Reseeding Success: Improving Pastures Through Renovations

Completely re-establishing pastures might sound daunting, but can result in healthier grass and more forage for horses.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Reseeding Success: Improving Pastures Through Renovations
This pasture was killed in summer 2017 and reseeded with a Kentucky bluegrass/orchardgrass/novel fescue mixture in early September. | Photo: Courtesy Krista Lea
There are many small steps that can be made to improve pastures each year: weed control, overseeding grasses, rotational grazing, fall nitrogen, and regular soil testing. But sometimes these things simply aren’t enough. Pastures can struggle to recover from heavy grazing, extreme weather conditions, or persistent weed pressures.

Over the last few years, the University of Kentucky (UK) Horse Pasture Evaluation Program has worked with farm managers frustrated at the lack of substantial improvements despite following all the standard pasture management recommendations. The solution—completely re-establishing pastures—sounds daunting to many farm managers, but those who have tried it have seen the results and reaped the rewards.

Complete re-establishment involves killing a pasture before reseeding it with a mixture of desirable grasses. Of course, there is both cost and risk involved; however, when carried out properly, re-establishment transforms a pasture and is worth the investment.

The standard practice is to kill the existing pasture with glyphosate (two applications, beginning in late summer, are ideal), but it can also be accomplished by tilling the land or planting a row crop such as corn or soybeans. Then, reseed the pasture by drilling quality grass seed in the fall. Rest is essential for success—re-established pastures will likely be out of the grazing rotation for six months or more, but the end result is a highly productive pasture for many years to come

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
300 votes · 300 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!