How to convert lush grassy yard space to pasture area

[Toni Alabakovski]

Hello. We recently bought a new house and 15 acres of land in October. About half is woodland and half the crazy guy mowed. I do not want to mow 8+ acres of lawn a week. I do however desperately want livestock. We get our 2 Jersey 4-H calves this week. We already have our baby chicks, followed by 4-H hogs and eventually pleasure horses. We plan to make a half dozen separate pastures with a run in on each. The grass seems to be a great shape, very green and lush. We moved in mid-October and have not yet had to mow, so I don't know much else. My question is, how do I make parts into pasture. We need to get one pasture going soon. Here is what I was thinking. Whether its a temp. pasture fence or the permanent we put up, feed hay on the ground for the girls to trample into the ground. Maybe put some pasture seed down as well for them to trample in. Only do this to the paddock/sacrifice area and maybe half of the first pasture nearest the barn. Then section off part of the pasture to till up and start from scratch? But I don't want to do that if it's not necessary. How do I know what kind of grass we have? Is it best to do it this way? Any ideas, tips would be great. Thanks.
Toni
Northeast Ohio (Magnolia)

 

[WildRoseBeef]

How old are the calves?

Don't till any of it up. Just put in some pasture seed, and set your calves to graze the lot as it is. I honestly don't think spreading the hay out is necessary unless you want to deliberately waste your hay so you won't have what you need during times of drought, snow days, etc. Save it for times when it's needed, and feed it in your sacrifice lot.

Permanent fence the perimeter, and temporary electric fence off different sections you want to graze. Rotate-graze the calves so that each section gets a rest. You can permanent fence off the sacrifice lot, but I wouldn't recommend seeding the sacrifice lot because this is the lot where you're going to see the most hoof traffic which will kill off the grass and render the seed unusable. Just seed the area you want as pasture, and pasture alone.

Use your chicks, when they're older, as a means to break up the cow patties and eat the bugs in the pasture, rotating them in behind your calves. Separate your hogs from your calves and chicks so they have their own area to root in. If you put them in the pasture with the calves you're going to end up in a wrecked pasture.

Mow when you need to, especially when the grass gets to the point where it starts to head out (where you see seed heads forming), and see if you can collect it for hay, if possible or necessary. Otherwise, let it grow.

To identify the grasses you might need a county extension agent to help with that, or a book on the common grasses that would be expected to grow in your area. Or, just take a picture of the grasses you're wondering about and put it on here to see if one of us can ID it. There's a good chance that the grass growing could be bluegrass, brome, or wheatgrass. Look at the tip of a blade of grass that hasn't been cut, then work your way down the blade to the point where it meets the stem, and fold the base of the blade back gently until you see where the collar meets the stem. You may see a ligule (thin whitish papery-part that sticks up against the base of the blade; not always present) and a pair of auricles (claws or hairs extending out from the sides of the collar; not always present). This link will give you a bit of a crash course on grass-plant morphology and structure: http://www.fsl.orst.edu/forages/projects/regrowth/print.cfm?PageID=11

I've had to ID grasses before, and it's not an easy task if you don't know what to look for. A pic of the blade, collar and possibly the whole plant (and the heads you find) may help point you in the right direction which plants are growing in your yard-convert-pasture.

 

[Toni Alabakovski]

Thank you for your input. The calves will be about 2 months old. One of them may be up to 6 months old. It just depends on what the dairy has available that he is willing to let go of and sell. They have a rating system and have to get their registrations done to see how many they have in the age range we want and what they are rated before we can go pick them out.

I kinda feel like tilling is not necessary, I kinda thought that the cows will eat any type of grass, and I just need to work on improving that is planted there. I was only going to put some seed down in the paddock area just to get something growing because it may be their only pasture for a few months into spring. Eventually we may not have any grass there at all and do something else so they (and possibly future horses) will always have a non muddy area to hang out when necessary.

I am hoping to fence in a small triangular area that is sorta up-hill and not real useful for anything to us. It's near the barn and the first pasture we will fence in and just use our used calf hutches or other type of small housing for them. So they would have a woody tall grass and a little shrubbish type area to live in.

And yes, I plan to let the chicks help us out like you mentioned, although we are planning on letting them free range and not rotate on the pastures.

I wish I could see the grass right now and not inches and inches of frozen snow lol

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Make sure you get calves that are around 3 months or older, they're going to be more "grassy" than those that are younger. Younger calves are going to be more on milk than grass or feed, but those that are at least three months are going to be weaned off the bottle and on full feed. The farmer probably told you that already, but it's something worth considering. Older calves tend to come with less health issues and a little less labour (i.e., no need to bottle-feed), except for possible vaccinations that you will need to give them.

Now I don't know the layout of your place, but what if you could make the sacrifice area nearest to the barn? Or is that small triangular area that you want to make into a sacrifice area? The paddock area would definitely have to work for temporary placement of your calves, but hopefully you can divide that up into smaller paddocks to make sure you don't beat down the area too much.

The idea I had with the chicks might be a good idea of you have a predator problem, or if you have neighbours with a predator problem (foxes, coyotes, stray dogs, etc.), and just protects them from potential of having to deal with any losses.

