Seeding a small horse pasture

Im getting a small horse pasture ready, it's about 1 acre and I want to seed some grass in there. Maybe someone can give me advice/push me in another direction but I'm wondering if I can just spray for weeds, disc the area, then broadcast spread the seed using a small hand spreader.

I have the disc, I've heard of people doing something like this with a drag harrow but I don't have one and I dunno if I really want to buy another implement if my disc will do good enough.

Basically never done this and looking for ideas/reasons why my ideas are stupid, etc.

It's kind of late to be planting grasses. But If you must then first burn if off, local RFD will supervise. The wait two weeks and preferably a rain. Then hit it with a glysophate and disc. Set your disc to the minimum angles you can get. Than wait for a rain forecast and then seed it.
Where are you?

I'm just outside Eau Claire, WI... about 90 miles east of St Paul, MN.

About 1/4 or so of the area in question is part of my back yard now, the rest is the area I don't mow- mostly wild grass/some weeds, and a lot of brush/a few small and medium-large trees. The larger trees are being left for shade,
I meant to have the rest of it cut/cleared out 2 months ago but it's only now getting done. One kinda good thing is there are some areas of ground where it's mostly bare dirt due to me working with the loader and digging out stumps/spinning tractor tires in the process.

Here's the ground in question...
http://www.thecowman.com/pics/iphone90.jpg
http://www.thecowman.com/pics/iphone91.jpg

And this is the weed I'm most concerned about killing off. Nasty things whatever they are and they seem to grow up into a nasty thorny tree too.
http://www.thecowman.com/pics/iphone92.jpg

I'm 50 miles west of St. Paul, so similar climate to you. If this year is like most others, we will be heading into dryer weather soon, so I think you would be wasting your time and seed to try planting grass now. I'd spend the summer getting the soil turned over to bare dirt, then seed it next April. Check auctions, etc. and find yourself a small moldboard plow to turn the soil over. Disking sod doesn't work well, leaves a lot of clumps. But, if you spend enough time at it, you can probably get it done with that.

You should try to find a section of drag harrow too to work the ground before and after seeding. You want to go across the new seeding once with the harrow to cover the seeds after broadcasting.

When are you going to put horses on the pasture? If it's this year yet, I would put them out there before doing anything else, and let them eat down whats there, then put them in a paddock and turn the soil over this Fall.

One acre can feed two horses through most of a Summer and Fall, but you need to have a strong stand of forage to start with. Only way I can see that happening for you with good results is seeding in the Spring, and then waiting until mid-summer to start grazing. Plant a good pasture mix, and mix in oats for a cover to prevent weeds from taking over. Use a fair amount of alfalfa and clover in the mix, to give them something to eat when the cool season grasses slow down in Summer.

When you have the pasture established, use a strand of electric tape to split it in half, and rotate grazing between the two halves every 3-4 weeks. Also, fence around any trees that you want to keep. Horses love tree bark, and as soon as the grass gets short, they will rip the bark off the trees if they can get to them.

One other thing you could try is to have someone no-till drill the grass & alfalfa mix into the existing sod next Spring, and fertilize at the same time. If you did that, you would want to graze it as short as possible this Fall. Check with your local ag co-op, as they might be able to do the no-till drilling, and give you suggestions as well.

Mow it down, wait for regrowth to start and hit it with roundup.
Just discing old sod will be fruitless unless you have a heavy offset disc.
I'd plow then disc several times.
Broadcasting will be fine but you should run over it with something afterwards to get the seed in good contact with the ground. A piece of cyclone fence with a weight across it behind a riding lawn mower would work OK. A cultipacker would be better but the food plotters have driven the price of small ones through the roof.

yes you can do just as you suggested,but theres better ways.The main thing is to get rid of all the existing if your going to start over,and many times just spraying once is not enough.If your just looking to add to whats already existing as far as grass goes,then discing and spreading your seed works ok.The main thing is to get the seed in good contact with the soil. What "I" do when starting grass from scratch is to disc as deeply as possible,plow,then disc again.Then i wait a few weeks to see what weeds resprout and kill them.then i try to plant in the fall or early spring. I personally try to get my ground ready starting this time of year,because typicaly late july /august you get a better weed kill using mechanical means.And gives you plenty of time for planting.I dont spray much though,though i do have the equipment and things. my advice is to get your ground as good as you can first,simply because its easier to do it now than to try to go back in after you plant, and fix mistakes or take care of weeds and things.ive used a hand seeder in the past with good results but theres kind of a knack to one to get a good even coverage on your seed.Try sowing it a bout half rate one way ,and then the other half at right angles to the first.

I do have one bottom plow, used that and my 7' disc to get my garden ready this year.

Probably all kinds of tree roots/stumps out there to snag on still- part of my thinking with spray/disc was to ride over the top of that but maybe it won't be too bad.

Would I be better off to sort of spot-spray the nastier weeds, then wait until spring and either make a temporary pasture out in the yard with electric fence or maybe split the pasture in half and do half at a time?

I think I may be able to borrow a drag... so maybe spray, disc, plow, disc, broadcast spread, drag in that order?

that should work, i prefer a packer to a drag ,but a drag works. Pobably wouldnt even really have to use a drag if you planted right before a good rain.