Practices for renovating existing stands will vary with pasture types, including native pastures, domestic grass pastures, and grass-legume pastures. Renovation may include one or more practices, including fertilizer, weed control, pasture clipping, and inter-seeding.
Fertilizing:
Most domestic grass stands can be renovated simply by applying necessary fertilizer. Cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, smooth bromegrass, crested wheatgrass, intermediate wheatgrass, wildrye grasses, and orchardgrass respond significantly to fertilizer, especially nitrogen, in North Dakota. Grass production may increase over two-fold when proper fertilizer is applied.
Nitrogen will be the main fertilizer required and can be broadcasted in early spring (April). Forty to 60 pounds active nitrogen is a general recommendation, but soil tests should be conducted to determine required amounts. Phosphorus may also be limited in North Dakota, so a soil test should be performed.
Fertilizing native pasture is generally not recommended unless dominated by cool-season grasses. Once again, nitrogen will be the limiting fertilizer and should only be applied once, not in consecutive years. Warm-season grasses show little to no benefit from fertilizing.
As the cool-season grasses respond, they out-compete the warm-season grasses, upsetting the warm-season, cool season grass balance needed to sustain a pasture for seasonlong grazing. Undesirable weedy plants will also respond positively to fertilizer and will need to be controlled when occurring over large areas.
Weed Control:
Weed control may be needed if too many broadleaf plants reduce forage quality and quantity. Weeds compete vigorously with grasses and legumes for moisture, nutrients and light. Although most weeds are high in nutritional value, they are unpalatable to horses, with some being poisonous. Consumption of poisonous plants may be more of a problem from overgrazed pastures or during periods of drought.
Weed control can be conducted by periodic mowing, chemical application or a combination of both. Several herbicides are available for broadleaf control in grass pastures. The most commonly used is 2,4-D, but others may include dicamba, MCPA, and piclorum. Always read and follow label directions and safety measures when using chemicals. Consult your local county agent or weed board officer for help in choosing the proper chemical.
Clipping Pastures:
Many domestic grasses become rank as they mature, decreasing in palatability and acceptance by horses. If grasses such as crested wheatgrass, intermediate wheatgrass and smooth bromegrass
become mature, clipping will need to be performed to eliminate stiff seedstalks. The plant will regrow, providing a lush new green growth. Removing seedstalks can be achieved by grazing cattle together with the horses. Cattle are less selective and will achieve a more even distribution of grazing throughout the pasture. Cattle will help extend the grazing season for horses by keeping the plants immature longer.
Interseeding:
Interseeding may be desired when more than 50 to 75 percent of the desirable plants are eliminated from the pasture and replaced by undesirable species.
Domestic grass pastures may be interseeded with the same grass species, other grass species and/or legumes. Legume introduction will help improve the quality and quantity of forage and is a good technique in renovation of horse pastures.
Legumes also reduce the need for nitrogen fertilization, improve horse performance, and provide better seasonal distribution of forage in mid-summer. Seeding legumes into a domestic grass sod needs to be conducted on a regular basis.
Legumes are shorter lived. They should be re-introduced when they contribute less than 30 percent of the pasture’s total area, or approximately one to two legume plants per square foot.
Interseeding native pasture requires more consideration and is generally a last resort next to complete re-establishment. Legumes can be interseeded into native range to increase quality but are generally readily grazed off and production decreases dramatically after the second year.
Grasses commonly interseeded into native range include western wheatgrass and green needle grass. Western wheatgrass is the easiest of the two to establish. Interseeding is a difficult practice when renovating pastures and often the negatives involved with interseeding outweigh the positives.
Interseeding is often the last practice recommended when improving native pastures, but can be performed more successfully with legumes in a domestic grass pasture.
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