I've got a field of timothy that just has not been very good. I'd say it's about 50-60% timothy now and the rest is native grasses from the legacy seed bed. We killed off this field a couple years ago and drilled in climax timothy. I have another field we did the same, but used Clair timothy and it is doing great.
So I'm not ready to kill off this mix timothy field yet, but would like to reinforce the timothy come this fall as I have good paying customers who want straight or as near straight timothy as I can grow. I don't want to use a drill (got my reasons), but so I'd just over seed it heavy with timothy via a broadcast seed spreader and literally roll it with a cultipacker, hope for the best and restart the field in another year or so from scratch.
Reason I ask about broadcasting seed on an otherwise established field is - we've got timothy growing everywhere around the farm now where the seed has spilled, been blown or by whatever means, it's growing around the barn, the lane, in several places where it was never planted. Obviously this seeding was "broadcast" over existing sod by some means, i.e. wind, birds.
So what do you think? Broadcast some timothy and see if it will help repopulate the field? I've read that timothy is very competitive. In our fields, it is not, outside our fields, it is....
Johnsongrass. I'm getting ready to spot spray some sprigs of JG coming up in my other timothy field. As the timothy goes dormant, something grows, foxtail, milkweed, purple top, etc. This JG wasn't noticed in our first cut, but it's out growing everything where it's trying to grow (height). I could run a weed wiper over it, but we have so little (knock on wood) I can walk the field and deal with it via a hand sprayer.
Not that I'd do this....
But it seems a lot of folks are looking for a companion to timothy that will grow during the hot months while timothy goes dormant. Is johnson grass possibly that grass? Doesn't really come-in until after the first cut of timothy and when it does come-in, it's plentiful. I read that on one hand, JG is a pest (I get that), on the other hand, IF properly managed, it's a pretty good forage.
Again - not going to grow a field of johnson grass, but just curious if anyone in other parts of the country has used it for a post first cutting hay?
Thanks,
Bill
So I'm not ready to kill off this mix timothy field yet, but would like to reinforce the timothy come this fall as I have good paying customers who want straight or as near straight timothy as I can grow. I don't want to use a drill (got my reasons), but so I'd just over seed it heavy with timothy via a broadcast seed spreader and literally roll it with a cultipacker, hope for the best and restart the field in another year or so from scratch.
Reason I ask about broadcasting seed on an otherwise established field is - we've got timothy growing everywhere around the farm now where the seed has spilled, been blown or by whatever means, it's growing around the barn, the lane, in several places where it was never planted. Obviously this seeding was "broadcast" over existing sod by some means, i.e. wind, birds.
So what do you think? Broadcast some timothy and see if it will help repopulate the field? I've read that timothy is very competitive. In our fields, it is not, outside our fields, it is....
Johnsongrass. I'm getting ready to spot spray some sprigs of JG coming up in my other timothy field. As the timothy goes dormant, something grows, foxtail, milkweed, purple top, etc. This JG wasn't noticed in our first cut, but it's out growing everything where it's trying to grow (height). I could run a weed wiper over it, but we have so little (knock on wood) I can walk the field and deal with it via a hand sprayer.
Not that I'd do this....
But it seems a lot of folks are looking for a companion to timothy that will grow during the hot months while timothy goes dormant. Is johnson grass possibly that grass? Doesn't really come-in until after the first cut of timothy and when it does come-in, it's plentiful. I read that on one hand, JG is a pest (I get that), on the other hand, IF properly managed, it's a pretty good forage.
Again - not going to grow a field of johnson grass, but just curious if anyone in other parts of the country has used it for a post first cutting hay?
Thanks,
Bill