Today looks like a great day to do some frost seeding.
Unfortunately, most of it was covered with Asian Honeysuckle and other pucker-brush. She hired a gentleman to brush-hog that down.
As of this morning, approximately two-thirds of the ground is bare dirt. The brush threw such a dense shade that it killed off any ground cover.
Even goats cannot survive eating dirt.
Frost seeding
Frost seeding is the practice of broadcasting (scattering) seeds on top of the soil and counting on the freeze-thaw cycle to "work" the seeds into the ground. Once they are under the surface, the seeds are relatively safe from birds and mice.
The weather pattern of freeze-thaw can be tough to catch. One cue is to watch to see if the people who tap maple trees are moving sap. That same freeze-thaw cycle moves the sap from the roots to the tops and then back down again.
Clover seeds
White Clover* seeds are tiny and it is difficult to spread them evenly. They run about 800,000 seeds to the pound or 1,800,000 per kg.
Seeding rates for White Clover are one or two pounds per acre. It is a pretty neat trick to spread those seeds that finely.
One trick is to add other materials to bulk-up the seeds. It can be cheaper Red Clover seeds. It can be millet seeds or oats or cracked corn (although the last two attract birds).
I have a bunch of old seeds for deer food-plots that were given to me as a gift. They are at least eight years old. I also have a significant amount of grass seed but will only add that to the mix when I am seeding the totally bare areas.
The areas that already have some kind of grass growing in them will only get the clover seed + whatever else I have on hand.
Ladino Clover
Ladino Clover is a giant form of White Clover. People who plant deer food-plots typically treat it as an annual crop rather than as a component in a perennial pasture.
In my part of Michigan, a pasture that is between 20% and 40% clover is considered well managed. If you can keep the needle between those two numbers on the majority of the pasture then you are doing a stellar job as a grazier.
There is a perennial sweet clover with yellow blossoms I plant for my bee's. Plants get up to 6-foot tall in right conditions! It is a nitrifying legume, and palatable forage as well.
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DeleteHere in East Anglia Spring has arrived. Hardly surprising: it's March. Forecast max for today = 15C = 59F.
ReplyDeleteSweetclover is Mellitus officinalis. Having lived the bulk of my life in the Southeastern US, I've mainly only seen it as a roadside ROW plant, sparsely distributed at that. There are white- and yellow-flowered strains; they typically will grow to 3-4 ft in height.. Cattle and goats will eat it, but it contains coumarin, which is bitter, and as the plants mature rapidly, they often become unpalatable.
ReplyDeleteIf harvested for hay, and not cured properly to prevent mold growth, the coumarin can be converted to dicoumarol, an anticoagulant, causing unfettered bleeding in animals consuming it.
'Moldy sweetclover hay poisoning' is, historically, one of those common maladies we learned about in animal science and veterinary classes, but in 40 years of veterinary medicine, I've never seen a case...but I've never lived anywhere where sweetclover would comprise even 1% of the makeup of a pasture or hayfield .
Dadgum autocorrect. Melilotus officinalis. Not Mellitus...this was not a discussion ofn diabetes.
DeleteThanks for the information, seems not the best choice for pasture.
DeleteWhen frost seeding clover, alfalfa and trefoil in my hayfields and pastures I would usually mix it with oats because oats is an annual that gives it some cover this year but no competition next year. And if the ph is low I would mix it with pelletized lime. ---ken
ReplyDeleteI will be super interested to hear how this works, ERJ. I have read of frost seeding but have never directly known anyone that tried it.
ReplyDeleteMy horses turned up their noses at red clover, but the neighbors' cows enjoyed it when I made hay for them. I'll assume goats will eat as well.
ReplyDeleteMy horses would have the slobbers with 40% clover in the pasture; they would jump on it like kids on candy.
Red clover is "dusty". There are selections like "Freedom!" (https://www.barusa.com/forage/products/freedom) that are "dust-free".
DeletePure Red CLover mats and can be difficult to dry. A little bit of grass in the clover goes a long way to lofting it up and helping with dry-down.
In Michigan, Red Clover will self-seed.