Low Input Overseeding: Page 7 of 8

by R.L. Dalrymple

Overseeding Cool-Season Forages into Cool-Season Perennials
The same techniques used to overseed cool-season forages into warm-season grass residues can be used to overseed some cool-season forages into others.

White clover, red clover, and other legumes can be added to fescue, orchardgrass, and other cool-season perennial sods. If cool-season perennial sods are naturally thin (6 to 12 inches between clumps) or are mechanically thinned to about a 30 to 50 percent stand, cool-season annuals such as legumes, cereal rye, and annual ryegrass can be incorporated into the stand via low-input procedures.

Overseeding Warm-Season Forage into Warm-Season Forage or Cool-Season Residues
I have written mostly about overseeding winter forages in warm-season grass residues. Warm-season forages also can be overseeded into other warm-season forages for increased diversity, quality, green-season length, and production. Some successes include 'Marion' lespedeza, crabgrass, and johnsongrass. Cool- and warm-season forages can be added to an alfalfa stand. In all cases, there must be an ecological space for any of these additions to be successful. The ranges of possible mixtures are too numerous to outline.

We frequently have applied these low-input techniques to planting cool-season annuals in residues of crabgrass (figure 7). Another successful example is broadcasting sudangrass or crabgrass into residue of grazed-out cool-season annual winter pasture (figure 12).

Figure 12. A stand of broadcast-planted and trodden-in seed for crabgrass (left) or sudangrass (below) summer pasture in grazed out cool-season annual winter pasture double crop (click photos to enlarge) sudangrass photograph courtesy of Harold Shappell

The Importance of Properly Integrated Practices
All of the parts of low-input overseeding must be in place to assure the planting's success, including preparation of the residue before planting. Proper fertilization practices are also essential. In a recent grass farmers' meeting, a survey indicated that only 3 percent of the producers used some form of starter fertilizer (broadcast or banded) when overseeding plantings. The other 97 percent were assured of partial or complete failure because an essential part was missing. To coin a phrase, "All the marbles must be lined up correctly to win the game."

Low-input overseeding can work well if all the procedures are in order. This addition to a summer forage pasture can add about 3,000 pounds per acre to forage yield, which means more product yield on the same acreage with essentially the same overhead costs. All aspects must be correct, including the choice of the livestock enterprise to graze the pasture.