
Winter seeding can improve pasture
Seeding certain species into pasture when frozen can give them a head start when the growing season comes.Carson Roberts, State Forage Specialist for University of Missouri Extension, says one of the advantages of frost seeding is when you broadcast seed onto frozen ground the freezing and thawing cycle makes the ground expand and contract and that movement actually moves the seed into the soil and gets very good seed to soil contact.Many people seed pastures in the fall but winter seeding may avoid some problems.Roberts says red clover, which is probably the most commonly winter seeded crop, can be seeded from August 15 to September 15, in April or winter seeded in February. The main goal is to have good seed to soil contact and to have enough moisture for the time to establish itself.“If you look back at last fall most areas didn’t receive any rain from August 10 until the last week of October,” Roberts said.