Bill Chepel

Hi Again,

Here are the seed heads a little older.  What do you think? I think James Is right regarding the brome and orchard grass

Sorry for the delay. Here are some close-ups of what is growing. Thank you!

I have a couple of hay fields and I'm not entirely sure what grasses are in them. I've attached some images. Is the primary grass orchard grass? Also, what is that large looking clover. It's huge. I'm in eastern PA. Thank you!

What do you think this is? Looks like ironweed to me but the leaves don't look quite right. Thanks!

I'm not sure this is the best place to post this:

I picked up a small Honda 2" water pump (WB20X) for occasional irrigating. I also connect it to an ibc tote: inlet is 2" solid pipe, outlet is 1.5" fire hose using a 2" to 1.5" adapter. My question is would it be okay to connect a 3/4" garden hose to the outlet of the water pump using a 2" to 3/4" adapter? I'm concerned that reducing the outlet that much could damage the pump. A garden hose would be a lot easier to move around and control in a small space.

Bill Chepel wrote:Thank you for all the great replies. I did mix them into my mulch pile.

The problem I have with the milkweed is how it will be perceived by the local rancher who wants the hay from that field. I call it a pasture but there are no livestock on it. It has been a hayfield for years and farmed conventionally with synthetic fertilizer and broadleaf herbicides like dicamba and 2,4,D (we bought the place 6 months ago) to create a mulch hay for mushroom farms. There was never any thought given to regenerative agriculture and it shows in the soil tests (low organic matter). I've started the conversion to organic and quite honestly not sure how to create good organic hay. In late spring I did a light vertical till and overseeded using a no-till seed drill with organic seed (5 hay/pasture grasses, medium red clover, alsike clover and yellow mustard). I've stayed off it since but the weeds are popping up which was to be expected. Organic hay is going to be tough. My long term goal is good forage for livestock. Thanks again

edited reply - see below

I picked a pickup truck full of these out of the pasture today

Assuming it is a weed... I have these cropping up in stands around my pasture (see attached). I thought they were milkweed but I'm not sure. Does anyone recognize this plant?

Thanks Guys, compaction is an issue in these fields so I'm going to try that first. Any recommendations on a good subsoiler - one that goes fairly deep?