.
One nice 1 inch, one not too bad 3 inch, of course I've already told about the first 5 inch and yesterday we had another 5 inch gully washer!! LOL
We have had record lows for my area and frost later than average. The frost did not hurt what was left of the orchard grass and clover, but the emerging sericea does not like the frost.
Average rainfall is around 4.5 to 5 inches a month. So since I planted, we have gotten almost 3 months worth of rain and more coming later this week.
Poor little grass seed never had a good chance! LOL

Keep On Keeping On! LOL

SPIKE

Minelson · #18 04/28/13, 05:15 PM

Who would have thunk that would happen!! Everything with this homesteading/critter raising is a risk

But at least you got it started...right?

"SPIKE" · #19 04/28/13, 05:19 PM

Can't seem to get pictures to upload today. will try again later.

SPIKE

"SPIKE" · #20 04/29/13, 09:24 AM

I tried to remember where I was when I took the original pictures.
There will be some grass survive. It will just take a bit more work to get it into good shape.

SPIKE