pasture improvement

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knabe

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Feb 7, 2007
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Hollister, CA
here's some pics of different stages of pasture improvement.

pic1  too much clover.  it can take over rather quickly, so be careful so don't be concerned about low % in seed. 
pic2  california blue rye.  with just a little water, this can grow 3-5 feet high, it's a native perrennial, and nothing grows under it's canopy.  it's next to annual weedy grasses.  i am spreading it through seed
pic 3  purple needle grass, another bunch grass native next to weedy annual grasses that are at FULL height.  the needlegrass will continue to abou double in height and is a very efficient water user
pic 4  close up of patch of sucra seed tetraploid perrenial rye grass, only broadcast and covered with manure and watered twice during fall.  ungrazed
pic 5  here's a pic a transition to the sucra grass.  the annual weedy grasses in the front are almost full height.  you can see where i moved the fence to.  it used to extend from the tree on the left.  where that line is, is where the sucra grass starts.  notice the one clump of orchard grass in front.
pic 6  this is where i planted melons last year and was only dug up and manure incorporated.  it's wild oats, foxtail.  notice the broadleaves curling and dying.  that's filaree.  it is prostrate and crowds out grasses rather quickly.  some cattlemen like it as it is relatively high in N, 10-20%???
 

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knabe

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Feb 7, 2007
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Hollister, CA
here's pic 6, none of this has been grazed, it's next to some grapes.  really shows how pathetic the annual grasses respond to compaction, and how they allow the soil to be pulverized by the rain and defloculate to soil surface.  the annuals basically dry up and wither away and offer very little protection from the rain taking with it precious soil with the runoff.  soils that look like this have lost about a foot of topsoil in the last 100 years in my area.  the next soil layer is about 1 foot below, and about 2 feet below that, it's very very orange, almost impenetrable clay that i think you could fire in a kiln.  all of my trees i have dug deep holes about 1 foot past the clay barrier and about 3 feet wide, added organic material and planted the trees about 3" above soil surface to allow for settling.  seems to work fairly well, as i don't water my redwoods anymore.  i planted redwoods because if they get water, they grow like weeds, if they don't, as in my situation, they are kind of stunted, which i like, as they provide a wind barrier and soil catch from my neighbors bare paddocks which have basically lost about 6" of topsoil in the last 10 years from dust and runoff.  only malva, cheeseweed grows there.
 

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JbarL

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Apr 21, 2007
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30deg 17' 11.73 N 81deg 35'59.94&q
knabe....pretty sure we are going to try the beef mix....the pasture sweetner has no clover in it ....but i dont have that problem.....they were only 2 stores in ohio taht had it as ovf a week or towo ago...my local supplier had the info on it but no one has tryed in our area yet.......the store near marysville said they were selling mostly the "great gains"  which is a sheep mix i believe..........the 40 in /yr  rain  in the ohio  area is a perfect trial for its intented use as you mentioned before....."very" wet there now....would have loved to got it down last week.....i'll keep ya updated////jbarl
 
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