2.20.... Exchange rate has changedI'm getting $2.18 so it's somewhere around $2
Frost Seeding
- Thread starter Blaithin
- Start date
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
See.... you need sheep in your systemYears ago we had Yarrow start to take over a paddock at dad's. The cattle wouldn't touch it. In the end we ploughed 10 acres to get rid of it
I find sheep and youngstock actively search it out, it is in the soil here so any chance it gets, it grows.
It is a sod when it takes over as you will know.
Will be interesting to see if anything happens.
Will put sheep in here in about a week, should take them about 5 days to clean up the grass, only have about 65 of them
--mostly chicory and plantain and clovers but all sorts, the odd leftover oat and pea, beans and kale seed, all sorts really
all food of some description and that is the end goal:to grow more winter food and introduce some new herbs and clover to old pastures, cheaply
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I just use feed oats/peas etc here, know exactly what you mean by certified type seed pricesBeen pricing out seed today and for the same price of 100 lbs of seed, I could get 2 tonnes of wheat
We can source cheaper VNS clovers through a buyers group I am a part of, it works out about a half to a third the price of proper certified species (like the EU has to use)
Come to think of it, if I was a proper farmer with a 'combine' I would likely grow trial plots and save my own seeds from half of these things and not say boo about it to anyone
just run through the plots and bag it up a more economic use of a small paddock than livestock can be, and would really change the costs of a broadacre overseeding project.... hopefully a bit of deferred grazing of these fields that have been seeded will let them reproduce, and then it is a job done
I planted a wheat and barley pot for a demonstration in my school presentations. Had to have close to 100% germination and that was just a random handful of both taken from work
I don’t mind the idea of seeding annuals like that but would like to add in legumes with better longevity. However not at the expense of hundreds and hundreds of dollars. At least not until I own the land! Been sourcing some private seed sellers. They’re half the price and the seed just isn’t inoculated. But that’s only alfalfa, can’t find the others yet
I don’t mind the idea of seeding annuals like that but would like to add in legumes with better longevity. However not at the expense of hundreds and hundreds of dollars. At least not until I own the land! Been sourcing some private seed sellers. They’re half the price and the seed just isn’t inoculated. But that’s only alfalfa, can’t find the others yet
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I doubt my farm had ever had peas on it and was a bit worried about lack of inoculation, there was about a month delay in getting pea inoculant so I just got on with it, typically overkill seed rates as I swept it out of a silo and got it cheap; however it fixed really well, grew really well too.
I got 40 bales off just over 5 acres in 90 days, I doubt it had more than an inch of rain on it from planting to baling.
If it didn't have the existing grass it may have been a different story re. "drought survival"
So I gave it several light grazings since and then weedwiped the thistles with salt and blew on a multispecies herb mix with my pasture aerator thingymajig, heaps of nitrogen available from the pea roots, you can see by the colour of the grass.
Have read that 60lbs/ac of peas will provide more nitrogen than the same amount of AN, plus you get a load of fodder while you wait - and it increases soil carbon instead of stripping it.
Weight for weight I probably grew 50kg of food per kilo of seed planted, directly speaking.. the big think to be aware of with rhizobia is: the more N you provide, the less they will fix.. so I try to create N deficits by topping-to-waste at strategic times of the year, to help encourage N fixation ahead of feed deficits. I figure about 100 days before the solstice, I get the mower out
100 days before the equinox, I get the electric fences out
I got 40 bales off just over 5 acres in 90 days, I doubt it had more than an inch of rain on it from planting to baling.
If it didn't have the existing grass it may have been a different story re. "drought survival"
So I gave it several light grazings since and then weedwiped the thistles with salt and blew on a multispecies herb mix with my pasture aerator thingymajig, heaps of nitrogen available from the pea roots, you can see by the colour of the grass.
Have read that 60lbs/ac of peas will provide more nitrogen than the same amount of AN, plus you get a load of fodder while you wait - and it increases soil carbon instead of stripping it.
