Making A Pasture

[mystang89]

If you want Coaster Bermuda grass I have plenty of that you are welcome to. Take as much of the blasted stuff as you want.
Pros, you can't kill it. It grows anywhere, you can't kill out. You can't eat it away so even sheep will have a tough time with the darn stuff. You can't kill it and if you think it does give it about 5 minutes to grow back.
Cons, only really grows during the hot months but for Texas that a larger part of the year than me.

PLEASE come take all mine

 

[Sheepshape]

Anything which comes out of the back end of a herbivore will do wonders for the soil......solid or liquid. Pee-soaked bedding from any housed animals is a wonder-food for grass and clover once it's been allowed to decompose a bit.

Here's a little bit of practical, but stinky, advice. Do you 'dag' your sheep? (Cut off the dry and not-so-dry faecal balls and fleece from around the rear) to prevent fly strike? If you do, collect these up and place them in buckets. Cover them with water in a ratio of 1/3 dags to 2/3 water. Keep the mixture for about 2 weeks, stirring every now and then if you can cope with the pong. At the end of the time stir well and pour onto ground to be sown or depleted pasture....adding more water if needed. Great fast-acting liquid fertiliser, best done when you have a cold!

 

[greybeard]

"If you want Coaster Bermuda grass I have plenty of that you are welcome to.

Are you referring to Coastal Bermuda?
If so, why are trying to get rid of it?
Do you have a year round forage in mind to replace it with?

 

[B&B Happy goats]

We used to make goat berry tea for our garden , many moons ago....worked fantastic

 

[Baymule]

@mystang89 I have one small pasture of Coastal Bermuda, we dug sprigs from the side of the road where it escaped from a large field across from us. What I have planted now is Giant Bermuda. It will get 2 feet or more tall. It is an aggressive Bermuda, it puts out runners, grows fast and makes a lot of graze. I planted seed the first week of June and it is already 6 inches tall in some places. It has thickened up and is looking good. Keep your Coastal, I got the GIANT stuff!

@Sheepshape I don't have wool sheep, they don't have dags. But I have made manure tea with fresh chicken poop that was some good stuff.

 

[Daxigait]

You mentioned going and getting fertilizer. Are there no places that you can get manure from a farm of some sort? What about a poultry house/broiler/turkey operation? A dairy farm? Someone with horses that are stalled? Around here there are people giving away manure piles just to get them moved. Especially people with horses. We do buy some commercial fertilizer, mostly nitrogen, for the hay fields. And we will supplement with needed nutrients after a soil test. But everything else is poultry litter, and a place that gives us horse manure that is mixed with shavings/straw. You can pile it to compost down, or just spread and the soil organisms will break it down. Anything organic that will break down. I use our feed bags inbetween rows in the garden because they do not have a plastic liner. Newspapers, cardboard, junk mail that is shredded for the chicken house mixed with their shavings. Sheep manure mixed with bedding. Leaves in the fall. Oak and others need to have lime added as they are more acidic. DO NOT USE WALNUT, they have a toxin that will kill plants. Just like you cannot get plants to grow within a certain radius of their tree trunks/root systems. Most commercial fertilizers are petroleum based... just throwing that out there. Compost everything from the house and add to a pile of leaves. Grass clippings. But realize too that I do not live in Texas and don't know the soil and the climate. Could be the sun and heat "burns up" the organic matter.

well if anybody's near Southwest Missouri I've got two piles from the last two years and this one started in February made up of llama poop goat poop hay and shavings. I really wish I had a manure spreader

 

[Daxigait]

so have any of you guys had any experience with comfrey? I just planted my first patch of it. I hope to have a bunch in the future.

it is supposed to be really high in protein and vitamins better even than Alfalfa. My friend uses it for her goats and it's supposed to be good for chickens and other animals too not to mention it grows back really fast.

 

[Daxigait]

@mystang89 I have one small pasture of Coastal Bermuda, we dug sprigs from the side of the road where it escaped from a large field across from us. What I have planted now is Giant Bermuda. It will get 2 feet or more tall. It is an aggressive Bermuda, it puts out runners, grows fast and makes a lot of graze. I planted seed the first week of June and it is already 6 inches tall in some places. It has thickened up and is looking good. Keep your Coastal, I got the GIANT stuff!

@Sheepshape I don't have wool sheep, they don't have dags. But I have made manure tea with fresh chicken poop that was some good stuff.

congratulations on your growing pasture. I have a few places they could use new grass all that's left are the weeds nobody wants.

 

[Bruce]

From what I just read, comfrey has toxins in it.

I really wish I had a manure spreader

You need some chickens! Of course they only spread it a short distance.

 

[Daxigait]

From what I just read, comfrey has toxins in it.


You need some chickens! Of course they only spread it a short distance.

Comfrey can have toxins in it but it seems to be very good for goats and chickens and has been used as a medicine for centuries. I guess it's like anything else there are pluses and minuses and different uses for plants. My friend cuts it and feeds it,that plus stuff comes back like weeds.