Grazing Grasses (i am not sure where to post this)

[KristyHall]

I'm still pretty new to this forum but so far I am so thrilled to see such an excellent community with sop much information for beginning hobby farmers like myself.

Even though I have had dogs cats and horses most of my life, I only bought my own property and moved my horses out of stables and to my property six years ago. My parents helped me buy 20 acres of undeveloped land. When I showed up it was a mixture of forest and fields that had been timbered often, hay cut from the fields without fertilizing, and just been abused in general. I found wild muscadine vines, huge pig nut, and acorn trees, two small under ground springs that bubble up in certain places, and under ground caves running all over the property. This land is definatly a hidden jewel that had been neglected. SO after six years of intensive car, the ground is slowly turning black, and the muscadines have become a productive orchard that keeps us well supplied with jellies and wine, and my horses and chickens have grown very fat while the local feral cats have taken up residence where they keep us vermin free. ( I had taken to trapping the ferals and having them, dewormed/ticked/flead, fixed and vaccinated and then set loose. some have tamed down and become pets but most justs how up for the free chow. I made sure they didn't belong to anyone in the town before I did this, though the ones I trapped were largely unhealthy, skinny, and infested with parasites.)

Ok So now that I am done bragging, I am now turning my attention to field grasses. I want to start planting plots of different grasses and plants in the fields for a wide rang of forage material for my horses and chickens, and eventually for a milk cow, a couple of meat sheep, and the occasional hog. I am just not sure which are the best. I live in north Alabama where we have long hot summers ( I was picking watermelon into mid October last year) and mild wet winters (though this winter has been pretty darn cold). I have rocky clayie soil with lots of limestone, and when it rains we get a lot of it, but in late summer we usually go through a period of no rain for about two weeks.
I am looking for something low care and hard. It needs to be able to spread on its own because I am not up to constant reseeding, and since I want a mixed habitat to simulate the natural forage, plants that do well in a polyculture situation. Like with my animals, I dislike species that require intense and excessive pampering to survive. ( a little pampering is ok, I enjoy doting on my animals and garden I just don' t want something so weak that it requires excessive resources and time.)
Any suggestions?
I want to make sure everything is perfect before I take on more animals since their health and safety is of the utmost importance, that includes proper forage.

 

[goodhors]

Have you checked with your State Extension Service? This should be available to you in your County. They cover a multitude of area from 4-H to Master Gardener, farm help and suggestions for things that grow well in YOUR area. The County Agent may be able to come out, see what you are dealing with, before they can get specific.

In Michigan, we have Michigan State University, MSU, that is all things Agriculture related. Farming, hobby animals, livestock is BIG business, so doing it the best way, is searched out.

I started working on my pastures about 8 years ago. I have a small tractor, some basic tools to go on it. I also wished to improve my grazing, so we could save money not feeding hay when the grasses were gone in July heat.

Thru my Master Gardener class, the MSU speaker came and talked about grasses. Most of the class wanted lawn information, but he also knew about FARM PASTURES! He said is all starts with soil testing. If you have lots of ground, get several soil samples for seperate tests. Hilly ground needs different stuff than the valley dirt. Then get your fertilizer to suit EACH test area! With my small tractor, I cut the ground a bit with the disc, scored long lines to open the compacted soil to air and better water absorbtion. Then I spread fertilizer with the rented wagon, huge spread throw, over my fields. I used a small walking spreader for my mixed foliage grass seed. That stuff is like buying GOLD DUST! Then I dragged the fields with my chain drag, broke up manure, lumps of dirt from the light discing, covered the grass seed. I started spreading my daily barn manure on the fields, where it acts as mulch and adds organic material to the clay soil.

The other piece of wisdom he passed on to us, is to keep mowing your field to keep producing grass. Once the grass plant sets seed, dries, then plant is done for the year, goes dormant. THIS was why my fields were dead by July! Well that bush hog was cleaned up, new blades, and I started mowing regularly, every field and paddock. Leaving the mowed stuff is like giving plants fertilizer, and helps protect those roots from sun, erosion in thunderstorms. Cut grass puts more energy into improving roots of plant, not just shooting leaves up. With time, continued mowing, spreading my manure daily, things improved greatly.

