I live in central VA, and my grass has not really be growing that fast. Is this happening for anyone else? I currently have 3 24/7s and 2 day stalled horses on roughly 9 acres of grass. I see it out there, but it doesnt appear to be super tall. Last year I was able to hay fields by June. I am worried about my fields and grass growth…
Have you looked at your neighbors and also at the grass along the side of the road or in empty lots? That will tell you if it’s due to general weather conditions or if your soil is getting poor or mismanaged.
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I’m in Va, too. And my grass is generally slow to get going this year, same with others around me.
it’s so annoying that I’m moving breeding season to have lambs born a little later in the year from now on.
My lawn is doing pretty well, but the grass is of better quality, I have only been on this land for a full year with horses and working with the local Co-op for weeds,lyme, and fertilizer. I did lyme and fertilizer back in 2018 but nothing since. But last year I don’t remember it taking so long for it to grow. My back pasture, only 3-4 acres is good but patchy. I am waiting till they spray my fields with graze-on to switch them to that back pasture to let the other rest.
Glad (but not really) to hear other Virginians having some slower growth as well…
Grass a bit slow down here too. It’s been kind of dry.
Also to add, that I do have some orchard grass round bale left in my feeder and they have not touched the feeder in over two weeks, so they are obviously eating, and I can see the grass growing, just so short!
I am in Northern Virginia, and my grass (both in and out of the pasture) is growing WAY faster than usual.
We have a drought in Florida so yes, it has been slow. We just had enough rain that the grass is green, but quite short. I turned my mare out yesterday to graze for a couple hours. I think she spent most of the time waiting for hay. She was thrilled to see me.
Middle Tennessee here. We haven’t done our first bushogging yet. Usually by now, we are getting close to the second bush hogging.
we have had plenty of rain but we are lacking continual warmth and sunshine, which is our cause for slow grass growth:)
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I’m up in CT. It is slow here. We have had plenty of water, but not enough sun, or when we have had sun it has been very cold.
I am in NY. It snowed here yesterday to the point that I drove to work in a white out.
Our grass has been mowed twice already. It is going crazy.
All my neighbors have mowed too.
I am in Central Virginia and my grass seems to be growing a bit slow,but it is still fairly early in the year for the grass to REALLY grow. I feel like we had a very warm start to spring and then things cooled off a bit and the rain has been spotty and not getting things wet deep down into the soil.
I sprayed for broadleaf weeds last week, limed earlier this week and just did another round of spraying for the weeds I had missed and I sprayed with liquid 10-10-10 and now we are having the perfect rain and it we should have a chance for rain the next several days. I think my grass will really start growing soon.
Did your ext agent give you a maintenance plan? (so many tons of lime 1-2 times a year, so many tons of a particular ratio of fertilizer and the best time to use it for growing grass for grazing) I’m guessing you did soil samples. Did you have hay harvested from your fields last year? If so, that might be part of the problem. You may have removed some of the nutrients from the field, as opposed to when you cut it and let it go back into the field.
“working with the local Co-op for weeds,lyme, and fertilizer. I did lyme and fertilizer back in 2018 but nothing since”
Nitpicking.
“Lyme” is a town in Ct,and a disease the people and horses get.
The stuff you put on the fields is “lime”.
It’s been a cold and cloudy April. Things are slow here in southern PA too.
Without consistant sun, warm air, warm dirt, grass is going to grow slowly. Our grass really grew well LAST week with 60+ degree days, warm nights. This week, not much growth in 40-50 degrees, cloudy days, cold dirt. Of course I am much further north than Virginia. We had snow yesterday! But all melted this morning.
Regrowth might also depend on strength of the plants root system. My biggest field looks pretty nice, but has the oldest planting of tough grasses. Their leaf crowns make them look tall, were green all of our warm winter. I fertilize yearly, using soil testing to apply needed nutrients. I do not just throw lime on it or nitrogen. Plants may not need those this year, so that is wasted money, washing off to get into the water system.
