Reseeding a pasture or hay ground requires more than just spreading seed on the ground. There's a sequence to the process, from testing the soil to addressing weeds, deciding on forages and considering livestock use.
Renovating and reseeding a pasture requires time, money and a little luck. There are many ways to go about it, but if you begin the planning process in the spring, you’ll thank yourself in the fall.
In parts of Oregon, pasture forage for grazing livestock is lacking early in the growing season. That forces livestock producers to rely on costly harvested forages for supplemental feed. There is another option. Research has ...
Poisonous plants are a major cause of economic loss to the livestock industry. Two poisonous plants common to Oregon are poison hemlock and Western water hemlock. Ingestion of either by humans or livestock typically results in death.
Silage-making has been used to reduce the concentrations of toxins in a variety of crops. But in the case of poison hemlock, the opposite is true — making silage out of it actually increases one of its toxic alkaloids.
Burning the slash left behind after a logging operation isn't the only method for getting rid of it. Among the alternatives are piling but not burning, "forestry mulching," creating biochar and doing nothing.
Mechanical and physical controls are among the most fascinating components of an integrated pest management program. This arsenal involves numerous physical barriers, traps, nets and other mechanical devices.
In integrated pest management, biological controls might include predatory or parasitic insects, bacteria or fungi, and biopesticides. More and more biocontrol methods are becoming available to the home gardener.
Forage quality of common pasture weeds was determined through laboratory testing to compare feed value of weeds to desirable forage species and nutrient requirements for grazing livestock.
Shelby Filley, Andy Hulting, Amy Peters |
May 2010 |
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