Description:

• Timothy (Phleum pratense L.) is a relatively short-lived, cool-season perennial grass that grows in clumps 20 to 40 inches tall and has a shallow, compact, and fibrous root system.
  
• Leaves vary in length from a few inches to a foot and are about ¼ inch wide, narrowing gently toward the tip.
  
• Approximately 1,152,000 seeds per pound

Best Uses:

• Livestock: Timothy is used mainly for hay, but also for pasture and silage.
• It is palatable and nutritious. It makes an excellent companion grass for alfalfa, trefoil, or clover since it does not compete with legumes.
  
• Erosion control: Timothy can be used with legumes and/or other grasses in a mix for cover purposes, filter strips, waterways, and other critical area applications.
  
• Wildlife: Timothy is commonly found in wildlife mixtures for nesting, brood cover, and escape.
  
• Horse Hay: Although not the most productive grass, it is often preferred for horse hay.

Adaptation:

• Timothy is adapted to a cool and humid climate.
  
• Timothy thrives best on rich, moist bottomlands and on finer textured soils, such as clay loams. It will grow for a time on soils low in fertility, but it is better adapted to a high fertility soil.
  
• It does not do well on coarser soils.
  
• It prefers a pH of 5.5 to 7.0.
  
• It is very winterhardy and has high tolerance to cold temperatures and ice encasement.

Management considerations:

• Not well adapted to wet, flat land where water stands for any considerable time.
  
• Under limited moisture conditions, it makes a poor recovery and does not tolerate drought or prolonged high temperatures.
  
• Does not tolerate heavy traffic.

Planting Dates:

• Early to late spring, late summer.
  
• In southern MN: March 15 – May 15, August 1st - August 15th

Seeding Rate:

• 8-10 lbs/acre alone. 2-6 lbs/acre in a mix. Timothy is usually seeded in mixtures with legumes. This mixture may be drilled with a small grain drill.
  
• Seeding depth of timothy should be ½ inch.
  
• A firm, weed-free seedbed is a key to a successful planting.
  
• About 10 days to emergence.

Fertility requirements:

• Timothy is highly responsive to fertilizers, which should be applied frequently in ample quantities.
  
• Fertilizer, especially nitrogen, is important when legumes have almost disappeared from the hay or pasture mixture.

Pasture management

• Timothy stands become weak under close and continuous grazing. A fundamental reason for the decline of Timothy under poor grazing practices is injury to the bulblets. These bulblets form in the spring at the same time the stem elongates. Food materials are stored in them, and they may be destroyed by trampling of grazing animals.
  
• Timothy can be initially grazed before jointing and again between early head to full head. Second and successive grazing should also occur before jointing and when basal sprouts appear at the soil surface. After the second grazing, plants usually do not joint; therefore, sprouts are primary guides.
  
• Graze to a minimum height of 3 inches or more.
  
• Allow a three week recovery period if grazing intensively.

Management for Hay

• Timothy should be cut for hay or silage from early to full head.
  
• Make successive harvests for hay and silage when basal sprouts appear at the soil surface. Sterile seed-heads may be 15 to 20 inches up the stems when sprouts appear at the time of second cutting. Growing points stay below ground after a second cutting.
  
• Cut to a minimum height of 3 inches or more.
  
• Do not cut for hay two weeks prior to heading.

Timothy
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/agr/agr84/agr84.htm

Growing Timothy
http://www.farminfo.org/forage/timothy.htm