Reseeded pasture not performing

Bigbird1

Hi there.
I reseeded 5 acres 2 years ago. It was doin ok but not responding very well to fertiliser so i said id give it a go. I went for the trad plough, Powerharrow, seed and roll method used 6 bags of seed.few bags of 10.10.20 after sowing and 18.6.12 plus slurry this year. I think i have done everything right yet the ground is still very slow to grow and some parts hardly grows at all. Took a few bales off a corner of the field a few weeks ago and that has been very slow to come. The new grass and clover seems to have established itself well. Any one any ideas

tanko

Any lime?

Keepgrowing

Bigbird1 wrote: »

Hi there.
I reseeded 5 acres 2 years ago. It was doin ok but not responding very well to fertiliser so i said id give it a go. I went for the trad plough, Powerharrow, seed and roll method used 6 bags of seed.few bags of 10.10.20 after sowing and 18.6.12 plus slurry this year. I think i have done everything right yet the ground is still very slow to grow and some parts hardly grows at all. Took a few bales off a corner of the field a few weeks ago and that has been very slow to come. The new grass and clover seems to have established itself well. Any one any ideas

You didn't mention lime.

Compaction I'll bet I the problem. Take a spade dig a hole 16" deep and that'll tell you if its compacted. Subsoiler will sort if that's the problem

Bigbird1

It never got lime. Whats the 16 inch deep hole for ? Would ploughing not sort out any compactiin ?

Keepgrowing

Bigbird1 wrote: »

It never got lime. Whats the 16 inch deep hole for ? Would ploughing not sort out any compactiin ?

May not. Compaction can be under ploughed soil ie plough pan or it got over travelled at seeding or could've bee wet at the time.

Spade will allow you examine soil profile. It all starts with the soil

FarmerDougal

Ploughing buries the fertile soil.. Take soil test. Reseeded ground is hungry.. Need to spread lot of fert to be viable

grassroot1

as above lime first then spend your money on fert

patsy_mccabe

I know ploughing burys the fertile soil, but long term does it lead to better deeper topsoil. I've often wondered about this. There always seems to be good soil around big cities. Is it because people settled on the good soil to begin with OR the soil became good from all the ploughing and fertilising over the years.

Mooooo

Lime most definitely the main issue if none was applied, also re seeded fields need to be fed, a bag or two of fert in the year wouldn't do imo, eventually weed grasses would just return. Now clover may help you there alright. Go with gran lime for the moment and then spread ground lime later in the autumn

rangler1

Bigbird1 wrote: »

Hi there.
I reseeded 5 acres 2 years ago. It was doin ok but not responding very well to fertiliser so i said id give it a go. I went for the trad plough, Powerharrow, seed and roll method used 6 bags of seed.few bags of 10.10.20 after sowing and 18.6.12 plus slurry this year. I think i have done everything right yet the ground is still very slow to grow and some parts hardly grows at all. Took a few bales off a corner of the field a few weeks ago and that has been very slow to come. The new grass and clover seems to have established itself well. Any one any ideas

The new grass varieties perform very well in the right conditions, they won't tolerate low fertility/ph whereas old grasses will.
Management has to be stepped up too or you might as well not do it, see lots of places that are reseeded and within a few years are back to maybe worse than before the reseed.
Ploughing does bury the fertility and it takes a few years for the worms (if there is any} get the good soil back up to the top. But for those first few years the land will be very hungry Sowing a breakcrop and ploughing again for grass gets the fertility back up quicker.
The most cost effective thing you could do now is a soil test

Buford T. Justice XIX

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I know ploughing burys the fertile soil, but long term does it lead to better deeper topsoil. I've often wondered about this. There always seems to be good soil around big cities. Is it because people settled on the good soil to begin with OR the soil became good from all the ploughing and fertilising over the years.

Good soil provided good crops leading to population growth in an area because it could support large numbers. Small villages became towns and then cities because of the good soils allowing them a good start.

50HX

do soil test again to see what lime is required and twould be a plan over a number years then

you could go gran lime right now and have the response next spring as a short term answer but ground lime for longer lasting results

Keepgrowing

Did you dig a hole in a weaker area?

rangler1

50HX wrote: »

do soil test again to see what lime is required and twould be a plan over a number years then

you could go gran lime right now and have the response next spring as a short term answer but ground lime for longer lasting results

Not all land needs lime

yosemitesam1

If it turns out to need a load lime use burnt lime op, normal lime can get a sort of skin around it that stops it being broke down at low ph's

_Brian

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I know ploughing burys the fertile soil, but long term does it lead to better deeper topsoil. I've often wondered about this. There always seems to be good soil around big cities. Is it because people settled on the good soil to begin with OR the soil became good from all the ploughing and fertilising over the years.

Many traditional cities indeed chose estuaries as their locations where Fertile silt deposits had good soil, the river provided fresh water and had access to the sea for fishing and transport. Think Dublin, Cork, Limerick, London, all positioned for the same reason.