Over-seeding Old Pastures

Mar 12, 2019

By Dirk Philipp

Perennial pastures usually take a lot of money and hard work to establish, but years of use can lead to various problems including overgrazing and weed infestations. But there are ways to freshen up your “out of shape” pastures.

Tall fescue

Tall fescue is a cool seasonal perennial, so it stays green most of the year in Arkansas, aside from the month of February and hot, dry summers. Full renovation of these pastures takes time and money, so if it’s an old KY31 fescue stand, converting it to novel endophyte is a good, albeit expensive, option. Switching between these varieties will take at least a year, given the required field preparation.

In novel endophyte stands, broadleaf weeds, annual ryegrass and other undesirables can encroach after several years of use. Pastures can be over-seeded with NE+ seeds in October. In this case, canopies should be very short (2-4 inches) in order to plant through the thatch with a no-till drill. The seeding rate should be close to the original rate — 15 pounds per acre or so.

Normally, over-seeding rates into existing forage stands are less than for the initial establishment of a stand, but often, gaps in pasture are large enough to warrant the normal seeding rates. A no-till drill in a must as it will cut through the existing grass sward (the surface layer of grass and roots) and place the seeds into the soil.

Orchard grass

Orchard grass is an0ther perennial cool season grass, similar to tall fescue in growth habit, but much less persistent in Arkansas. Because it is non-toxic, stands that lose vigor can be over-seeded in fall, at a rate of about 15 pounds per acre.

Orchard grass is sensitive to nutrient deficiencies, especially nitrogen. Therefore, it is important to keep soil fertility in check at all times. Avoid extra nitrogen fertilizer at during over-seeding, but apply fertilizer in early spring for vigorous growth.

Bermudagrass

Since bermudagrass lies dormant between October and March, those pastures can be over-seeded with annual forages, such as winter cereals or legumes.

Most bermudagrass is established from sprigging, a method of seeding that involves planting stems cut from a mature bermudagrass stand. However, this cannot be done easily into existing stands, so the focus should be on weed avoidance and out-competing winter weeds with annual forages.

Dense, existing bermudagrass stands are very competitive, but areas that weeds carve out over time are the areas where over-seeding with animal forages works best. As in other cases, make sure the canopy is very short before planting.

Source:uaex.edu

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.