gberry said:
RobertMac,
Did you no-till the rye (that's how it appears)? It looks pretty good. We've tried no-tilling ryegrass for the last couple of years in bermuda and bahia pastures with very little luck. I'm surprised at your seeding rate. I thought you were supposed to put about 100lbs rye to the acre.
You're correct...recommended rye seeding rate is 90-120lbs/A...ryegrass recommended rate is 20-30lbs/A. The important factors in establishing a stand is soil/seed contact, adequate moisture, proper temperature, and live seed. The rye is drilled with an old Farmall soybean drill. I call what I do as minimum till. The main function of these pastures is to grow winter forage...anything in the summer is a bonus. I've found that winter annuals and summer perennials aren't a good mix...one has to suffer for the other to do well. (Next year I will start looking at seeding summer annuals to develop a winter annual/summer annual program for these pastures with priority to winter pasture.)
The first step is to minimize plant litter. I run the cows through to let them eat all that is their that they like, then I clip what is left as close as possible(if necessary).
Next I disc the field. This is where a lot of people make a mistake. Proper planting depth is determined by the size of the seed. Ryegrass is an extremely small seed and therefore should be planted shallow. Disking too deep will let these seed get too deep into the soil to come out. Ideally, I would like to disk to a depth of only 1/2 to 1 inch...the purpose of disking is to create soil/seed contact and to suppress the summer plants that are there. Growing crops is all about giving the advantage to the desired plants.
Then I broadcast ryegrass seed and fertilizer and follow with the disk (VERY LITE) with something to smooth and pack. I chain two old rear tractor tires behind the disk...ideal tool would be a cultipacker.
Follow this with the drill and rye seed. Unless you have a new drill in good shape, most grain drills will plant to the depth of the loose soil...goes back to the importance of disking depth. Remember that the growing point of grass plants is at the soil surface...and the seeds should stay close to the same.
For you no-till people, one trick I learned from R.L. Dalrymple was to mix DAP (diammonium phosphate) in the hopper with the seed. DAP won't burn the seedlings like other fertilizers and will give them a kick to help them come up through a sod. I forget exactly how much I used, but it was less than 100lbs/A total mix. Google R.L. and you should be able to find that info.