The field also required 7 to 8 tillage passes to kill the forage and prepare a decent seedbed. However, there are more options available today. The use of Roundup to kill the stand followed by direct seeding is a cheaper and more cost effective way to bring a forage stand back into annual cropping. Similar to direct seeding, there are a number of management steps that will allow the success of this transition. Firstly consider the type of forage present, smooth bromegrass and alfalfa are difficult to kill completely with one pass of glyphosate especially if reduced rates are used.
Timing is also critical to achieving good control.
One cannot expect to spray in the spring, seed the following week and grow a profitable annual crop. This will allow some of the sod to break down and the soil should store moisture for the next growing season. Understand that when the sod is breaking down, it ties up nitrogen that will not be available to crop. To remedy this increase fertilizer rates by 10 to 20 lbs of N per acre in the first cereal crop following the year of herbicide application. One should also choose a competitive cereal crop like wheat or barley for the first crop to further weaken any remaining forage plants.