Weight for weight I probably grew 50kg of food per kilo of seed planted, directly speaking.. the big think to be aware of with rhizobia is: the more N you provide, the less they will fix.. so I try to create N deficits by topping-to-waste at strategic times of the year, to help encourage N fixation ahead of feed deficits. I figure about 100 days before the solstice, I get the mower out
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The owning the land appeals more and more now. Rented is fine especially if it's home and it's pretty, but to be able to buy some cheap neglected ground and bring it back to life would be great, rather than improving land that someone else owns and whom doesn't really give a Feck about. (35 years one bit of land has been rented by us... Never met the owner yet!)I planted a wheat and barley pot for a demonstration in my school presentations. Had to have close to 100% germination and that was just a random handful of both taken from work
I don’t mind the idea of seeding annuals like that but would like to add in legumes with better longevity. However not at the expense of hundreds and hundreds of dollars. At least not until I own the land! Been sourcing some private seed sellers. They’re half the price and the seed just isn’t inoculated. But that’s only alfalfa, can’t find the others yet
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2018/03/22/plants-really-do-feed-their-friends/
Thought this may be interesting reading for you guys
@The Ruminant
@martian
@Farmer Roy
@multi power
@unlacedgecko
@Kevtherev
@Dead Rabbits
Thought this may be interesting reading for you guys
@The Ruminant
@martian
@Farmer Roy
@multi power
@unlacedgecko
@Kevtherev
@Dead Rabbits
Hows your frost seeding experiment looking now @Kevtherev ?
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
I’ll have another look in a few days clover had germinated well but it’s been terrible wet since
- Location
- Quebec, Canada
Do you roll or drag the pastures after seeding ?See.... you need sheep in your system
I find sheep and youngstock actively search it out, it is in the soil here so any chance it gets, it grows.
It is a sod when it takes over as you will know.View attachment 649852 View attachment 649856View attachment 649858
Will be interesting to see if anything happens.
Will put sheep in here in about a week, should take them about 5 days to clean up the grass, only have about 65 of them
--mostly chicory and plantain and clovers but all sorts, the odd leftover oat and pea, beans and kale seed, all sorts really
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Very much a case-by-case basis.
When I seeded with the tractor, I had 70 fat cattle trotting around and they did a fair job.. normally mob-grazing does the job in our climate, but it does depend on soil surface conditions a lot.
I have a good drag and a roller, not scared to use them but also have a "leave it alone" policy when it comes to tractoring my grassland.
I see clouds of emmissions, expense, compaction - you can tell I fit in great on here, where it just isn't farming unless you're 12 tons or more
Words fail me....
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
But......Very much a case-by-case basis.
When I seeded with the tractor, I had 70 fat cattle trotting around and they did a fair job.. normally mob-grazing does the job in our climate, but it does depend on soil surface conditions a lot.
I have a good drag and a roller, not scared to use them but also have a "leave it alone" policy when it comes to tractoring my grassland.
I see clouds of emmissions, expense, compaction - you can tell I fit in great on here, where it just isn't farming unless you're 12 tons or more View attachment 662006
Words fail me....
It MUST be eco-friendly, it's spreading organic manure!
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Yeah, even the tractors are green and yellow, very natural.But......
It MUST be eco-friendly, it's spreading organic manure!
Great way to look after the soil, compaction is a livestock problem after all
You can see why I get a bit hot on people that do this type of thing without considering the WHOLE picture - tractor weight being a fine example of this
Half the tractors I see on this forum would be too heavy even for dry soils to bear - so two days after the wettest ever winter is just right
but, sheep make a mess!
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
But getting properly stuck is a badge of honourYeah, even the tractors are green and yellow, very natural.
Great way to look after the soil, compaction is a livestock problem after all
You can see why I get a bit hot on people that do this type of thing without considering the WHOLE picture - tractor weight being a fine example of this
Half the tractors I see on this forum would be too heavy even for dry soils to bear - so two days after the wettest ever winter is just right
but, sheep make a mess!
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
I once had a MF8470 so deep that we ripped the suitcase weights right off it
And needed 3 excavators to remove it, a 12T and 2x 20's
It was a gully that had been dozed in, didn't know that in the dark, but I soon learnt.
And needed 3 excavators to remove it, a 12T and 2x 20's
It was a gully that had been dozed in, didn't know that in the dark, but I soon learnt.
Pictures?I once had a MF8470 so deep that we ripped the suitcase weights right off it
And needed 3 excavators to remove it, a 12T and 2x 20's
It was a gully that had been dozed in, didn't know that in the dark, but I soon learnt.
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
No!!!Pictures?
I may have one somewhere, wasn't a proud moment
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Almost a year ago but, if I recall your conversation correctly, you had the Case Magnum through some deep stuff too
I sowed kale with Vicon by mixing seed with fert. It was fine, though I think birds got some, and there were some broken seeds. You could reduce seed rate by mixing with dry sandI tried rape and stubble turnip with one of those. Thought there was a lot of broken seeds.
Very fast though. Actually it got a lot faster at the end when the seed was running low