Ontario Agriculture

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Hay fields left over the winter

Hi there,

I have some orchard grass pastures that were left over the winter from the last growing season. Now they are all under about 4 feet of snow.

Is it worth while to cut and bale the hay in the spring, or simply roll it and over-seed with some cover crops to give it a new life? Fields have not been used for grazing for a few years.

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Harry Stam on March 3, 2016 at 2:09am

Greg,

The question you asked cannot be answered correctly without more information. What exactly do you want with these pastures? Do you want to keep them as pastures? Orchard grass can be fertilized in the spring to increase volumes or you can broadcast some legumes to make it a more pasture mix type of crop. You can no-till oats into the standing hay and allow it to grow to add volume. It all depends on what you want the pasture land to do, If the land is flat and level no-tilling is a possibility unless there is too much cover crop to start with. However if the crop is too thick I would question why you would need to do anything. Run the cattle in and let them harvest.

Harry 

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