Pure Country, the broadcasting seed or feeding 'seedy' hay on the ground in fall/winter/early spring are intriguing to me. My only real experience with that is not pasture related, but a relative broadcast Buffalo grass seed in her yard in late April/early March one year during a snow storm. The snow pressed the seed into the ground among the less desireabe existing grasses and she got a great carefree lawn out of the deal.
Sometime after that, we saw places in Nevada where mine tailings reclamation was done by broadcasting seed, I believe signs said it was various varieties of Crested Wheatgrass, something that does well in the area. Then cattle were fed hay on the area and the resulting hoof action not only planted the seed, but left depressions that held the precious little rain long enough for it to soak in better than on undisturbed ground. It was considered more successful than other methods had been, as I recall.
When you got that great stand, was your moisture received that season usual, better than average, or less so? We've gone the route of the cadillac system and several less agressive ways. None works well in a drought!!!!
The spray and plant route seems the most sure, tho that didn't work out for us, as the plan was to plant first and spray the next day as that is what would work for the guy doing the planting. Bad luck for us....it rained during the night and the stuff sprouted and came up before we could get in the field to spray. We got lots of weeds, and are not even sure any of the 'expensive stuff', something called Sandpoint, came up, as we couldn't identify it amongst the various other plants from alfalfa to native grasses and forbs. Will see what happens next spring, I guess.
You have many of the same native grasses we do. One introduced grass we have, some type of brome, we sure wish the state had not planted on hiway right of way, as it really is overtaking our preferred native Bluestems and Western Wheatgrasses.
It all seems such a crap game, and I don't much like games! The moisture is so erratic here. We did get 17" until mid-Oct. here, with a very dry Aug., Sept. and early Oct. Yesterday we got 1 inch of rain, then turned to 'snain', and since 5:AM has been snow. The ground gets almost white, then melts off. Wicked strong wind. But it is much worse south and west of us, with over a foot at our sons' house in sw Rapid City. Lots of people without electric power. This will be pretty hard on livestock, especially for any who fall calve if they don't have very good shelter.
mrj
:wink:
