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Drilling into mowed pasture

M

MN Slick

PMA Member
I"m trying to justify a no till drill for smallish acreage of plots. I've heard of guys having success drilling radishes into clover that has been mowed super short or set back a bit with Gly. Has anyone had success drilling into pasture that has been hayed or mowed real short but not sprayed? I can't spray the area since it gets hayed. I'm wondering if a guy could drill in radishes, brassicas, maybe rye, into well shorn pasture and have the seed outcompete the pasture grass. I wouldn't necessarily care if it produced bulbs as any additional greens is a plus.
 
MN Slick said:
I"m trying to justify a no till drill for smallish acreage of plots. I've heard of guys having success drilling radishes into clover that has been mowed super short or set back a bit with Gly. Has anyone had success drilling into pasture that has been hayed or mowed real short but not sprayed? I can't spray the area since it gets hayed. I'm wondering if a guy could drill in radishes, brassicas, maybe rye, into well shorn pasture and have the seed outcompete the pasture grass. I wouldn't necessarily care if it produced bulbs as any additional greens is a plus.
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I’m going to do this on 8 acres, but it will be sprayed. Prepping for next spring to be planted to crop. This is in MN.
 
Unless you have a big drill i would think you will have trouble getting it to penetrate the thatch of the pasture and get the seed into the ground - most likely will just skip across the top
 
I don’t think it would work that well personally and if you caught the right rains you might get something to come up otherwise your just wasting time and money.
 
It will work with a good notill drill. We drill into pastures each fall with clovers and wheat.
Existing cool grass will need to be short when planted as your planted seedling needs help to get up to get sunlight.
 
I have a great plains 606NT that I have drilled natives and wheat/oats/ rye into dead thatch and it did well.
Depends on what kinda drill you are getting into, but I would definitely spray
 
Thanks guys, worth experimenting if I end up with a drill. However, I won't be getting a big drill so soil conditions will make all the difference.
 
You might check with a local conservation service. Sometimes they have a small no-till for rent.
 
I use a landpride seeder at work(sports complex) to seed into existing grass. It is a solid stand seeder, has slicer knifes that cut through the sod. Works great to interseed grass and should work for what you want. Mine is 4 foot wide but it will seed as fast as the tractor will run.


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I have drilled into several different things the last couple years, clover, grass, soybeans. All were successful but on different levels. To get the new seed to go the existing crop needs to be set back a little, short mowing is usually what I do. If the new plant is an aggressive annual like radish it will do good, a slower crop like clover will start but not do much this year but next spring will look greats. The drill needs to cut a shallow slot and cut through existing vegetation, if you get good soil contact and enough sun trough the existing crop it will turn out good.


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mrush said:
I have drilled into several different things the last couple years, clover, grass, soybeans. All were successful but on different levels. To get the new seed to go the existing crop needs to be set back a little, short mowing is usually what I do. If the new plant is an aggressive annual like radish it will do good, a slower crop like clover will start but not do much this year but next spring will look greats. The drill needs to cut a shallow slot and cut through existing vegetation, if you get good soil contact and enough sun trough the existing crop it will turn out good.


Thank you for posting mrush, I like what I hear.
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