Existing thick pasture stand to food plot how to?

[Angus 1895]

I would mow first.

maybe even twice.

then get some regrowth

your glyphosate will work better.

a shot of 24D prior to the glyphosate would also help.

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

I think I might try just spraying and then broadcasting seed into it.......If you mow it down ahead of time then you're going to smother the soil surface out with thatch and its going to take awhile to decompose.

 

[westonwhitetail]

I think I might try just spraying and then broadcasting seed into it.......If you mow it down ahead of time then you're going to smother the soil surface out with thatch and its going to take awhile to decompose.

Crimson Camo is the expert on this. I have done it with success as well. I like to use RR beans in the summer so you can spray multiple times if needed. Then by mid-summer or early fall you can overseed your fall blend and you should have a nice stand with some rain.

 

[omicron1792]

I can't think of any set of actions that will result in your expected outcome. But, Derek, I've been following your food plotting experiences and you have had great success especially in places where I didn't think you would. Converting a fallow pasture into first a decent seed bed and then a 'successful' food plot is a hard situation. Upon reading your initial description/question my first thought was - No way! Then I thought mowing followed by a period of drying and then burning. Crazy yes. I don't do fire out of fear it gets away.

The tiller is on no use, the disk somewhat more helpful. The tiller tines will just bounce across the surface because of what's probably an underground mass of deep long established roots. The disk will likely struggle too. And those roots are likely to make spraying ineffective on the first try. It all sounds like a multi-year conversion. Who knows what the Gods of odds might have for you. So, roll the dice!

So agree with this farmer. Manage the grass BEFORE planting anything. Hard to do once you have food plot plants in there. I would spray it all summer with gly, three times followed by mowing. Last spray of year spray aminopyralid or oustxp. Then spray gly again in spring and plant a summer crop of millet/Milo. Next fall you will have a clean nice field to plant whatever you want.

 

[omicron1792]

I think I might try just spraying and then broadcasting seed into it.......If you mow it down ahead of time then you're going to smother the soil surface out with thatch and its going to take awhile to decompose.

See, a fallow area of land not previous pasture I think this is great.

A previous pasture, man kill the pasture grass dead first over a year.

 

[Angus 1895]

I would suggest you spray some then mow.

mow some then spray. You might mow twice to break up thatch.
allow 4 regrowth.

my premise is mature grass has more lignin, and won’t absorb the herbicide, plus you will need way more herbicide spraying first.

let us know which worked better please

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I’m thinking I will go the mow wait 2 weeks mow wait 2 weeks spray/plant route…as my FIL is not super comfortable with lots of spraying ..he did say he has a stone rake we could run through at any point if the thatch gets to be too much..I know I would lose some C/N then but to get better seed to soil contact I think it would be worth it…plus with adding possibly 100 lbs of rye and lots of clover/brassica and planting at the end of the growing season..I’m hoping the weeds don’t get to be too much (wishful thinking I know)…

 

[Hoytvectrix]

If this is going to be a permanent food plot, I would spray at least once before seeding. Your second spraying could happen at seeding. Below is an area that I have been cleaning up for a fall brassica/clover kill plot that was originally in a thick tall fescue/brome pasture. It took two sprayings.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I may do 2 sprayings, but would guess 1 would be at planting and the other next spring once I see how the plot is doing. Have been very impressed with clethodim and it’s ability to smoke grasses, which I think will be most of my issues. Attached is a pic of my clover plot from last fall that had way more grass than clover in it this spring. After a shot of cleth and some foliar fertilizer, it is now thriving and at its outset was an even taller hayfield than the one I will be planting into this fall..

 

[SD51555]

Timing will determine how badly your weeds come back. The closer to the end of the growing season you kill it off, the less you’ll have to fight.

Odds are you’re gonna get a flush of something roundup won’t get the second time. Not the end of the world. New ground, especially something that wasn’t closed canopy forest almost requires rye for a full year just to keep everything in check as much as possible. That also gives your ground time to heal and call off the gly resistant first responder weeds.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Timing will determine how badly your weeds come back. The closer to the end of the growing season you kill it off, the less you’ll have to fight.

Odds are you’re gonna get a flush of something roundup won’t get the second time. Not the end of the world. New ground, especially something that wasn’t closed canopy forest almost requires rye for a full year just to keep everything in check as much as possible. That also gives your ground time to heal and call off the gly resistant first responder weeds.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I nuked a reed canary grass dominated hay field late may - mid sept last year. 3 sprayings if i recall correctly. Drilled a heavy dose of rye and clover into early or mid September and through most of may it looked like a pretty clean rye field. There is a mat of RCG growing up in the rye again now..

 

[omicron1792]

I nuked a reed canary grass dominated hay field late may - mid sept last year. 3 sprayings if i recall correctly. Drilled a heavy dose of rye and clover into early or mid September and through most of may it looked like a pretty clean rye field. There is a mat of RCG growing up in the rye again now..

