Having a healthy, beautiful, strong pasture land for your cows, sheep, goats or horses is essential. You may need to rotate your animals and/or reseed certain areas in order to have enough grass for your grazing animals. If this is the first time you have ever had to plant grass seed to create pasture land, here are some tips that will help you plant grass seed to the right depth that will yield good pastures for your animals.

Planting Depths by Seed Type

Many types of grass seed, including St. Augustine grass seed, rarely needs to be planted more than a quarter to a half-inch deep in the soil. This helps the seed take root without being bogged down in the soil, and prevents the seed from being washed out by storms. If you want to plant the seed a little deeper to avoid problems with birds and rodents consuming the seed, you will need to invest in special grass seed types that need more soil and not less. Additionally, if you have some pasture land that is frequently and overly wet, you may want to plant other specialty grasses, like pampas grass, which thrives in marsh-like areas and provides a lot of green fodder for your animals.

Growing Your Own Sod Instead 

If you would rather avoid all of the potential headaches that come with planting seed right out in the open field, you can grow your own sod instead. To do so, you will need to take your selected grass seed and plant it in trays of soil/mud, which you can keep on tables in a greenhouse on your ranch or farm. Use flatbed seed trays and rich soil that is PH-balanced for your seed type. Make sure each tray has only about an inch worth of soil throughout, so you do not accidentally plant the seed too deeply in these trays. Check the depth instructions on your grass seed bags, as well as the ground cover density with which you are supposed to plant the seed.

As soon as the grass has reached a couple inches in height, you can transfer the sod from the flatbed seed trays to your pastures. Since the rodents and birds will no longer be interested because there are no seeds to consume, the grass in the sod will take root in the earth below and continue to grow stronger and taller.    

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