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Help with 10 acre hay pasture
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Author:  dterrell [ Thu Jun 03, 2004 12:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Help with 10 acre hay pasture

I have been fertilizing with 30-10-10 on my coastal each year. I have never used anything for weed control. We quit using pesticides years ago. I usually cut round bales first baling for cows because we have lots of grassy weeds, then I square bale the next two cuts for horses. I want to go all organic but are confused on the program and the pricing. It would cost $4000 to put down Corn Gluten Meal. I'm looking for a yearly program. What kind of cover crops to use (clover?) and when to plant it. I have some rye in first cutting, planning on planting more in fall. This year I disked up the field to aerate it and break up the coastal roots. I have been collecting horse and cow manure from my neighbors and have been composting it, but it want be ready for another year. I have a tractor, hopper type spreader, tiller, disk and a dump trailer. I don't mine doing the work, but I can't afford to spend a lot of money. Can someone help me with a program? I have been following HG Organic Manual for years in the garden, but it doesn't go into large scale techniques. Any help would be appreciated. :D

Author:  CaptainCompostAL [ Fri Jun 04, 2004 2:47 pm ]
Post subject: 

Cover crops is definitely the way to go to add humus and microbes to your soil on large acreage farms. I don't have as much land as you do, but I have a 3 acre no-till sustainable farm. I use tons of done and undone compost, cover crops, and aerobic teas all over my farm.

Check this out for more info on green manures:
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/orga ... 30611.html

Happy Gardening!

Author:  Robert D Bard [ Sat Jun 05, 2004 12:50 am ]
Post subject:  10 acre hay meadow

Compost is wonderful but hard to get
and harder to spread - by hand. I prefer
humates. You can use dry humates and
get them from Randy Mosley. He will sell
to someone in your area and then you
pay your dealer and use his spreader
behind your tractor. It is very cost
effective and it will detox your land
besides adding trace minerals to your
soil. You can spread dry molasses with
your broad cast spreader. I haven't
found a spreader that will put lava
sand out as it is always wet and if
you can get it dry I think it will eat
the blades on a spreader. Randy
can add other "things" in the humate
when it is mixed. He sells it by the ton
and 1 ton will really help your land. You
can reach him through the website
www.enviromateinc.com
I am restoring hay meadows this year
and I prefer liquids as it is easier to put
out. I use sea water, liquid humate, liquid
molasses, and potassium nitrate.
Sea water is perfect fertilizer - 92 trace
minerals, amino acids, enzymes, and
beneficial bacteria. Without the salt the
trace minerals will not be absorbed by
the plants. It is also very cheap -$45.00
per ten acres.
liquid humates are great help - fulvic
acid detoxes and trace minerals are also
added. I used one gal per 10 acres - $15.60
Molasses feeds the bacteria - one gal per
10 acres - $8.00
Potassium nitrate - considered by some
as it it dug out of the ground and not
modified with other chemicals. It gives
some nitrogen with out damaging the
environment. I use 4 lbs per 10 acres -
$8.00.
total $76.00/10 acres -----$7.60 per acre
Robert D Bard

Author:  dterrell [ Sat Jun 05, 2004 7:24 pm ]
Post subject: 

I appreciate the help. I will give Randy a call on Monday. Look into getting a liquid fert. spreader and plan on overseeding with clover. Sounds like a plan! Thanks again! :wink:

Author:  Brad Watson [ Tue Jun 15, 2004 4:02 pm ]
Post subject: 

We have a Liquid Organic Fertilizer Program that we have perfected over the years. You can see our recomendations at www.watsonranchorganic.com for hay and grazing pastures. We are affordable, about 50% lower then chemical.

Author:  dharris2 [ Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:54 am ]
Post subject: 

I live in the Azle area and want to improve the quality of my coastal hay. Our crop this year had grass burrs in it and some other unwanted weeds. I can't find anyone in the area that will spray the organics for me. We moved here last November. We spread humate over the 5 acres in October, but want to spray the molasses in the spring.
I will appreciate any help.
:roll:

Author:  user_48634 [ Mon Dec 13, 2004 3:01 pm ]
Post subject: 

dharris2,
Do you want to run your own animals on it or let it grow and bale it? I think it is best to run animals and let them improve the grass for you. If you have goats, cattle, chickens, and geese, you won't have anything but great forage next year. The browsing goats will eat any new mesquite or other shrubby weeds. The grazer cattle will recycle the grass. The carnivore chickens will spread the cattle and goat manure digging for parasites, and the vegetarian geese will eat every last grass burr seed there is.

In order to pull this miracle off, you will need to cross fence your land so that you can control the location of the bigger beasts. Over your entire area, you will have to get help from your neighbors to get a feel for how many cattle you could run. You can run an equal number of goats, chickens, and geese in addition to that number of cattle because they all eat different foods. Then fence your land off into 15-30 pastures. Put all the animals into the most ready pasture and let the others grow. After the forage is eaten down in the first pasture (maybe one day, maybe one week), then move them all to the next most ready pasture. By moving the animals this way you allow the grass time to regrow without having the animals coming back to overgraze it. Your forage should have at least 30 to 60 days to regrow before being bitten the second time.

Or you could try the sprays. Compost tea will give you a lot of bang for your bucks. It is 1,000 times cheaper than compost for the same effect. Ask Captain Compost for help with that.

Author:  Robert D Bard [ Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:43 pm ]
Post subject:  help with 10 acres

If you want to get rid of grass burd, you
need humates. Humates are almost toxic
to grass burs.
This past year - fall of 03, and this year I
sprayed 300 acres with organics. One spot
on about 5 acres was covered with grass
burs last fall. I sprayed in Nov 2 weeks before
frost and then again in late April. The friend
grazed cows during the summer. I sprayed
again in early Aug and you could count the
number of grass burs on your finger and
toes. As Howard has reported for years,
weeds are the result of little fertilizer and
poor quality. This friend had used chemical
fertilizer for years and the burs got worse
until we went organic. He is totally sold on
organics. Also the grass spread and became
tighter - more volume.
I used sea water for fertilizer(enzymes, amino
acids, 92 trace minerals), liquid humate to
detoxify (fulvic acid to detoxify, and chelated
trace minerals), and molasses for the bugs
(food for bacteria, trace minerals, and 10%
nitrogen). All tese products are inexpensive
and easy obtainable.
Suggested reading
www.oceangrown.com
www.enviromateinc.com
www.acresusa.com
www.stockmangrassfarmer.com
One 20 acre field produced 500 more square
bales than it had ever produced. This was
reported in Acresusa.com last month
Robert D Bard

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