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Actually I did have it hayed last year and not planning to do that this year. It only had one cutting in June. But then I did the cuttings in between (once early spring, the grass was growing so much and late fall before winter it was nearly 12 inches high)
I dont have a plan yet. But I hope to spray for broadleafs early next week and get soil samples this weekend, now that we got some great rain to soften the soil, and see where we are with all that information.
But it has been cooler. Its warm, mid 50s to 60s but still upper 30s mid 40s at night, but I believe the system coming through now will change that hopefully the next week or two it will really pick up. We over seeded some bare spots and it is growing.
I was just thinking the same thing about my grass here. We’ve have beautiful weather with plentiful rain. And it has stayed cool instead of going right from winter to summer and that might have something to do with the grass growth.
That and we just had the pastures sprayed again for buttercups. For some reason, buttercups seem to have proliferated in the area over the last couple of years. I can only presume due to warm and humid preceded by several drought years. So we limed our pastures good last fall and had them resprayed this spring and I think that slows things down a bit.
I am going to gather a soil sample this weekend to drop off to the extension service and then we plan to fertilize according to that and throw out some additional grass seed and maybe some landino clover. I hate that all the weed killer also kills off all the clover. Love the clover and we used to have an abundance of it. But then the weeds took hold and that had to be addressed as frequent mowing was not making any difference.
Wondered if those getting soil samples know how to do it properly? Asking horse folks locally, they do not know how. Perhaps you do, but I will explain it for anyone who may not know how.
Sampling needs you to dig multiple places on the field, at least the depth of a spade shovel, use the dirt at the bottom of the spade cut hole. You should dig at least 8 places spread out over the field, to get a variety of samples. You don’t need huge amounts of soil, probably a cupful is enough from each location. I jump on the spade to sink it in full depth, then rock handle to flip up the cresent of cut dirt into the air. I knock off the dirt from lowest depth, flip the soil clod back into the hole. Nothing to trip over, no hole to put a foot in later.
I take all my collected dirt back home, pour it out on a flat plastic feed sack/dogfood bag, mix the samples together if possible. Then let the samples dry for a couple days, mix dirt together well. Then I bag up some of the mixed dirt, you need probably a cup and a half, and take it in to be sent for testing.
I do combine dirt samples for small paddocks, may do individual tests for each large field. Your test results will tell you what is needed in various areas. Samples may all test the same, so you can use the same fertilizers on the whole place. Our property across the road does not test the same as pastures at home, needs different minerals after being used hard, not fertilized, before we purchased it. Does mean 2 trips to buy fertilizer, but no wasted money for unneeded fertilizer that won’t get used by the land, getting washed off.
Know that haying fields removes nutrients from the soil. Those nutrients are in the cut hay, going elsewhere, need to be replaced on the land. So does grazing remove nutrients, since animals use those nutrients in their bodies, do not return them to the soil. Horse poop is not the best fertilizer, even less nutrients than cow or sheep poop.
Reading Tamara From Tennessee’s old posts about raising quality hay taught me a lot! Her farm, Production Acres, supplies thousands of bales of hay to people across the country. They can buy exactly the type nutrition their animals need. Her hayfields get soil tested, then fertilized after EACH cutting, so that can be 3-4 applications in a season of production! Her wonderful hay is also tested, has the numbers for buyers to see when buying. There were many satisfied customers here on COTH. She sure sets a high standard, but the wonderful quality is her livelihood!!
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I bought a soil sampling tool. At the time it was only around $40. I figured it was a good investment, . It makes the sampling easier and go faster.
I go out into the pasture and walk a zig zag from one end to the other taking samples evenly along the way. I place the samples in my bucket. Depending on the moisture in the soil, I mix right away or break it up a bit, allow it time to dry and then mix. I then place the sample in a baggie and write the pasture it came from on the bag. I can then transfer that info to the pouch/box the soil testing place needs.
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Yes! I usually need to mow by April 15th. We have had snow though lately.
