Making A Pasture

[Baymule]

Last spring we raised Cornish Cross meat chickens on the side pasture in a chicken tractor. I moved it every other day, bedding with hay. I tried to keep them in the shade, so didn’t go very far before swinging it around and coming back. I planted rye grass in the fall. The blades of grass are 14”-16” long where the chicken tractor was.

Beyond the three trees, grass is short and not the deep lush green of the chicken fertilized grass.

This is the side pasture we reclaimed from saplings and green briars last year and planted in giant Bermuda grass. I babied that grass all summer, watering it through the drought. Looking at the difference of chicken poop or no chicken poop, galvanized me into action. I cleared out a chicken coop and spread it on the short rye grass.

It’s not for the rye grass you can see, it’s for the dormant Bermuda grass you can’t see. I can’t wait for it to sprout in another month or so.

 

[Beekissed]

Bay, your hard work and pasture improvement plan is definitely paying off. I can only dream of the day I have grass like that on my pasture!!! So lush and deep green!!!

Looks like spring there....makes me want to lay down in that grass and take a deep breath of spring air!!!

Will you do CX again this year? They are a win/win situation.

 

[Baymule]

Yes we go pick up 50 chicks Monday. There is a pasture raised chicken farm about an hour and half away. They sell chicken meat. They will also sell baby chicks if you make an order, pick up at the farm is $1. That chicken poop sure makes good grass!

 

[thistlebloom]

Your pasture grass is looking really good Bay!

 

[Baymule]

This grass is rye grass, a winter/early spring grass. It burns up fast when it gets hot. The challenge for me is to have grass that can stand the hot weather in our poor soil. I planted and kept alive Bermuda grass last year, I'm waiting impatiently to see how it fared over the winter and how it comes back out this spring.

 

[thistlebloom]

Do you have to replant the rye every year, or does it go dormant when it gets hot?

 

[Baymule]

Do you have to replant the rye every year, or does it go dormant when it gets hot?

Replant every year. As I develop pastures I will plant a wide variety of grasses and forbs. Some will adapt and grow, some won’t.

 

[farmerjan]

For some reason men getting advice from other men seems to make more sense to them, even if it's the same thing their wives have been telling them.

There's no "some reason" to it. They just don't want to listen to a "relative female" wife, sister, mother, niece, telling them something.... They will listen to a man over a woman nearly every single time....... it's programmed into them.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

This is about a one acre pasture in the front with road frontage. It does a fine job of growing my nemesis, green briars. We are cleaning it up to prepare for planting pasture.
Before pictures.



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How was It now? I bet it getting better and better. I really envy the Idea of having it that large, I hope I can get a property that big.

 

[Baymule]

This is pasture #2, featured on page 1 of this thread. I turned the girls and lambs out on it yesterday for a short time. It is rye, Kentucky 32 fescue, hairy vetch and a mix of clovers. None of these will survive the heat. Still dormant, under the lush growth, is Bermuda, crab grass and a variety of forbs.

The other, summer grasses should be sprouting out in the next couple of weeks. Need to let them eat this down, then probably mow what’s left to encourage the summer grasses to reach for the sun.