Pasture Renovation
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Pasture Renovation
I was about to renovate approx 40 acres of pasture by spraying, ploughing & re-seading until I read your books. I am now re-considering this in light of your theories, however am finding it difficult to move forward as I there is very little information available to renovate pastures without spraying & ploughing. Are there any techniques within NSF or information that can help me renovate pastures without spraying & ploughing exsisting pasture. I would appreciate your advice or input on this subject. Regards Steve.
Hi Nik,
I am located just north of Melbourne in a bassalt plain. It is typical flat country , black clay with stone and stoney rises. The only specie of tree is old red gums which there are numerous. There is a reasonable cover of grasses on all paddocks however that is quickly deteriorationg due to seasonal conditions. There is not a lot of weeds and if there is it is only scotch thistles, no erosion or creeks. I have paddock that i want to renovate that has a lot of bent grass in it.I was thinking of spraying this out and sow an anual rye grass this year for hay and next year sow permanent species. After reading the books I would like to adopt a more sypathetic approach to this proceedure. Can you help.
I am located just north of Melbourne in a bassalt plain. It is typical flat country , black clay with stone and stoney rises. The only specie of tree is old red gums which there are numerous. There is a reasonable cover of grasses on all paddocks however that is quickly deteriorationg due to seasonal conditions. There is not a lot of weeds and if there is it is only scotch thistles, no erosion or creeks. I have paddock that i want to renovate that has a lot of bent grass in it.I was thinking of spraying this out and sow an anual rye grass this year for hay and next year sow permanent species. After reading the books I would like to adopt a more sypathetic approach to this proceedure. Can you help.
hi there just wanted to add that if you've got a covering of summer grasses no matter what condition they are in identify them and let them seed-they probably already have anyway.i personally think that any grass that is gowing now and has even survived this wretched summer has earned the right to stay on.native summer active perrenial grass in medium rainfall areas should have sweet things whispered to them not sprayed out.they'll be dormant by autumn and won't compete with any other winter spring species anyway if you are planting.have you thought about pasture cropping?
Hi Stephen
The first place I would start is to work out a way to keep as much water on your property as possible. The best way is to build swales or contour channels across your paddocks to retain water to soak into the soil slowly. The more swales the more capture of water. I have done it at my place in certain areas and it is amazing how much water they hold back from running off the property in one go.
I would then look at controlling any really nasty weeds if you have them an example of this is Parramatta grass. Being a grass it will compete with other grasses and is not good for grazing but will rob nutrients like all other grasses.
But it is important that you let weeds keep growing on the paddocks. Thistle is a must. To control them or more to the point to utilise them you will need to slash them.
I would also try introducing seed from the grasses you want and legumes (make sure it is innoculated seed) in the wetter periods to get them established.
It is imperative that you have as little bare ground as possible at any time.
hope this helps
Nik
The first place I would start is to work out a way to keep as much water on your property as possible. The best way is to build swales or contour channels across your paddocks to retain water to soak into the soil slowly. The more swales the more capture of water. I have done it at my place in certain areas and it is amazing how much water they hold back from running off the property in one go.
I would then look at controlling any really nasty weeds if you have them an example of this is Parramatta grass. Being a grass it will compete with other grasses and is not good for grazing but will rob nutrients like all other grasses.
But it is important that you let weeds keep growing on the paddocks. Thistle is a must. To control them or more to the point to utilise them you will need to slash them.
I would also try introducing seed from the grasses you want and legumes (make sure it is innoculated seed) in the wetter periods to get them established.
It is imperative that you have as little bare ground as possible at any time.
hope this helps
Nik