Steps to Successful Pasture Establishment for Optimum Performance
Successful pasture establishment goes beyond practicing the traditional operational activities involved in pasture establishment.
To ensure successful pasture establishment, you need to follow these innovative and practical operational activities that are necessary to help the pasture species to be able to survive in a new environment that are filled with challenges like pests and diseases, nematodes, etc.
With proper soil moisture, soil nutrients, and air, a well-managed pasture can easily adapt to a new environment.
Steps to Successful Pasture Establishment for Optimum Performance
Our innovative steps in pasture establishment will be grouped into 3 operational activities as follows;
(a) Pre-planting operations (b) Planting operations, and (c) Post-planting operations.
1. Pre-planting Operational Activities in Pasture Establishment
The following pre-planting activities are necessary to ensure a successful pasture establishment;
a. Site selection: Ensure that the site to be used is good for the cultivation of field crops, the site should also be plain and not rocky.
b. Land clearing: Land clearing can either be done manually, using chemicals, using machines or through burning.
The final decision of which method to use for the clearing will be largely dependent on the cost and the capacity of the farmer.
c. Seedbed preparation: Seedbeds can be achieved through ploughing, harrowing, levelling and construction of ridges in the case of large seeded legumes.
d. Seed treatment: The pasture seeds should be treated with the use of insecticides and fungicides before planting.
Sometimes, pasture seeds are treated using hot water to break their dormancy, this process is referred to as scarification.
Some pasture seeds such as lablab purpureus are inoculated with rhizobium strain of bacteria to facilitate the seeds germination and establishment.
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2. Planting/Sowing Operational Activities in Pasture Establishment
The quantity of seeds also known as the seed rate to be used has to be determined on per hectare basis.
The sowing depth has to be shallow for grass species, recommended at 2cm depth for grasses, and medium depth for legumes, recommended at between 5 – 7cm depth for legumes.
The pasture seeds can be planted or sown using either of these three methods; planting, drilling, or broadcasting methods.
Planting is done mainly for large seeded legumes such as mucuna pruriens, lablab purpureus, etc. These pasture seeds are planted using inter and intra-row spaces available and recommended at 25cm x 75cm for optimum plant population.
In drilling, there is no intra-spacing rather the seeds are drilled evenly linked with a single and continuous hole.
However, for broadcasting, the pasture seeds are broadcasted in the entire field.
The drilling and broadcasting methods of planting are used for small-seeded legume and grass seeds.
It is equally advisable to use a carrier against such as sand, fertilizer or sawdust during planting to enable the pasture seeds to be placed in the intended locations especially on a windy day sometimes.
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3. Post-planting Operational Activities in Pasture Establishment
There are some operational activities that are expected for better establishment, forage yield and quality after the successful germination of the pasture seeds.
Those operational activities include the following;
a. Weeding: Weeding can either be done manually by using hand hoes, done chemically using herbicides, or done mechanically by using tractor coupled implements such as a weeder.
Weeding is recommended to be done at 2 – 3weeks after planting depending on the intensity of the weeds on the pasture field and also depending on the management.
Mechanical weeding method is recommended for better results in commercial pasture production.
b. Fertilizer Application: To encourage improved performance, fertilizers should be applied after weeding.
Although some pasture farmers apply fertilizers such as phosphate fertilizers e.g. Single Super Phosphate (SSP) during land preparation, other fertilizers such as nitrogenous fertilizers have to be applied to the pasture especially if it is a sole grass pasture to enhance performance.
c. Defoliation: Defoliation refers to the cutting of plant shoot with the aim of improving the growth performance and getting high quality forage.
Ideally, the pasture species can be defoliated between 2 – 3 times in a year depending on the species, management, and environmental conditions.
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