Did a little pasture

SVcummins

Well-known Member
Renovation today . I angled the disk gangs as straight as they would go and adjusted the hitch to raise the front gangs as high as possible and lower the rear gangs as low as possible and lower the harrow as low as possible on the back it did a really nice job cutting up the old growth grass and chopping up the sage brush i am going to hay this piece this year . Phone battery was to dead to shoot a video .
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question sv. when would be the best time of year to spread manure on a hay field? I have found a source of manure that my friend Erick go's in to clean up and haul out every year. i'm thinking to spread it on in the fall just before 1st snowfall, run the harrows over to smooth and spread it out and let it melt in over the winter and spring?
 
I would think fall might be the best as wet as your
country probably is in the spring I assume anyway ?
I know my main piece is under water until about
June some years on the lower half so If I want to do
much on it I have to do it the fall before
 
A large percentage of the nutrients will leach away over the winter. It would be best to apply the manure as close as possible to the point when the plant needs the nutrition.
 
Spring might be best for the nutrients but there's a lot bigger chance of the manure making it I to the hay cause the rake will pick some of it up and if there's any lumps they could bother when cutting the hay so for easy haying I'd recommend fall application just my $.01 cause I didn't think it was worth two cents lol
 

Manure releases it's nutrients at a slower rate than commercial fertilize, it also takes longer for the larger chunks to dissolve into the ground. Although some of the nitrogen will leach out of the ground it's not nearly as much as in commercial fertilizer.
Many around here like to apply manure in the spring but with my wetter ground I like to spread it in late fall on hay and pasture ground, for my few acres of corn if time allows I'll also spread manure over that in late fall as well, if not I'll store enough to spread in the spring right before planting.

I've tried spreading manure during the summer right after 1st hay cutting, it improved 2nd-3rd cuttings but not enough to make up for the lower bale count from 1st cutting.

We use chicken litter from our poultry operation, also spread cow manure from feed pads on hay ground when time and weather permit which is usually after 1st or 2nd cutting
 
IF you can get it on in the spring before the hay gets
to tall you could harrow it and break the clumps up
and scatter it . There are lots of meadow hay fields
that guys feed cattle on all winter and then harrow it
in the spring and cut in the late summer for hay
 
Not allowed to be applied if ground is frozen or if a half inch or more rain is expected in next 48 hours. Only exception is if it can be incorperated. So all dairy farms apploy as late in winter as they can then have to store winters manure untill spring and watch the rain plus they have to stay a certain distance away from any ditches but Ihave not kept up on that figure. If where you are at does not yet have these laws just wait it is comming that everyplace will have them. Read amout Lake Eire watershed and that includes both the US and Canada.
 

One of the issues we have is our houses empty out in late Feb or early March when it's wet and muddy, our present flock won't go out till the 2nd week of May, by then hay should be to tall to spread through without mashing a bunch down.
I will be spreading cow manure from the feed pads in the coming days as soon as it drys enough to go over the fields.

Three days of rain and snow over the weekend didn't help.
 
(quoted from post at 18:53:43 04/17/18) IF you can get it on in the spring before the hay gets
to tall you could harrow it and break the clumps up
and scatter it . There are lots of meadow hay fields
that guys feed cattle on all winter and then harrow it
in the spring and cut in the late summer for hay
the one problem I have sv. is that the field here at home is about 70 or 80% alfalfa with about 20 to 30% timothy so I'm thinking late fall would be better, by the time it's dry enough to get on with the tractor in the spring the hay and alfalfa are well up and going. the manure would have the winter to break down and get into the ground. now the part I don't know is after spreading it with the spreader and then harrowing it to break up the lumps, would the harrows do more damage to the alfalfa in the fall or in the spring?? I have a neighbor that runs a horse boarding stable and he spreads his manure and harrows in the spring on his pasture.
 
The larger growers in my area are required to store the manure out of the chicken houses under cover for a certain amount of time to allow it to compost with the litter before spreading.Do
you have to do that?
 

No, it can be spread directly out of the buildings and normally is.
If it's removed from the buildings and not spread it has to be covered or inside a storage shed.
Some times we'll get a fairly heavy cake (crust) on the floors, I'll remove that cake and store it in my litter shed, that's what I'll usually spread on my small corn acreage.
I only raise 5-10 acres of corn to grind for cattle feed, pick it on the ear.
 
I have thought of doing this (straight disc) on a old field that I hay.. been around for 40 years or so.. I dont get bad yields off but some thinner spots in some areas..
 
I apply goat shoot in fall after final cutting.. WORKS GREAT.. I harrow it in going multiple directions to break it up.
I have a chicken egg place down the road.. always wondered what the cost is to have them spread their chicken poo.
 
I have tore up a little hay using a Macfarlane 16 bar
harrow on some old old thin alfalfa stands but if you
just have regular harrow sections I?d do it in the
spring because it will really make the hay take off
 
It sure did a neat job of cleaning up this field I think I may just try it on my 200 acre piece it really kniocks down gopher mounds and chops the old growth grass up and brush
 

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