Mark’s Farm Tips provide useful farming advice to help take your farm to its full potential — from Sota’s Agronomist & Farming Guru, Mark Crakanthorp.
Prepare Your Pastures for Winter
After such a prolonged period of drought, many pastures have taken a real beating. Currently, conditions are ideal to renovate your pastures. Not only will you have abundant feed for your stock, but a thick, aggressively growing pasture is great for strangling out weeds that may have taken a foothold during the drought.
With significant rainfall across eastern Australia, many people are seizing the opportunity to renovate their pastures. Most permanent grass species are active in the warmer months. However, annual and biennial ryegrasses and clovers can be planted in the Autumn and used to bridge the winter feed gap while most permanent species are less active. The reasoning behind planting in Autumn is that the soil temperature is still sufficiently high to encourage quick establishment. There is also less competition from weeds at this time of the year. Ryegrass and clover are a great option as they are easy to establish.
A super spreader behind your Sota Tractor is a cost effective way of sowing. This method of dispersal is advantageous because you can cover a lot of ground in a narrow time frame - especially handy when expecting rain. It also allows you to spread a ‘starter’ fertilizer, aiding quick development of the establishing pasture.
To give your seedling the best start, remove as much vegetation as possible before sowing. This may be done by heavily grazing a paddock or slashing. Better still, integrate it into the soil with some light offset disc harrows. Once the seed and fertilizer are on the ground it is a good idea to try and integrate it. Harrowing or rolling is a good way to do this, as is running your stock over the paddock to let their hooves push the seed in.
Slashing at the right time will help establish frost tolerant grasses.
You cannot have stock on the emerging seedlings as they will favour them, rendering the sown area of the farm off limits for some weeks. Because of this, it may be a good idea to sow one area at a time. It is important that you do not have constant grazing pressure until the grass forms an established sward. Seedlings will not persist if overgrazed.
Increasing The Winter Yield
Autumn has come around again and its time to think about renovating your pastures for winter. Here’s some handy tips to set you up:
Take a walk over your property and assess it for things like discolouration (nutrient deficiencies), grass species and densities as well as weeds. If everything looks OK, and it has had a history of renovation there is a good chance that some of the desirable winter active perennial species still persist. A good slashing at this time of year can do wonders for re-establishment, particularly if you have a predominance of summer growing grasses that have gone to head and died off. They will continue to shade the emerging seedlings if not removed. If the grass is particularly long and rank, it is a good idea to rake it up and remove it from the paddock after slashing, as it will continue to hinder establishing winter-active grasses as the windrows of slashed material rot down.
‘Winter-active grasses’ is actually a bit of a misnomer. They are really frost tolerant grasses that can survive and grow modestly through the cooler months where others do not. Their most prodigious output will be in spring, however they should be encouraged now to help get you through the winter feed gap. If they can establish vigorously in autumn while the soil is still warm, they will be ready to bolt as soon as spring arrives, out-competing weeds and less productive grasses that have been lurking idly by. Never fear, the old established summer grasses will return as the winter-actives petered out.
Slash along fence lines in low gear first.
When slashing, the accepted wisdom is to do the fence line first. When negotiating fence lines it’s best to do it in low gear, looking out for fallen wire, branches and being wary of damaging it. Also keep an eye out for repairs. Now that the cooler days are here, you can get your teeth into some fencing as well. If you have fenced off tree lines or shelter belts, it is necessary to remove some of the bigger branches before slashing. A stick rake can be employed to good effect, however many people utilise indolent teenagers under the auspices of ‘character building’.
Another reason to proceed slowly around fences is because the momentum of a slasher can push the tractor forward – particularly when the clutch pedal is depressed at operating RPM. Remember, no matter how user friendly your tractor is, the best way to brake the slasher is by reducing using the engine RPM. Your tractor and slasher operate best at the recommended RPM/PTO speed; so keep it there. Reversing and changing gears and ranges is bothersome as well as causing unnecessary wear and tear. Do as much as you can in one forward gear. Over-revving the machine to increase speed is not desirable, but nor is under-revving, or labouring the tractor. If the grass is heavier in one area, simply take a narrower cut to maintain speed. To make the job easier, always cut in the direction that expels to slashed grass (windrows) away from the next pass, cutting slowly in from the perimeter fence. If the shape of the paddock does not allow this, slash it in appropriate sections.
As with all tractor jobs there is no need for haste. Operating the machine sensibly and safely takes priority. And, if any parts are missed, you can do them afterwards.
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