RESEEDING CONFERENCE - TORRANCE COUNTY - TRANSCRIPT OF NOTES - by Larry Edgar

 

WARM SEASON GRASSES

Needs soil temperature over 45 deg. F., June-July or Fall planting in September, plant in finely prepared seed bed (foot prints of an adult should be easily discernable by a *shallow* footprint) or stubble (of sorghum or wheat) wait 1 1/2 years after killing the grain to plant the grasses.  Drill 1/4 to 1/2 inch; be able to see a little seed on the surface.

 

SEED BAGS

To figure the amount of live, germinable seed:

Subtract the: % inert matter and % dormant seed from the weight of the bag and multiply the resulting weight obtained by the number of seeds per pound.  Divide this figure by the number of seeds per square foot required for proper seeding rates to determine if you have enough seed.  For dry land reseeding try to get 20 seeds per sq. ft., if weed suppression is necessary then increase this somewhat.  For irrigated pastures you can plant at 40 seeds per sq. ft., more for weed suppression.

 

*****PASTURE GRASSES*****

Perennial, biennial and annual.

 

Orchard Grasses !! high quality forage, works well in a mixture with alfalfa

Needs 40 inches of water a year.

 

Payute Orchard Grass - drought tolerant, needs 2 irrigations per year.

 

Fescue - cool season grasses with more warm season growth than other cool season grasses.  Not for horses due to bloat.

 

Brome Grass - (Meadow Brome) - rhyzomatous bunch grass. can be grazed more closely, safely (due to the rhyzomatous growth.)

 

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Orchard grasses and blue grasses have a keel shaped leaf

 

Brome grasses have a watermark on the middle of the stem (or towards the top).

Fescue has a shiny green leaf with a sheen.

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Tall wheat - low palatability, but very productive and adapted to heavy saline soils, high protein content.

 

Western Wheat - sod forming, Intermediate irrigation, rhyzomatous (safely grazed very close), salt adapted, native to Torrance county area.

 

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Dryer grasses:

 

Alkali Sacatone - moist soil for 2 weeks to get established, burn it every other year.  The old dried stems are not very palatable in contrast with the new growth!

 

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Warm Season grasses:

 

Switch grass - warm season.

 

Big Bluestem, Little blue stem - but

Yellow Bluestem has decreased palatability, but is a better ground cover and is easier to establish.

 

Side Oats Gramma - decreased or questionable palatability.

 

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Legumes:

 

Alfalfa.

Sainfoin - good in sandy soils, use row seeding.

Birdsfoot Trefoil - good in shallow soil.

Strawberry clover.

Cicer Milkvetch.

Perennial rye.

Triticale - seed late for September 1 irrigation.

Blue Grass - shallow rocky soil.

 

Winterfat - hard to establish, good winter protein source.

4-wing saltbush - good for dry spells, seed has a lot of protein.

Blue Gramma - for dry pasture, native collected, very drought tolerant.

Indian Rice Grass - fall seeding, easily damaged by grazing.

Buffalo Grass - commonly used.

Russian Wild Rye !! (See pg 9 of Pawnee Buttes Seed Inc. _Guide_to_Grasses_.) Very competitive with weeds and limited irrigation.  In a pasture, leave it for  5 or 6 years to eliminate some weeds like mustard.  Germinates with 4" of irrigation per year.

 

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Grazing Practices:

 

Rotational - 1 to 3 day rotations, gage by height of plant. 

50% of the plant grazed = 2-4% root growth stoppage;

70% grazed = approx. 50% root growth stoppage!

 

Use simple seed mix on irrigated pasture: approx. 60% grass, 40% alfalfa.  This to decrease bloat.  Move rotations at noon, not in AM (to help curb bloat.)

 

It is generally figured that a 1 acre pasture will support 3 tons of growth for 6 months.  One cow or 4-5 sheep would be well supported by a 1 acre pasture.

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Fertilizing:

 

Phosphorus - apply at first of year.

Nitrogen - split applications, with fescue use 250 lb in split applications per acre with 60 - 80 lb. of phosphorus.

 

Cool Season - fall fertilization.

Warm Season - spring fertilization and irrigation.

 

Irrigation - pastures need 2 feet of irrigation.

Alfalfa - needs more than 2 feet.

 

Nitrogen - favors grasses.

Phosphorus - favors alfalfa.

 

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Seeding Rates:

 

Seed machines need: agitation, uniform flow, and depth control (continuous feed of seed into hopper.)

 

Rates: 20 seeds per square foot for dry land seeding; 40 seeds per square foot for irrigated pasture.  Increase the rate to decrease weed competition.

 

Do the math: (How much seed to buy.)

 

To figure square footage of seeding area if using a tractor mounted drill:

3.5' (tire circumference) X 3' (row width) = 10.5' (for one round (rotation of the tire)).

 

10 rounds (see above line) X 10.5 sq. ft. = 105 sq. ft.

 

30 seeds per sq ft (dry pasture, with weed suppression) X 105 sq ft =

            3150 seeds for the sowing.

 

3150 (seeds required) / 26000 (seeds per pound of rye) = 0.12 lb. seed needed.

 

0.12 lb X 16 (ounces per pound) = approximately 2 ounces of seed needed for the 105 sq ft plot.

 

This translates into coverage of 1600 sq ft, or 40 X 40 feet, or 16 by 100 feet per pound of seed.

 

43560 sq. ft. per ac. / 1600 sq. ft. = approx. 27 lb. per ac. of this particular seed. (Check on Number of seeds per lb.)