October is our month to plant the cover for the pasture. This year we filled up about 4 acres so far. 2 are already planted in a non irrigated pasture mix. With Oct ending today and rain heading in this week, it is time to finish. we had another couple of acres ready to plant, do this afternoon we headed out.
Our plan is to plant grazing mix for the sheep , horses, and turkeys. Then for the hogs plant an acre or two of variety. Today it was peas and oats.
Prior to this we worked on making a good seed bed in as much area as we could get moisture into. Using sprinklers on long houses I saturated the ground, moving the sprinklers every couple days. Once enough moisture was in the soil, we rolls up the subsoil as drop as possible... About 1 to 2 feet. that broke up the to layers of hard pan.
This was followed with rototilling. I bought a used 5 foot italian made pto tiller. That did wonders to chop up the clods and prepares the soil. It took a half dozen passes but finally became plant able soil.
last step was today.. Using a spreader behind the tractor to the seeds. I was amazed that the little book was right...at a set speed, a set rpm, a set seed drop opening, it predicted the application rates accurately. Almost perfectly!
as a last step we dragged a 5 foot chain harrow being the gator to cover the seeds. Brenda actually did this step with baby on lap!
Now we wait... For just enough rain before it gets too cold.
Oh...I should mention.. I broke the disc AGAIN! we just replaced all the bolts with hardened ones and adjusted it. today while flattening some of the sheep pasture I noticed the axle was bent. Trip of the disc had worked lost. But that not when I quite... I quite using it right after I bumped into old turkey roost... And tore through one of the bolt mounts.
Oh well... Important thing is we have half planted. More if it rains this week.. Perhaps we can plow through the rest of it and plant before the big rains come.
Our plan is to plant grazing mix for the sheep , horses, and turkeys. Then for the hogs plant an acre or two of variety. Today it was peas and oats.
Prior to this we worked on making a good seed bed in as much area as we could get moisture into. Using sprinklers on long houses I saturated the ground, moving the sprinklers every couple days. Once enough moisture was in the soil, we rolls up the subsoil as drop as possible... About 1 to 2 feet. that broke up the to layers of hard pan.
This was followed with rototilling. I bought a used 5 foot italian made pto tiller. That did wonders to chop up the clods and prepares the soil. It took a half dozen passes but finally became plant able soil.
last step was today.. Using a spreader behind the tractor to the seeds. I was amazed that the little book was right...at a set speed, a set rpm, a set seed drop opening, it predicted the application rates accurately. Almost perfectly!
as a last step we dragged a 5 foot chain harrow being the gator to cover the seeds. Brenda actually did this step with baby on lap!
Now we wait... For just enough rain before it gets too cold.
Oh...I should mention.. I broke the disc AGAIN! we just replaced all the bolts with hardened ones and adjusted it. today while flattening some of the sheep pasture I noticed the axle was bent. Trip of the disc had worked lost. But that not when I quite... I quite using it right after I bumped into old turkey roost... And tore through one of the bolt mounts.
Oh well... Important thing is we have half planted. More if it rains this week.. Perhaps we can plow through the rest of it and plant before the big rains come.
No comments:
Post a Comment