Mr. Inbody,
I would appreciate it if you could spare a minute to answer a few questions. We have 10 acres in Liberty County, Texas. We have had the soil tested by TAMU and fertilized according to our test results. We want to plant Jiggs Bermuda. Can you tell me if we plant in April-May - with average rainfall and normal circumstances - when should the first crop be ready for harvest, how many cuts per year should we be able to acquire, how many square bales per acre should we be able to obtain?
Thanks for your assistance.

Randy: David Inbody asked that I respond to your question regarding Jiggs bermudagrass. I will preface my discussion with our most common answer "it depends". How many bushels of tops per acre will be planted. What type of seedbed preparation will you provide? How do you plan to fertilize it after it is planted? And finally, the biggest issue is the level of precipitation received. Assuming average (?) rainfall and good fertility practices, I would submit that you could harvest hay in mid to late August or by early September for sure and if all goes well, probably could get two harvests the first year. I would not recommend harvesting twice, however, and would allow the stand to accumulate forage, store a high level of carbohydrates in the root system prior to the onset of dormancy, and the plant should be ready to come out of the winter in great shape. What to do with all of that accumulated forage prior to spring? Graze it after frost. If you have fertilized well, you should stockpile a good deal of forage that is more than adequate for dry, pregnant cows to graze during fall and into the winter. This practice will reduce/eliminate much of your hay feeding and save you quite a bit of money per cow each winter. Well, enough of the winter feeding stuff, that wasn't what you asked about. Back to your question: You could get more than one hay harvest, but I would advise only one sometime in September. Contact me directly if you have other questions about this. Thanks for the inquiry.

Mr Inbody,
I have 100 acres of jiggs planted in Calhoun County. I just had it planted back in Dec. It's starting to take off like crazy but I'm having trouble with weeds right now and its too late to spray 2,4D because of the cotton. Most of the weeds are dandelion and some large weed that looks similar to cotton. What chemical would you recommend spraying? Thanks

Hello William B.

We had also contracted with a planter to put jiggs in last year, however, we had a total crop failure for reasons that the planter could not explain. I would be very interested in learning who you had used, and how he did the planting, in order to get some insights into the proper procedures that should be used for planting jiggs.

Any help that you can provide would be much appreciated.

Ray

Ray,
I used a man by the name of Gary Beyers from Francitis, Texas. I met with him back in December and he is by far one of the most respectful individuals you will ever come across. Shoot me an email and I will give you his number. williambillings@yahoo.com. Thanks

My brother and I had about 20 acers of Jiggs put in this past May. Prior to sprigging we disk and drug the pasture and rolled it after the spriggs were put in.

The problem is we got a very poor responce after sprigging and we feel this was due to the spriggs being to young/small/light.

We are thinking about resprigging but are unsure. Any advice would be helpful.

Ronnie Moore
Huntsville, Ttexas