reseeding meadows

happylad

Hi,

I was going to reseed our meadows and a bit of grazing ground in the next month. Meadow return is old pasture and has a poor return. Also quality on silage last year was only Ok. We had some bales that were very poor and showed no holes on plastic. Have soil sampling fine. Showing ph of 5.7 and low in P & K. Ok for N.

I was goin to do to following on one of the meadows to see how it goes. Around 15 acres to be done. Anyone have an idea what sort of costs would be on this.

Burn of grass 5 days before cutting
Once bales of field spread 3000gal slurry per acrea
Disc harrow the field
Spread 3 bags to acre of granulated lime
Seed field
Roll field
Spread 2bags 10-10-20 to acre
Spray field again in 6wks to kill weeds.

Would we get a cut of silage from it or should ground be graded prior to cutting.

Should we leave it until 2nd cut of silage is done.

tabby aspreme

With a ph of 5.7 I think it would be better to put two tonnes of ground lime out rather than the gran lime, better value in the long term

sheebadog

happylad wrote: »

Hi,

I was going to reseed our meadows and a bit of grazing ground in the next month. Meadow return is old pasture and has a poor return. Also quality on silage last year was only Ok. We had some bales that were very poor and showed no holes on plastic. Have soil sampling fine. Showing ph of 5.7 and low in P & K. Ok for N.

I was goin to do to following on one of the meadows to see how it goes. Around 15 acres to be done. Anyone have an idea what sort of costs would be on this.

Burn of grass 5 days before cutting
Once bales of field spread 3000gal slurry per acrea
Disc harrow the field
Spread 3 bags to acre of granulated lime
Seed field
Roll field
Spread 2bags 10-10-20 to acre
Spray field again in 6wks to kill weeds.

Would we get a cut of silage from it or should ground be graded prior to cutting.

Should we leave it until 2nd cut of silage is done.

3 cwt of granlime is excessive.

happylad

Thanks for the responses. What do ye think of the sequence of the reseeding the way I outlined above. Would ye advise doing in after the first cut or wait until the second cut is done. We can't afford to miss a cut of silage from it.

RightTurnClyde

I'd go with slurry after seeding& rolling. 3k slurry before dialing will make skutter of the ground. Put that slurry out after grass seed and it will do a nice job of covering grass seed

larthehar

happylad wrote: »

Hi,

I was going to reseed our meadows and a bit of grazing ground in the next month. Meadow return is old pasture and has a poor return. Also quality on silage last year was only Ok. We had some bales that were very poor and showed no holes on plastic. Have soil sampling fine. Showing ph of 5.7 and low in P & K. Ok for N.

I was goin to do to following on one of the meadows to see how it goes. Around 15 acres to be done. Anyone have an idea what sort of costs would be on this.

Burn of grass 5 days before cutting
Once bales of field spread 3000gal slurry per acrea
Disc harrow the field
Spread 3 bags to acre of granulated lime
Seed field
Roll field
Spread 2bags 10-10-20 to acre
Spray field again in 6wks to kill weeds.

Would we get a cut of silage from it or should ground be graded prior to cutting.

Should we leave it until 2nd cut of silage is done.

I just done a reseed there yesterday.. How are ya sowing the seed?!
The order seems ok.. I might be inclined to spread granlime after cutting and leave slurry til after the disc.. also personally I think you will find it to sody at this point if it is an old pasture.. I often tie a few strainer posts on the chain harrow and give three runs (with mf35 to reduce cost) breaks up the sods lovely... maybe slurry before the last run?

Costs are roughly as follows;
spraying 7/ac
discing 60/hr (approx 18/ac)
chain harrow (depends upon you having your own equip)
seeding (again depends on method and equip)
Seed approx 70-75/ac

If p and k are index 1 soils I would go 3bags/ac just my opinion though.. also grazing after establishment is key for tillering.. I have not bothered before cause of bad fences in medows etc and it is definitely worth the hassle of it... no comparison on the quality of the swarth. Not just teagasc bullsh1t!! Tried and tested...