Everyone wants to do in one spraying and I keep saying same thing. I’m just like you Gypsy. I’ve done it right and still have weed problems after. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I’ve played with RCG for a couple years now in my front field and done it all sprayed it burned it sprayed it some more kept it cut low..rye was by far the best, cheapest and easiest solution but I still have more to eradicate..

 

[SD51555]

I nuked a reed canary grass dominated hay field late may - mid sept last year. 3 sprayings if i recall correctly. Drilled a heavy dose of rye and clover into early or mid September and through most of may it looked like a pretty clean rye field. There is a mat of RCG growing up in the rye again now..

I've not found a way to best RCG. RCG is the Lord's surveyor stake for pond siting.

Genesis 1: 11-13

11 Then God said: Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it and every pond site covered in canary grass. And so it happened: 12 the earth brought forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw that it was good. He then said, now it is up to you, upon this canary grass, make a pond on one half and upon the spoils cast atop the other, build a food plot. 13 Evening came, and morning followed—the third day.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I've not found a way to best RCG. RCG is the Lord's surveyor stake for pond siting.

Genesis 1: 11-13

11 Then God said: Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it and every pond site covered in canary grass. And so it happened: 12 the earth brought forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw that it was good. He then said, now it is up to you, upon this canary grass, make a pond on one half and upon the spoils cast atop the other, build a food plot. 13 Evening came, and morning followed—the third day.

You won't find Bermuda grass in Scripture

..............its of the devil

bill

 

[Foggy47]

I have been experimenting with a strip of virgin grassland in a power line that crosses my property. I mowed it fairly short two years ago.....and applied Gly on two or more occasions, before drilling clover and rye into the strip. Came in pretty good last summer. I planted more clover and rye last year......and now have some fair clover growing.....but have excessive grasses to get back under control. I plan to hit that with some cleth to see if I can control the grasses.

I got a few small strip areas like this, that I experiment with. Not critical to my plotting....but I learn something when I try different approaches with these small areas. These also are a good place to use up excess seeds (if any).

 

[bigboreblr]

Probably a few good ways to do it. If mowing, then spraying, I would keep the mower a bit on the high side. if more of your gly is on the dead cut stuff, your wasting herbicide.

What you could do instead of mowing before spraying, put a 2x4 across your front bumper. It'll push the grass down some without knocking it in the dirt.

Would like to see a closeup of this pasture. Might be a specific weed or grass that needs a tough fight.

Also, similar to herbicide, spreading lime on a hot summer day is a close 2nd to using herbicide. There wasnt any mention to soil needs here. Spreading fertilizer a few weeks before spreading seed can make your weeds soak up gly even better. And the added bonus of that is run off protection. The weeds suck up the extra fertilizer that would be missed or flushed way by young growth.

Mowing high then mowing a 2nd pass low really chop up the stuff more evenly.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I nuked a reed canary grass dominated hay field late may - mid sept last year. 3 sprayings if i recall correctly. Drilled a heavy dose of rye and clover into early or mid September and through most of may it looked like a pretty clean rye field. There is a mat of RCG growing up in the rye again now..

Correction! Just saw what looked like RCG coming up from a distance and assumed the worst. After closer inspection, the summer long chemical warfare last year and heavy batch of rye/clover has kept the RCG at bay in most of the plot except for areas that had standing water too long this spring. Hope has been restored.

 

[bigboreblr]

Adding 2,4D to gly can be the touch of death. 2,4D has some residual and is more intended for boradleafs.

Scratching the soil with a pasture drag or a set of discs can wake up dormant seeds. Give it a pass or two, then a light spray of gly 2 or 3 weeks later when you plant.

Old timers would turn the soil with a plow, wait a week r two, the bury the young weed / grass seeds with a leveling pass of the discs.

Before I caved in to using herbicides, I would re disc my food plots a week or two later to kill young weed seeds. I'd spread the big seeds mixed with fertlizer, then disc, then spread the small seeds with pelletized lime. IF the soil is pretty dry and loose, I would do another disc pass, just roll it in.

 

[omicron1792]

Adding 2,4D to gly can be the touch of death. 2,4D has some residual and is more intended for boradleafs.

Scratching the soil with a pasture drag or a set of discs can wake up dormant seeds. Give it a pass or two, then a light spray of gly 2 or 3 weeks later when you plant.

Old timers would turn the soil with a plow, wait a week r two, the bury the young weed / grass seeds with a leveling pass of the discs.

Before I caved in to using herbicides, I would re disc my food plots a week or two later to kill young weed seeds. I'd spread the big seeds mixed with fertlizer, then disc, then spread the small seeds with pelletized lime. IF the soil is pretty dry and loose, I would do another disc pass, just roll it in.

Couldn’t disagree more. I would use herbicide and leave the disc in the barn.