Mowing means cutting no lower than 5 inches, close cutting shocks the plants, exposes roots to heat and burning sunshine. Takes longer for plant to recover from cutting leaves very short, getting back into production. Does help with weed control a lot, while not taking more of your time. So I cut my fields when grass is about 8 inches tall, never let it get longer than 10 inches. I will go cut if plants are putting out seed heads during summer. Seed heads in Sept, I mostly ignore so grass is longer going into cold fall and winter. Length protects the plants from horse hooves, nibbling when out in winter fields. I do NOT get much or ANY regrowth of pasture from fallen seeds. They just don't sprout well or in quantity for me and my multiple horses using the fields. I do spread grass seed in spring and fall on bare spots, where it grows in pretty well.

You will want to buy LOCAL seed, that is suited to YOUR area. A good seed will have several types, so you have things growing all season. Bluegrasses are good in cool to cold weather, just nothing in hot months. My clovers do well almost all season, and mowed shorter, I have had no problem with slobbers because clover dries quick from the dew so fungus can't grow. Other variety of grasses, come up in heat or cool, wet or dry. I really have a nice mix going, stays green and growing even with drought spells of a couple weeks. Roots are DEEP, with the manure bedding protecting the plants and soil, holding in moisture.

The last several years, I have been able to graze from late May when the ground dries up, to winter snowfall. NO hay needed for late season fillers. So I think my "giant lawn" has improved a great deal since I started. Horses look real good, calf and heifer were gaining all season with very little extra grain. Lambs did most of their gain on grazing too. However having a number of horses eating, let me keep them outside for half the day. They get barned for at least 8 hours to prevent being obese. With such rich grazing, you can't leave horses eating it 24 hours a day, they founder. So you will need to control grazing intake, time your turnout, restrict them by barning or locking them in the barnyard.

I could not have gained control, improved things without machinery. Mowing was a real key in improving things. I get soil tested every couple years. With the manure application, the fertilzer mix has changed, plants need other minerals than what I used the first couple years. Sawdust bedding requires a great deal of nitrogen to breakdown. I never lose the nitrogen, but it may not be available to plants without some extra lime to help. Soil test tells me that, so I don't buy fertilizer products that don't help the plants, waste my money and growing season.

Having soil tests done, will allow you to get what you need when the growing season gets here. Numbers on hand to procede smoothly. Taking the numbers to the fertilizer plant allows them to help you. I always tell them my "crop" is pasture grass for HORSES, so I want NO UREA in my fertilizer mix. If I miss the rainfall after spreading fertilizer, horses get onto the field by accident, they won't founder on the Urea. We know several horses that did founder after fields were fertilized using Urea in the mix, so avoidance for me, is just the best idea. Sorry this got so long, I love when someone wants to improve pasture!!

 

[KristyHall]

No no it isn't too long! Type away. Good farming starts with healthy soil and grasses. Anything you can tell me is of great use to me!
a local Angus farmer suggested I use redwagon Bermuda which is a mix of Bermuda that does really well in this area. White clover does well here too as well as crab grass. My horses will eat anything. It scares me a little because I have caught them eating cat food, tree bark and even blackberry brambles. I blame their lines. They're calvary line Arabians, the kind where the Arabic people who raised them would feed them milk and dates (and possibly meat which I can't confirm on that one) Still.... I don't want to risk their health so I watch them carefully.
The blackberry brambles blow my mind though. Those things are thorny!
Now I don't have large equipment. I am land poor and do most everything by hand, including clearing brush and planting a large 1/2 to 3 acre garden (depending on the year and my pain level). I am slowed even more because of my permanent injuries from a car wreck three years ago. So constantly mowing is really impractical. I have a push mower. and I only use my walk behind tiller for breaking new ground when rotating the garden to a new area. Thats it. Everything else is by hand.
My friends tell me i'm a masocist! lol!