We bought a small farm in Western Kentucky 2 years ago and I have been busy cleaning it up and mending and building fences to have cows. I have no previous experience but am motivated. I only have a few head right now but would like to expand.
2 basic questions.
1: I am renovating some weedy pasture, 20 acres or so. The soil test came back horrible, I have already taken care of the fertilizing, but I can not get the lime guy to come out and now he wants to wait until spring. Will take 3-4 tons of lime per acre. I read in another post that the pasture will only take 1 ton a year per acre if I am not incorporating it into the soil. Why would the extension office or the lime/fertilizer people not tell me this? I guess hit this up with 2-4d in the spring?
2: I am converting 15-20 acres of rowcrop (soybeans this past year) into pasture. It calls for 3 tons of lime per acre. It is currently in winter weeds (don't know what kind, but the cattle like to eat them). I assume I will either run a disc over it in the spring to plant annual ryegrass, or rent the seed drill and kill the weeds with roundup? If I lightly disc it, is this enough to incorporate the lime and kill off the weeds enough to get the ryegrass started?
I will have to wait until fall to plant the permanent grass, which will be mostly orchardgrass, I don't think we have any luck around here planting cool season grasses in spring.
Any possibility of getting by with just frost seeding early this year? I just want something growing that the cattle will eat, and I know they love ryegrass, and it comes up pretty easy, I am just concerned with the weeds out competing, but if I did not have to disc it, that would be great. I only have 2 Ford tractors and a 7' disc. 861 and an 850, gas, and a limited budget.
Thanks in advance, and I apologize for the long post, and I have a million more questions to come!
2 basic questions.
1: I am renovating some weedy pasture, 20 acres or so. The soil test came back horrible, I have already taken care of the fertilizing, but I can not get the lime guy to come out and now he wants to wait until spring. Will take 3-4 tons of lime per acre. I read in another post that the pasture will only take 1 ton a year per acre if I am not incorporating it into the soil. Why would the extension office or the lime/fertilizer people not tell me this? I guess hit this up with 2-4d in the spring?
2: I am converting 15-20 acres of rowcrop (soybeans this past year) into pasture. It calls for 3 tons of lime per acre. It is currently in winter weeds (don't know what kind, but the cattle like to eat them). I assume I will either run a disc over it in the spring to plant annual ryegrass, or rent the seed drill and kill the weeds with roundup? If I lightly disc it, is this enough to incorporate the lime and kill off the weeds enough to get the ryegrass started?
I will have to wait until fall to plant the permanent grass, which will be mostly orchardgrass, I don't think we have any luck around here planting cool season grasses in spring.
Any possibility of getting by with just frost seeding early this year? I just want something growing that the cattle will eat, and I know they love ryegrass, and it comes up pretty easy, I am just concerned with the weeds out competing, but if I did not have to disc it, that would be great. I only have 2 Ford tractors and a 7' disc. 861 and an 850, gas, and a limited budget.
Thanks in advance, and I apologize for the long post, and I have a million more questions to come!