How to manage your new pasture.
I would urge farmers to treat their new pasture as carefully as they do their young stock. Good early management of your new pasture will ensure your investment gets off to a sound footing.
Post Sowing:
After drilling have a walk over your new pasture at least once a week to keep an eye out for the emerging seedlings. Post emergence insect damage will be at its worse during the very early establishment stage and in many cases damage can be total. There are several insects that cause damage at this stage; the major ones are Slugs, Argentine Stem Weevil and Springtails.
For information on
how to identify and control these pests, please
click here.
First Grazing:
The first grazing is the most important one. The object of it is to encourage the young plant to tiller, reduce the shading of the slower establishing clovers and/or pasture herbs, and promote new grass growth. This will normally happen 6-10 weeks after drilling. Use a light first grazing when the paddock is dry, using young stock and try to remove the first 2-3 cm's. Before grazing try the "pull test" where if you can pull your new pasture out with your hand, your stock will also do it with their teeth. If conditions are very dry around the first grazing be extra gentle on it.
Fertiliser & Weed Control:
Between the first and second grazing we suggest that you do two other jobs. The first is a light application of Nitrogen fertiliser at 25 kg N / hectare and the next is weed control. Common major weeds include Thistles, Fathen, Spurry, and Shepherd Purse.
Click here for more information on these
common pasture weeds.
When spraying new pasture it is very important to control the weeds as early as possible. Particular care must be taken when selecting from the large range of chemicals on today's market for use on young clovers and pasture herbs. We recommend you contact your local agricultural chemical adviser and have him inspect the paddock for you. At Specialty Seeds we have a wide range of contacts available and should you want to be put in touch with an adviser please
click here to contact us.
Your new pasture will grow very quickly. After the first grazing, it will require frequent grazing. We strongly suggest that making hay or silage from your new pasture should be avoided during the first year as it will mean the new clovers and pasture herbs will be shaded out.
Back to top
Download Link: Click here to download our
Identifying Pasture Pests brochure.
Download Link: Click here to download our
Identifying Pasture Weeds brochure.
Contact Link: Please
click here to contact Specialty Seeds today.
We hope this issue has been of some value to you. If you have a comment on this newsletter or the rest of the content in this newsletter please feel free to call us on our Freephone: 0800 727 8873 or send us an email at:
mail@specseed.co.nz
Kind Regards
Stephen Finch & David Percival
Specialty Seeds
