new pasture grass

Now it's lush and green, but there are patches of grass here and there that are ankle deep or more and some places that are ground hugging stuff that must be leftovers from the previous stew of grass and weeds.

My intent was to hay that couple of acres plus a little more that's established grass, but it's not looking like I'll get my mower and rake repaired and ready for this year, so may have to just bush hog it and let it lay and shoot for next year.

Our irrigation will turn on in about a month. At this point, I'm not sure what to do next. Should I mow it, or just let it grow? I know there will be weed problems as I didn't choose to use any herbicides, and my extension agent agreed that he best bet was to just try to establish a healthy turf that would in time overpower the weeds.

For what it's worth, I'd guess first cutting for hay would be somewhere around mid-April to the first of May.

Suggestions about mowing or not? I know I could mow with the bush hog if necessary, but actually my sickle mower is closer to repaired than the rake, so the rake is really the bottleneck.

Thanks for any help!

Beyond the near neighbors are huge commercial alfalfa growers whose machinery I could barely turn around in my fields. I could probably find a rake someplace - maybe an ad in the paper to rent one - but don't care to go that route for various reasons. Thanks again though.

Yup...I keep looking for stuff on the edges of fields around here, but not much around. It's a lot different out here. I think the generally much bigger farms means a lot less small implements. I'll keep looking.

I would go ahead and mow it now if the ground is dry enough and mow it every 2-3 weeks if I wanted to push out the weeds.

If you wanna use the field for hay this year I would cut and bale before the seeds form in the weeds or you'll just be spredding your problem.

I don't have any animals this year so I'll bring the land up to par by plowing this spring and broadcast seeding to alphalfa. The deep roots should penetrate the hard pan and bring up nutrients long lost to percolation at the same time giving me a reserve of plant nutrients and fibre to plow under in the fall. Alphalfa will smother out weeds, and your left with a field of bright green well filled plants.

In the spring I'll deep hoe and bring the soil
to a fine tilthe to plant hay seed/clover mix.

All in all, from a single planting of alphalfa
I hope to get green manure,soil conditioning and weed control in one shot.

Your wise to stay away from the chemical weed control. Here in Ontario, if you want to certify yourself as organic, the needed tests won't show toxic chemicals in the soil which would disqualify an owner. Even if you leave it fallow for a few years the tests will still show residual
pollution.

At this point, I'm guessing I'll forego the hay this year unless I find that later in the summer I have the equipment ready and can get one last cutting before fall - but I won't be planning on it.

I used herbicides for years and then decided to take the advice of an old Aggie friend and mow.

The fertilzer and mowing are by far the best weed control there is.