We are experiencing the opposite. Normal rainfall pattern is for us to have very little rainfall in spring and early summer. But this year, we have been getting some pretty consistent rainfall. Steve Kenyon is a guy up in Alberta who does a lot of bale grazing. He has also done a lot of unrolling, and he claims that he has better productivity with bale grazing.
I think it depends on a lot of things. I think if I’m in an area that isn’t productive, I will bale graze to maximize disturbance and nutrient loading, if I’m in a good paddock I’m going to unroll.
YOu mentioned you were n a drought, I can't help but wonder if they hay waste is acting as a mulch holding in moister. I bet if you get a good rain everything else will take off.
That will be interesting to see, it’s so dry right now the ground is cracking, pretty unusual for this time of year. We almost always get a fall drought, but not normally this time of year.
I think a bigger factor in bale grazing is where you live. If I live in a heavy snow area I'd be more likely to play around with it. but anywhere outside of up north midwest and canada I'd never touch not unrolling. Also, since we run native grass you really don't need the same amount of fertility to get good growth. We even hit the point of slowing down on running ducks and chickens to make sure we can keep our native grass stand in place because it does better in drought and in too much rain. Also, it stands really well in winter and the gains you get on native grass is insane compared to other grasses. And it almost always does well. You don't always get the stupid growth from fertilizing but you always get REALLY good growth almost no matter what. So it's like 5 good years instead of 1 stupid really good year and 4 ok years. I think the best part of native grasses is you can over seed with annuals into them. You just have to run chickens or ducks in the field then hit it with those sunflower seeds or whatever. Just a lot more control and unrolling your hay helps you keep control without totally killing off what's there if you do it correctly. I saw the way they do it up north it's really tight almost like swath grazing and it almost turns into a sheet mulch.
So.....did you try applying fertilizer ???? I had 20 acres....my father told me its a waste of time and money fertilizing that pasture. I applied fertilizer....left a test strip. Where there was no fertilizer.... the grass was 1 foot tall. Where I applied fertilizer the grass was over 4 feet tall. Try experimenting !
I’ve put urea a couple years at close to 100 pounds per acre. It had very little effect. I believe it was not penetrating our heavy clay and was washing or volatilizing away. If I ever get a drill I will drill the fertilizer. I know it will help if I can get it into the root zone.
I had soil tests at the time and put the recommended amount and type for the ryegrass specifically. It’s in one of my older videos. Our ground is actually pretty fertile, it’s just super heavy clay.
We are experiencing the opposite. Normal rainfall pattern is for us to have very little rainfall in spring and early summer. But this year, we have been getting some pretty consistent rainfall.
Steve Kenyon is a guy up in Alberta who does a lot of bale grazing. He has also done a lot of unrolling, and he claims that he has better productivity with bale grazing.
I think it depends on a lot of things. I think if I’m in an area that isn’t productive, I will bale graze to maximize disturbance and nutrient loading, if I’m in a good paddock I’m going to unroll.
YOu mentioned you were n a drought, I can't help but wonder if they hay waste is acting as a mulch holding in moister. I bet if you get a good rain everything else will take off.
That will be interesting to see, it’s so dry right now the ground is cracking, pretty unusual for this time of year. We almost always get a fall drought, but not normally this time of year.
I think a bigger factor in bale grazing is where you live. If I live in a heavy snow area I'd be more likely to play around with it. but anywhere outside of up north midwest and canada I'd never touch not unrolling. Also, since we run native grass you really don't need the same amount of fertility to get good growth. We even hit the point of slowing down on running ducks and chickens to make sure we can keep our native grass stand in place because it does better in drought and in too much rain. Also, it stands really well in winter and the gains you get on native grass is insane compared to other grasses. And it almost always does well. You don't always get the stupid growth from fertilizing but you always get REALLY good growth almost no matter what. So it's like 5 good years instead of 1 stupid really good year and 4 ok years.
I think the best part of native grasses is you can over seed with annuals into them. You just have to run chickens or ducks in the field then hit it with those sunflower seeds or whatever. Just a lot more control and unrolling your hay helps you keep control without totally killing off what's there if you do it correctly. I saw the way they do it up north it's really tight almost like swath grazing and it almost turns into a sheet mulch.
You make some good points, thanks for watching and sharing.
So.....did you try applying fertilizer ???? I had 20 acres....my father told me its a waste of time and money fertilizing that pasture. I applied fertilizer....left a test strip. Where there was no fertilizer.... the grass was 1 foot tall. Where I applied fertilizer the grass was over 4 feet tall. Try experimenting !
I’ve put urea a couple years at close to 100 pounds per acre. It had very little effect. I believe it was not penetrating our heavy clay and was washing or volatilizing away. If I ever get a drill I will drill the fertilizer. I know it will help if I can get it into the root zone.
@@stringerbridgefarm3201 If yoiu dont have a balance NPK most times there is no response.
I had soil tests at the time and put the recommended amount and type for the ryegrass specifically. It’s in one of my older videos. Our ground is actually pretty fertile, it’s just super heavy clay.