Pasture Question

[Irish Hills Farm]

They are getting ready to seed my pastures and they want to use Fescue grass. I can't remember ...... is this a good choice?

Thanks,

Sheryl

 

[Marty]

No Sheryl, it's not. But unfortunately that is what everyone here is going to be trying to convice your dad to buy since it's native here. Don't buy it. P U

The local Farmer's Co-op to Lowe's and Home Depot. There IS however a fescue variety that has been invented a few years ago that says it is endophyte free. I don't have a clue about it but we used a timothy/orchardgrass mixture free of fescue.

Now that doesn't mean that you will not have fescue growing out there unless you plow and plow and plow it for a few years to get rid of it. UGH! Don't forget the lime either! I lime in the spring and fall.

This time of year there is still a little time to plant some orchard grass, and in another month top coat it with "winter rye".........the orchard grass will be taking hold but will croak out as it sprouts in the winter but the rye will prevail and still come up right through the snow. I use the rye mostly for ground cover to keep the mud at bay and it does help out. Your orchard grass should still come back through in the spring.

 

[Irish Hills Farm]

Thank you, I thought Fescue was a no no but couldn't remember why.

Thanks!!

 

[justaboutgeese]

I will provide the best advice you will get tonight. Get in touch with your county extension service. They can tell you what will work best in your area. What makes perfect pasture in Texas, Kentucky, California or anywhere else you can think of will not work the same in Michigan. This is a project you do not want to do every year so it pays to sow seeds that will be around for a few years and provide proper nutrition for your animals.

 

[Marty]

Hey Vic would you believe that the extension office will recommend fesue here? Not kidding. Yup that's what they tell everyone here regardless if they have breeding stock or not.

Yup they did it to us but thank goodness we had to do the research on our own and ended up having to drill the other stuff in. You probably didn't know this but Sheryl's moving down the road a piece from me.

But lucky girl she's getting to be up on the plateau and have a WALMART!

 

[rabbitsfizz]

http://vet.purdue.edu/depts/addl/toxic/plant15.htm

http://msucares.com/pubs/highlights/spring2002/fescue.pdf

http://www.esd.ornl.gov/facilities/nerp/na...ssbenefits.html

Happy reading!!!

PS Do NOT plant fescue!!!!

 

[Getitia]

A few years ago, when we moved to our farm, the entire 91 acres was planted in Wheat. So we had to "seed" all of the fields.

We had a special pasture mix blended for us which has worked out very well - Timothy, 2 different types of Orchard Grass, perennial rye grass, Kentucky Blue Grass. We found out that there are several different types of Orchard Grass - so be sure to research them as not all Orchard Grasses are created equal