The weekend of March 7 & 8 was a warm, windy and sunshine filled day in North Missouri; and the perfect day for us to finish seeding down our farm into perennial grasses and legumes. This project began all the way back in October 2015 when we purchased the farm. At that time, basically all of it had been in corn and soybean production for a number of years, despite the fact that it is a fairly hilly farm. The spring of 2016 we planted all the crop ground into cover crops for grazing. The following year we began the task of seeding down the farm; one part at a time.
Again in 2017, we planted cover crops for grazing on the land that had not been seeded down. Then in 2018 and 2019 we just grazed the grass and legumes that had come voluntarily. Once the chemical carry-over had diminished it was astonishing the amount of forage that began to grow. It has been amazing to see the amount of forage that has grown just from the existing seed bank, aided by the cattle and sheep foot traffic as they have been rotationally grazed.
As part of our EQIP contract we needed to finish seeding our pastures, despite the volunteer forages that had grown. We were, however, allowed to mow and closely graze that existing forage and no-till drill our seed. This final seeding was a mix of Smooth Brome, Orchard grass, Timothy, Birdsfoot Trefoil, and Ladino clover.
Timothy, Trefoil and Clover Seeds 
Smooth Brome Seed 
Orchard Grass Seed 
Drill and tractor ready for action
Now comes the truly hard part…waiting. Actually, it is with much hope and excitement that we wait for those many, tiny seeds to germinate and grow into a beautiful pasture.
Blessings,
Jennifer