Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Improving Your Pasture or Managing Your Hay Field
The story of the hay in your horse's feeder may have started 2 to 3 years ago when a field
was prepared and seeded. Often, hay is used in rotation with other crops such as corn and
barley. While such grains deplete the soil of its nitrogen, legume hays such as alfalfa restore
this necessary element to the soil. Because of this rejuvenating effect, along with the fact
that premium hay is a good cash crop, alfalfa is a very popular hay to raise. Furthermore, a
large, well-established, and properly managed grass or grass/alfalfa pasture can produce a
good crop for first-cut hay and then be used again for grazing.
Regularly evaluate your fields and pastures to encourage vigorous, dense, diverse, and
desirable plants and to discourage overgrazing, spotty grazing, weeds, bare spots, and soil
erosion.
To establish a hay field or a pasture, you follow a similar procedure.
PREPARING THE SOIL
Fields can be worked using conventional or alternative tilling. With conventional tilling,
the field is cultivated deep with a plow, disc, chisel, or rotary tiller and can be further
worked with a mulcher to mix and aerate compacted soil. Following this, the field is floated
(leveled) with a disc and/or harrow to smooth out rough spots and to prepare it for seeding.
Hay and pasture plants do best in a fine, firm, clod-free seedbed, not an overly soft or clay-
pan field.
Due to the high cost of fuel, labor, and equipment, alternative methods of tillage have
been developed. Minimal tillage might consist of a light disking and harrowing, resulting
in less compaction due to less traffic. If you do not till deeply, erosion caused by wind or
water is greatly reduced, but seeds must then be drilled. You may find it best to hire a cus-
tom farmer with a renovator or a cultimulcher to work your field. With these implements,
he can cultivate, chop, aerate, seed, and fertilize all in one pass.
ADJUSTING pH
Soil pH indicates acidity. Neutral soils have a pH value of 7.0. Sour (acid) soils have lower
values and sweet (alkaline) soils have higher values. In some areas you may need to add
limestone to reduce soil acidity and thereby increase yield. An acid soil may interfere with
a plant's ability to absorb nutrients. A soil pH test indicates if you need to add lime but
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