I hear you on the snow. It's no different up here.

 

[greybeard]

Hello. We recently bought a new house and 15 acres of land in October. About half is woodland and half the crazy guy mowed. I do not want to mow 8+ acres of lawn a week. I do however desperately want livestock. We get our 2 Jersey 4-H calves this week. We already have our baby chicks, followed by 4-H hogs and eventually pleasure horses. We plan to make a half dozen separate pastures with a run in on each. The grass seems to be a great shape, very green and lush. We moved in mid-October and have not yet had to mow, so I don't know much else. My question is, how do I make parts into pasture. We need to get one pasture going soon. Here is what I was thinking. Whether its a temp. pasture fence or the permanent we put up, feed hay on the ground for the girls to trample into the ground. Maybe put some pasture seed down as well for them to trample in. Only do this to the paddock/sacrifice area and maybe half of the first pasture nearest the barn. Then section off part of the pasture to till up and start from scratch? But I don't want to do that if it's not necessary. How do I know what kind of grass we have? Is it best to do it this way? Any ideas, tips would be great. Thanks.
Toni
Northeast Ohio (Magnolia)

A lot to digest and answer. Since you have a new (to you) place, I'll start at the beginning. You may already know all this, but I'll put it out here anyway.
One thing. You have 15 acres. I assume, that Ohio is like most states, and they have several options for property tax exemptions. (this reduces your annual local school/road, and property tax liability)
1. Homestead exemption--this is your house and recreational yard around it in acres or fraction of an acre. Varies state to state, but in my county in Texas, it can be as big as you want as long as you can prove that you actually use all of it as a yard. The % tax reduction also varies from state to state and even county to county. You have to apply for it thru your county or --it isn't automatic.
http://www.tax.ohio.gov/real_property/faqs/homestead_exemption_faqs.aspx

2. Property tax exemption thru agriculture use.
Most states also offer an exemption of your land and structures that are used for agriculture--qualifying endeavors include livestock grazing pastures, hay production, poultry production, handling facilities, livestock housing, and others. There are some parameters you usually have to meet--you will probably have to show you have some intent to actually produce some revenue or use from the land and there is usually a minimum amt of acreage you have to have. In Texas, the state says 10 acres, but the state also leaves it up to the counties to decide--they can and do reduce the min amt needed. My county says 20 acres, due to the fact that so much of the county is wooded and produces so little usable grazing forage. The amt of annual revenue required also varies, but it usually not much and you have several years to show you produced it--they don't expect anyone to automatically begin producing revenue the first year. A quick look shows Ohio requires $2500 GROSS revenue. "Gross means the selling price, not the amt of profit you made. At today's cattle prices, that could easily be satisfied by selling one cow/calf pair or maybe even a couple of good calves. (I'm not a hog person so I don't know how many hogs one would have to sell to satisfy that requirement.)
In Ohio, this program is called Current Agriculture Use Valuation (CAUV). Again, it is an exemption you have to apply for--in Ohio, it is done thru your County Auditor's office. (In my experience, it's always a lot easier for a new property owner to get this ag exemption if the land was previously "on ag" meaning the previous owner had applied for and gotten the exemption) A quick look, shows that Ohio requires a minimum of 10 acres to qualify for this property tax exemption--your own County tho, "may" vary that.
A little note:
When I went down to file for my homestead exemption, the Appraisal District told me something I didn't know. The amt of tax discount I would receive for my homestead exemption was less than what the ag land gets, meaning for every fraction of an acre I declared as homestead, I would be losing $$ in comparison to if that fraction acre was on ag. As it is, I fenced off and filed for one full acre homestead exemption, because one of my sons has expressed interest in building a home here as well and we could share the electricity lines and my water well.

Filing for an ag exemption thru CAUV also gets you out of some zoning requirements your county or township may have in place. Zoning commissions won't and generally cannot prevent you (for instance) from building a shelter for your livestock or a place to store hay, regardless of how "unsightly" it may look to the neighbors.
http://www.tax.ohio.gov/real_property/cauv.aspx

Ohio also offers some tax relief on 'stuff' you purchase for ag use--sales tax exemption. You may think this won't add up to much but believe me, when you start buying fencing material, gates, posts, feed, hay, and lumber for structures and feeders, it will keep $$ in your pocket every year. I have stretched miles of fence on 60-124 acres over the last few years, can count 25 gates from my back porch alone, and the sales tax exemption has saved me 100s of dollars.
To get this sales tax exemption in Ohio, Farmers need to obtain either form STEC U (Sales and Use Tax Unit Exemption Certificate) or STEC B (Sales and Use Tax Blanket Exemption Certificate) at http://tax.ohio.gov/forms/index.stm. You will of course need to keep records on every farm related thing you buy, which we all should be anyway, in case you are ever audited by the state.
More information here:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/oam-fact/pdf/Ohio_Agricultural_Sales_Tax_Exemption_Rules_OAM-2-12.pdf
As you can see, your 'go to' source in Ohio is going to be Ohio State University, as well as your county extension agent.
Cost share programs.
Many states, counties,co-ops and agencies have ag related cost share programs. These can vary in purpose. Cost share generally means, for every $ you spend on a project, the agency will pay a portion or all of the costs. For instance, I recently read where Florida will pay 75% of the cost of a no-till grain/seed drill. A good no-till drill can cost as much as $20,000 so that is a huge savings. Other applications I have heard of or taken part in include brush control, water impoundment (building a pond) , water quality control (rainfall surface runoff from your land), erosion control, invasive weed control, and even ferilize and soil improvements. You'll have to look for those yourself.

