September is when we start looking ahead to cooler weather, fall rain and winter pasture. Hopefully, we get all three.
If you were able to work your ground in August, you’re already ahead. If not, early September is a good time to get things ready. Once we start getting some moisture and temperatures come down, you want to be ready to plant instead of trying to get everything together at the last minute.
For cattle, horses, sheep and goats, a good cool-season pasture can provide valuable grazing through fall and winter. It can also help take some pressure off your hay supply.
There isn’t one seed that makes sense for every pasture, though. Wheat, oats, ryegrass and forage blends all have their place. What you plant depends on your animals, your ground and how you plan to use it.
Wheat Is Hard to Complicate
Wheat is one of the easiest places to start. It establishes easily, cattle like it, and you can plant it with a drill or broadcast it. For grazing, we typically plant bagged combine wheat at around 100 pounds per acre.
It’s also a pretty economical way to put forage in the ground. If you’re thinking about wheat for a deer food plot, take a look over the fence first. If your neighbors already have hundreds of acres of wheat, another small patch of wheat probably isn’t going to give deer much reason to visit your place. That’s when we’d look at oats or a more diverse food plot blend instead.
Don’t Overlook Winter Oats
We’re big fans of winter oats. Harrison Oats and Bob Oats are two varieties we like for North Texas. They’re winter hardy and work well for cattle and horses as well as deer food plots.
We generally plant winter oats at about 75–85 pounds per acre. A grain drill is our preferred way to plant them. If you don’t have access to one, you can broadcast the seed and then use a drag to get good seed-to-soil contact.
Nothing fancy. You just need to give that seed a good opportunity to establish.
Want More Variety? Plant a Blend.
Sometimes you don’t want to bet the whole pasture on one forage. That’s where MBS Graze-It-All Fall Pasture Seed Blend comes in.
It combines several cool-season forages, including oats, wheat, rye, barley, crimson clover, turnips, rapeseed and annual ryegrass. MBS recommends it for cool-season livestock grazing and says it can be used across a wide range of well-drained soils.
For an existing pasture, MBS recommends overseeding at about 50 pounds per acre. On bare ground, the recommended rate is 75 pounds per acre.
We like this option for cattle, horses, sheep and goats when you want several different forages working together instead of planting a single grain. And if hay costs are on your mind—and when aren’t they?—productive fall and winter grazing can help stretch your hay supply.
Ryegrass: Make Sure You’re Buying the Right Kind
Here’s something that can cause a little confusion at the seed counter. Not all ryegrass is meant to do the same job.
If you’re planting for livestock grazing, you want forage ryegrass, which is selected to produce forage rather than make a pretty winter lawn.
One option we like is MBS Heavyweight Forage Ryegrass Blend. It combines TAMTBO tetraploid annual ryegrass with Flying A diploid annual ryegrass. The idea is to pair the production characteristics of the tetraploid with the cold tolerance and forage characteristics of the diploid.
For Heavyweight, the manufacturer recommends 25–40 pounds per acre, depending on your seedbed and planting method, and planting no deeper than 1/2 inch. That’s very different from something like MBS GreenLink, which is a turf-type annual ryegrass intended for lawns and other turf applications.
If you tell us what you’re trying to accomplish, we can make sure you leave with the right ryegrass.
Don’t Wait to Buy Your Seed
This one is worth paying attention to this year. Small grains such as oats, barley and rye can get harder to find as fall planting gets underway. If you already know what you’re going to plant, it makes sense to secure your seed early.
That’s true even if you’re waiting until October or November to actually put it in the ground.
A Little Planning Goes a Long Way
Fall grazing doesn’t have to be complicated. Get your ground ready. Pay attention to the weather. Choose a forage that fits your animals and your pasture. Then be ready to move when North Texas gives you a good planting window.
If you’re trying to decide between wheat, Harrison or Bob Oats, MBS Graze-It-All, Flying A or MBS Heavyweight, stop by Johnson Feed and talk with us.
Tell us what you’re feeding, how many acres you’re planting and what you want that pasture to do. We’re always happy to help you figure out what makes sense and get you the seed you need while the selection is good.
