Timothy?

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Anybody like to use timothy as a companion crop with clovers? I have used this in the past, and my backyard pasture still has it growing in there.

That spot I mow too much to verify if it's well liked. Have considered trying a experiment plot of timothy and medium red clover and see how well it works in the trail. Not sure how shade tolerant it is. Im guessing I'd mow it to 4 inches in mid june and late august. Looking for a pasture type seed mix that offers nutrition, but is low maintenance. Mostly mowing and frost seeding. I have other areas with less to no tire traffic I can plant better stuff. Just want something better than goldenrod and nut sedge in my maintained trails. Considering trying one spot of timothy, and another with orchardgrass. both mixed with clover, likely common ag medium red.

I can get timothy locally too, which is helpful.

 

[Lucky_P]

I used to mix it with clover, more or less as a 'filler'... to help get a more even distribution of clover seed when overseeding pastures... timothy & clover are similar in size, and timothy is way cheaper, so you could mix the two to sort of 'spread-out' the clover. Timothy will 'frost seed' fairly well, due to its small size and shape.
As a forage source... it kinda sucks... at least here. I know the horse folks like it in a hay mix, but it never persists more than a couple of years, at best, in a pasture setting, and I never noticed the cows being all that fond of it. We did management-intensive grazing, bought in all our hay, so managing a hayfield was not a thing here.
I have no idea of deer or turkeys will eat timothy or not. Doubt that it's very shade-tolerant, but IDK for sure.

 

[River-X]

The deer dont really touch it here in south central wisconsin. I have a 6-7 acre stand of Timothy and Alfalfa behind the house that one of my buddies planted and was cutting for his cattle twice a year. It does real well here in the full sun and the partial shade. It holds up VERY well to tire traffic (my young boys flew around on the field constantly with their ATVs and never even slowed it down). One draw back I noticed was that after about year 3, it begins to get a big root clump type of base and makes the field more bumpy and walking in it gets a little bit more difficult. Not real bad, but definitely noticeable when walking in hunting boots. Our field has been going for about 6 years with no signs of slowing except where I have killed it to add plots.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

The deer eats the heads here.


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[Lucky_P]

I've planted it on a couple of occasions, when drilling in a mix of tall fescue/orchardgrass and clover - the timothy seed & clover seed are similar in size and were mixed together in the legum box on the no-till drill. Have also used timothy seed to 'dilute' clover when frost-seeding pastures, just to get better distribution of the clover seed - timothy was CHEAP compared to the cost of the clover.
It never persists more than a year or two here in a cattle grazing situation... I'll see an occasional timothy plant here an there - probably not a dozen of them on the whole 110 acres of pasture ground, 10 years or more since I last put any out. So... if the deer utilize it, it's not much... I can only identify it by the seedheads.

 

[Angus 1895]

The only grass I have seen deer interested in was new seeding rye grass, but perhaps it was the clover they were munchping.

 

[yoderjac]

Anybody like to use timothy as a companion crop with clovers? I have used this in the past, and my backyard pasture still has it growing in there.

That spot I mow too much to verify if it's well liked. Have considered trying a experiment plot of timothy and medium red clover and see how well it works in the trail. Not sure how shade tolerant it is. Im guessing I'd mow it to 4 inches in mid june and late august. Looking for a pasture type seed mix that offers nutrition, but is low maintenance. Mostly mowing and frost seeding. I have other areas with less to no tire traffic I can plant better stuff. Just want something better than goldenrod and nut sedge in my maintained trails. Considering trying one spot of timothy, and another with orchardgrass. both mixed with clover, likely common ag medium red.

I can get timothy locally too, which is helpful.

Deer can eat some timothy. They will eat a bit of almost any plant when young and tender. Having said that, Timothy is for cattle that can process it. It is not a deer food and provides little for deer. I kill mine.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[yoderjac]

Here is a link that discusses Timothy with respect to deer: https://extension.tennessee.edu/publications/Documents/PB1874.pdf

Not something that I would use.

Thanks,

Jack

 

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Took a peek at my backyard clover plot. It's still in there after last years reseed and clethodim sprays. It's loosing hold though. Tempted to mow the plot after a nice 2 inch rain yesterday, but holding out............