Brown Podzol

Slurry is acidic. Will undo some of the benifit of the lime. Wait until the grass seeds are growing to apply the slurry.

larthehar

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Slurry is acidic. Will undo some of the benifit of the lime. Wait until the grass seeds are growing to apply the slurry.

I was thinking of this, but the op is putting out 3bags/ac of gran lime.. that should be enough to counter the acidity of the slurry and correct the pH sufficiently??

Reggie.

Noticed a field last Thursday that was Reseeded only a few days. It was plain and just rolled. Passed it this morning and the crop was up about 4 inches.

happylad

Thanks again for all the responses. We have never reseeded any ground so this is all new. We were goin to disc it as we have been told it seems to be the best to do if ploughing is not an option. Our ground has shale under it so I'd be afraid we'd.bring up to much of that and no soil. I was thinking of chain harrow option and spreading seed with wagtail but there seems to be mixed options. As it's our first time and it's silage ground we were just goin to let a contractor disc and stitch seed it for us. Open to opinions.

Judging on some of the responses reseeding it with the hope of having silage on it should be fine but it is.probably better to graze it first. Is this correct. Goin on this we should leave it until the second cut is taken.

Should ground be burned off even though ground will be cut bare.

Was looking at guttler system do. Seems to.get the job done quick

Greengrass1

happylad wrote: »

Thanks again for all the responses. We have never reseeded any ground so this is all new. We were goin to disc it as we have been told it seems to be the best to do if ploughing is not an option. Our ground has shale under it so I'd be afraid we'd.bring up to much of that and no soil. I was thinking of chain harrow option and spreading seed with wagtail but there seems to be mixed options. As it's our first time and it's silage ground we were just goin to let a contractor disc and stitch seed it for us. Open to opinions.

Judging on some of the responses reseeding it with the hope of having silage on it should be fine but it is.probably better to graze it first. Is this correct. Goin on this we should leave it until the second cut is taken.

Should ground be burned off even though ground will be cut bare.

Was looking at guttler system do. Seems to.get the job done quick

That might be best job. Quick turnaround time and no messing with chain harrows and disk harrows. Hope to do 11 ac at start of next month with the contractors horsch sower

Brown Podzol

happylad wrote: »

Thanks again for all the responses. We have never reseeded any ground so this is all new. We were goin to disc it as we have been told it seems to be the best to do if ploughing is not an option. Our ground has shale under it so I'd be afraid we'd.bring up to much of that and no soil. I was thinking of chain harrow option and spreading seed with wagtail but there seems to be mixed options. As it's our first time and it's silage ground we were just goin to let a contractor disc and stitch seed it for us. Open to opinions.

Judging on some of the responses reseeding it with the hope of having silage on it should be fine but it is.probably better to graze it first. Is this correct. Goin on this we should leave it until the second cut is taken.

Should ground be burned off even though ground will be cut bare.

Was looking at guttler system do. Seems to.get the job done quick

A Moore-unidrill with a gutler roller seems to be the job. Available locally here . Will do a few paddocks this year. Saying that I reseeded with the guttler last year and did a good job.

http://www.moore-unidrill.com/grassland-unidrills.aspx

happylad

Thanks again. That unidrill seems a good system. Would ye still advise burning of the grass before cutting the silage or is the ground bare enough once cut. I was thinking of getting coarse lime spread on the fields instead of the granular. Seems to be cheaper.

Lambofdave

if using the moore as this is a re seed rather then stitching i would spray off the land spread the lime and have it washed in preferably before drilling as other wise when drilling a pile of lime will be blown away. Use slug pellets with the grass seed could get away with a half rate this time of year but be prepared to land spread also if needed. I wouldn't spread slurry for at least 6 wks after but make sure no parlour washings are in the slurry as the acid could burn the seeds.

happylad

Thanks for the help. We are ready to cut silage in the next week weather permitting. Do you think we should go for reseeding after cutting or should we wait until the 2nd cut is done. Would it be too much of a risk to expect the grass would be up to allow us to take our second cut.