There are also federal programs that will help in the cost of building things like hay storage buildings, tho the requirements for that assistance can be daunting--you cannot use the building for anything at all other than hay storage and they require a cement slab poured "X" inches thick. Things you can look into...

I will try to address your direct fencing and forage questions in another post, but it would help if you can draw out ( A MS Paint drawing will work) a 'plat' of your property, including location of water availability, home site location, the wooded portion, and any other locations that might have a bearing of where and how to partition off your ag related property. I will add, that my own personal experience has been that the more individual paddocks or pastures you can fence off, the better it will be, especially with more than one livestock type and more than one forage type.

 

[Toni Alabakovski]

Im thinking the sacrifice area to be nearest the barn and first to be completed. will have grass for now, eventually once the grass is gone and ruined it will be changed into a different type of bering grounding substance. Sand. Tiny gravel. etc. I was trying to upload a snapshot from the county website but I can't upload a picture on here. Anyway, the hog pasture will be away from the barn and cattle pasture, but not far. Its the corner of our property, kinda useless how it's situated, kinda up hill. Probably perfect for some pigs. Although they may have to be inside in a stall until that pasture fence can be done.

I agree with the chicks, I did pick the largest breeds possible and largest rooster, but we will be prepared to have to fence them in the pasture too and will keep that in mind when creating the coop. Our neighbor is my sister and her family. They have free range chickens but they have more going on and more "cover" where as our area is much more open. They do have a dog, that is learning about their chickens lol I was planning on doing some of those chicken teepee things to give them cover out in the pasture.

Thank you again for your reply!

 

[Toni Alabakovski]

Thank you graybeard!
Our property us already under CAUV status for commercial timber production. Boy is that a lot to learn, and boy was it tricky figuring out how the last guy made it work. We also have HUNDREDS of pine trees of all sizes. Little tiny ones where we need our first large pasture, and medium and large sized trees where the future pastures will be. We have about 8.5 acres of woodland (cauv timber) and about 1.5 acres of christmas trees (cauv tillable) which is how he got to his minimum of 10 acres for cauv.

We are in the process of trying to name the farm and thinking about making it an LLC and all of that. I have not purchased anything tax exempt yet because I need to learn more. And since my livestock stuff wasn't anything to do with the timber.

I am glad I am a stay at home mom to 2 kids who are at school all day because there is SO much to learn here lol I have looked into grants and such for fencing or buildings and such and not having much luck. Hoping to do a timber harvest to get the cash to do the first pasture properly. My husband and I will do our paddock (hopefully properly and well done) we will then hire someone to do the large pasture and the over hang off the barn.

still trying to get a picture on here. I will put it on flickr and post the link

 

[Toni Alabakovski]

Here is a link to some drawings I did and snapshots from the county website of our property.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28827808@N08/sets/72157650214784030/

If you really want to see more pics, here is an album we created when we did a walk through of the house, knowing it would be a month or two until we took possession and not wanting to forget what things looked like so we could plan for things. But there are A LOT of pics here, but you can see the christmas trees we have to deal with and real pics of the area.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28827808@N08/sets/72157647548485626/

 

[Bossroo]

If you were to use your property for profit instead of a hobby and want to save $$$ on your Federal and State income taxes. You will have to also file a "Schedule F" for farming operations. First hire a CPA that specializes in agriculture ( many tax preparors use the garbage in and garbage out method and YOU are then stuck with an audit, back taxes, interest, and penalties) , file for a farm name, and open a SEPERATE bank account, seek and follow advise from professionals in their field for your area of interest, also enroll in classes that are specific to your farming needs and wants. Above all KEEP GOOD RECORDS AND ALL RECEIPTS FOR A PAPER TRAIL ! The IRS doesn't accept the computer print outs without paper trail at audits. To qualify as a farm... in the eyes of the IRS you will have to show a profit in 3 out of 5 years ( it not, you could be audited and may have to pay back taxes plus interest). The most wise way to make a profit is to specialize in one species of animal as you will have more time and money invested in one rather than helter skelter throwing money over several species of livestock, feed, medication, housing, fencing, pasture, etc. . If you want to have cattle as your source for profit, by all means put you efforts in cattle and don't add additional animals such as pigs and pleasure horses into the mix as your chances of making a profit will disappear rather fast.

 

[greybeard]

Is your property the parcel noted as 4801519?
Flickr doesn't appear to easily allow direct linking from their server, so I will temporarily host it on photobucket and you can snag it from here and people can get a better see what you have to work with--with your permission. Let me know if you wish me to remove them.

This look familiar?

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.6867471,-81.3194405,700m/data=!3m1!1e3