Help=Seeding a new hay field

Nearly any forage crop should be top dressed as required, probably yearly. A soil test (and county agent)can guide this. The potash needs to be maintained.

It works best without herbicide to drill or spread a couple bushels of oats per acre and to plant (at least in Iowa) about the middle of April. The oats keep weeds down by shading them, and by suppressing them. You need to get the oats off by mid June to get sun to the alfalfa.

If you use a seeder instead of a drill, its good to scratch the seeds in a little with a harrow (alfalfa only needs to be under 1/4 to 1/2" of dirt) and to pack with a cultipacker or roller to get intimate soil to seed contact. A drill works better with press wheels than closing chains, though last year I pulled a cultipacker behind the drill and that seemed to work, though without oats (an experiment) the weeds are thick.

Alfalfa generally gets planted 12 to 16 pounds to the acre and I forget the rate for timothy. Last time I put in timothy it was by hand to fill the places alfalfa had drowned out. The horse hay customers didn't jump for joy.

Gerald J.

first you disk, then cross-disk, followed by 2 harrow passes at 45 degrees. when the soil is loose, free of clods.. clean and level... then you plant with...

a drill.... which actually plants the seeds below the soil surface at a highly regulated rate and depth... or do broadcast seeding. where the seed is put into a hopper and 'sprayed' out behind the tractor...

Unless you can borrow one, or have some custom farming done, a broadcast seeder is much more affordable and can usually be used for spreading fertilizer later on... A drill will be expensive to buy just for 6 acres.

If you don't have any of the equipment, and don't have more than 6 acres to do you're better off hiring it done...

There's whole books written on this... check with your local ag agent too.

bb

Thanks for the response. Got everything but the drill or broadcast seeder. Your directions will be helpful. Thanks again!

And then, it all depends on the weather. If it's too dry, you just won't get any stand worth having of alfalfa.

As the other person mentioned, if there is some alfalfa in your field already, it is toxic to new seedlings, and the ground needs a 3 month (preferably longer) time without alfalfa on it to produce a good new stand.

--->Paul

Timothy tends to not survive mowing at the rate alfalfa produces, and the most prolific alfalfas tend to not survive winters. A snow that gets an ice crust on top is hardest on the alfalfa.

I've been planting Wrangler alfalfa for years and it survives Iowa winters quite well. Climax timothy is supposed to take mowing with alfalfa better than other varieties.

Gerald J.

With some care you should get 5-10 years out of a field. Tough winter, drought, standing water, too much tractor traffic (esp. when ground is wet) will make the stand poorer. Proper fertilizer, not mowing too late, etc. will make it last longer.

--->Paul