New Pature?

bigredfeather

Songster
11 Years
Oct 1, 2008
2,194
53
211
Yorkshire, Ohio
I sowed a 1 acre area of our land in a pasture mix about a month ago. It is all coming up quite nicely now. The majority of it is about 6 in tall. I was wondering what, if anything, I should do with it before winter. Should I mow it, or just let it go? I have some weeds that have grown up in it as well. Is there anything I can spray it with to kill the weeds, but will not hurt the pasture?

This is my first time doing this, so any info would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
if the weeds are seeded out already mowing will just spread the weeds rather then get rid of them.
If you mow cut to leave the grasses as tall as possible.
 
I would leave it alone (since you are in Ohio, and winterkill can really set a new pasture back if you get a cold or windy spell with insufficient snow - you want as much standing dead stuff as possible, to hold snow on the field and also to keep direct wind off the dormant growing points of the grass)

Only exception, if there are seriously pernicious weeds coming up, there *might* be an argument for applying a broadleaf weedkiller *right away* while they are still sort of maybe growing -- but honestly I think your window for that is pretty much done for the year already, and it doesn't do very much good to apply broadleaf weedkiller when the plant is *not* active in growth. So if there are only *patches* of particularly-pernicious weeds, you might go after them by hand. If they are just yer average not-too-important weeds, I'd ignore them.

Otherwise, though, just keep stock and machinery off it, and let it sit til spring, and don't put any animals onto it until it is well grown in, ideally not until early summer if possible. Newly grown pastures are much more vulnerable to hoof damage and overgrazing than an established stand.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat
 
Should I mow it, or just let it go?

It depends a lot on what youve planted.

If it's things that will continue to grow all Winter, and the weeds are taller than your grasses, then mowing the tops off the weeds could be beneficial

If it's Warm Season plants, I'd let them seed out if possible so there will be a seed bank in the soil for Spring

If the weeds are "broadleafs", you can spray 2-4-D that will kill them but not harm the grasses.

It all comes down to EXACTLY what you have planted​
 
It is the horse pasture mix from TSC. It has white clover, orchard, Timothy, winter rye, alphalfa, and a couple of other things. These are the ones I can remember.

Sounds like my best bet is to leave it alone until next Spring. I'm going to be putting goats on it, so they may eat some of the weeds if they make it thru the Winter.

Thanks for the advise.
 

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