Reseeding silage ground in Spring

GrandSoftDay

munkus wrote: »

All depends on weather and how well it gets disked. You could be left with an awful haype of dead grass and root on the surface which is a nightmare to deal with. Had to rake it off on one field last year before could till properly. I find ploughing more reliable/predictable but you're burying the good soil down.

Get a soil test done straight away so you know what index it is for P and K. P needed for root development.

Should be no bother discing it, have done plenty of it when I was working with contractor, current sward is very open at the moment anyway and there is no grass worth talking about on it. Was going to get soil tested alright. Don't think p and k was a problem a few years back when we did it for reps but lime was an issue. Have been spreading gran lime the last few years on it though. Ironic considering we are surrounded by limestone :rolleyes:

agriman27

Do any of you lads use old mounted disc harrows or do ye use a big heavy contractor yolks

Greengrass1

agriman27 wrote: »

Do any of you lads use old mounted disc harrows or do ye use a big heavy contractor yolks

Have a lad with a big heavy mounted one.
20hr. Say he'll do my 16ac in 6 he's as it just needs to be kicked up

grazeaway

Put it in arable silage, barley under sown with grass seed. Did it last year and got 2 good cuts off it and some nice authunm grazing. Cows are out in that field and it's looking well.

freedominacup

If it's level and unpoached then why bother turning it at all? Just burn it off, throw out 2T lime and direct drill. Slurry and 2 bags of 10-10-20 to get it going. We won't plough for re-seeding again here unless the ground has been badly poached or rutted with machinery. DD every time.

sheebadog

freedominacup wrote: »

If it's level and unpoached then why bother turning it at all? Just burn it off, throw out 2T lime and direct drill. Slurry and 2 bags of 10-10-20 to get it going. We won't plough for re-seeding again here unless the ground has been badly poached or rutted with machinery. DD every time.

What machine do you use for DD?

freedominacup

sheebadog wrote: »

What machine do you use for DD?

Contractors machine. I can't remember what type of coulters it had but pneumatic seeder similar to a one pass. It worked well here but a few neighbours pushed the envelope with all of the dry weather last autumn and the take was poor at times. Everything was to blame from the seeds to the machine husbandry was perfect of course.

simx

freedominacup wrote: »

If it's level and unpoached then why bother turning it at all? Just burn it off, throw out 2T lime and direct drill. Slurry and 2 bags of 10-10-20 to get it going. We won't plough for re-seeding again here unless the ground has been badly poached or rutted with machinery. DD every time.

decided to try out DD last aug/sept., going burning it off next week, didnt take at all, any other lads that did it the same time as me wil have to do again also, im going to power harrow amd seed this time though, it was a moore drill, dont know whether it was machine or what but i would probably reckon the dry spell done some of it too, that was my experience with it and might try it again but only on a small paddock as i now have 13 ac to do and thats an expense that shouldnt be, all an experience i suppose

Greengrass1

simx wrote: »

decided to try out DD last aug/sept., going burning it off next week, didnt take at all, any other lads that did it the same time as me wil have to do again also, im going to power harrow amd seed this time though, it was a moore drill, dont know whether it was machine or what but i would probably reckon the dry spell done some of it too, that was my experience with it and might try it again but only on a small paddock as i now have 13 ac to do and thats an expense that shouldnt be, all an experience i suppose

Is there any grass at all?

simx

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Is there any grass at all?

very little new grass, mainly old grass in patches and weeds

Greengrass1

simx wrote: »

very little new grass, mainly old grass in patches and weeds

Weird alright. Did it get lime and 10-10-20 and nitrogen when it came up?

Lambofdave

simx wrote: »

decided to try out DD last aug/sept., going burning it off next week, didnt take at all, any other lads that did it the same time as me wil have to do again also, im going to power harrow amd seed this time though, it was a moore drill, dont know whether it was machine or what but i would probably reckon the dry spell done some of it too, that was my experience with it and might try it again but only on a small paddock as i now have 13 ac to do and thats an expense that shouldnt be, all an experience i suppose

Did you put slug pellets in? And how deep was the drill set. Moisture is key with DD

simx

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Weird alright. Did it get lime and 10-10-20 and nitrogen when it came up?

got 3 bags 10 10 20/ac and lime