The timing and cost of reseeding

When to reseed largely comes down to stocking rate and how much grass is available on your farm. If you are going to reseed this spring you should give it careful consideration. We have had a long cold winter and if we get a cold spring there could be a shortage of grass well into April. Reseeding should not be carried out in the spring if it means that you are forced to graze silage ground after the first week of April. Under normal spring conditions grass growth exceeds the demand for grass in the late April/May period. Where this occurs there is a good opportunity for those farms that are highly stocked, especially on the grazing area, to consider reseeding. Reseeding in the month of August occurs at a time when the growth of grass is generally lower. You are also trying to build-up grass supply. Also, proper weed control (especially docks and chickweed) is sometimes difficult to achieve in the autumn when you can have poor weather conditions for spraying. What is the cheapest method of reseeding old pasture? It is the one-pass system or is ploughing and tilling still able to hold its own? Whatever method of reseeding is used it's not cheap. However, it is the one area of investment on the farm that within a matter of months is delivering a return on the money spent. What will it cost you to reseed an acre of ground? The conventional ploughing and tilling is the Rolls Royce system and all other methods of reseeding should be compared to it. If you do the job correctly your should have the highest success rate with the ploughing method. What are the costs. Product Prices It is worth shopping around as prices can vary widely. Cost of seed varies from €45-53 per acre. Gallop (€50/5litre) is cheaper than Roundup (€79/5litre) (360 g/litre) at 3.5 pints/acre. CMPP or Duplosan varies from €42 - €58/5litre. Reducing Cost If you shop around and if you have your own equipment and do some of the work yourself you can reduce cost. However you will find it difficult to reduce any of the other costs. Two sprays are essential, one (Glyphosate) to burn off the existing vegetation and the other the post emergent spray (like CMPP) that goes on about 6 weeks after sowing (CMPP kills clover). This six-week spray is crucial and is missed on many farms. It should not be missed as you can harm the overall success of the job. Will a one-pass (minimum cultivation) system help to reduce costs? No ploughing or tilling is needed, only level ground and no stone picking. So what are the cost of this system? The one-pass reseeding operations cost about €40-€50/acre. So instead of €58 for ploughing and tilling you save €10-20/acre with one-pass system. All other costs such as sprays, seed, fertiliser and lime are common to both. Some one-pass machines only do the rotavating. The farmer will then have to apply the seed and roll. So no great saving in the one-pass system. Some one-pass systems can also deliver a very mixed reseed afterwards. The problems arise on two fronts: 1) Too much trash for the rotavator to cope with causing poor seed soil contact. 2) Old grasses again getting up ahead of steam before the new grasses get moving. With a one-pass system it is essential to do the following. If the field is a grazing field: 1. Spray when the grass is 3-4 inches high with Gallop (€50/5 litre) or Roundup (€79/5 litre (360 g/litre) at 3.5 pints/acre. 2. Graze bare 5-7 days later. 3. Apply lime as recommended by soil analysis. 4. However, a minimum of 1 tonne per acre must be applied prior to cultivation to prevent surface acidification. 5. Rotavate / power-harrow top two inches of soil in one pass. 6. Roll. 7. Apply 3 bags of 10-10-20 per acre. 8. Apply seed. 9. Roll again. At least 10 days should elapse between spraying and using the power-harrow. In fact the longer the gap, the easier it will be for the power-harrow to do a good job as the root system of the dead material disintegrates in the soil. Also, there is less likelihood of slug damage to new grasses in this situation. Doing a good job with the power-harrow means taking your time, ie approximately one acre per hour. If animals are having a problem grazing off the sprayed material, wrap the remainder to give it a severe topping. Don't worry if the field looks full of "scraws" after the rotavating. If you have the job done properly you won't know the field in two months' time.