Making A Pasture

[Mini Horses]

Great job!! The fescues are cooler weather but hard to kill out once established. With your winters it should be producing a good portion of the year. With the trees, all of it could do better than you think with the shade helping out.

Lot of work to get to this stage! Good job.

My weather is trying to be warmer but, those darned every other day temps are not fun. I walked out into a field yesterday and saw really good growth of the vetch and dandelions. Yeah, the goats love them. Plus several areas of new grasses that are growing well from a load of hay I fed. It was cut a little late but I bought it gladly because of all the orchard grass seed heads!! YEAH -- free seeds. Everywhere I threw the pads of hay are now patches of new grass. Makes me feel better about the portion the goats "wasted" by laying on it, peeing and pooping on it, leaving a nice cover of mulch & fertilizer for the seeds. So I buy some each year if I can find it and take it to areas that need some starter patches. I've got some great areas of Bermuda from same situation.

Hey, Bermuda loves heat! Also grows in sand. You want the hay type variety for a better, taller, takes the abuse, field of grass. It can get so thick it will bog the mower down. So far, the animals have been able to mow thru it

 

[Baymule]

Great job!! The fescues are cooler weather but hard to kill out once established. With your winters it should be producing a good portion of the year. With the trees, all of it could do better than you think with the shade helping out.

Lot of work to get to this stage! Good job.

My weather is trying to be warmer but, those darned every other day temps are not fun. I walked out into a field yesterday and saw really good growth of the vetch and dandelions. Yeah, the goats love them. Plus several areas of new grasses that are growing well from a load of hay I fed. It was cut a little late but I bought it gladly because of all the orchard grass seed heads!! YEAH -- free seeds. Everywhere I threw the pads of hay are now patches of new grass. Makes me feel better about the portion the goats "wasted" by laying on it, peeing and pooping on it, leaving a nice cover of mulch & fertilizer for the seeds. So I buy some each year if I can find it and take it to areas that need some starter patches. I've got some great areas of Bermuda from same situation.

Hey, Bermuda loves heat! Also grows in sand. You want the hay type variety for a better, taller, takes the abuse, field of grass. It can get so thick it will bog the mower down. So far, the animals have been able to mow thru it

There is a lovely field of Bermuda across the road. it grows under the fence and we dig it up! A neighbor with thick Bermuda and no livestock has offered us all the sprigs we want. YAY!

The local seed salesman assured me that the fescue would die in out heat. But our son has a friend with several thousand acres and his fescue lives year around, in the shade of the trees.

I have some vetch growing, it came in with the clover seed. Talk to me about the orchard grass. Would it live in Texas?

 

[Mini Horses]

Orchard -- really iffy with the heat extreme you have. Plus it takes it's time getting really established. Prefers cooler. Truly the Bermuda is most loving of the heat in comparison. Mine is dormant in winter but it does grow on runners and forms a pretty heavy matt of root -- as you have probably seen in digging it! It spreads!! The roots go pretty deep, also, which makes it a good erosion control option & helps with the lower water amounts it needs. After a few years it will also overtake most all else. Can be good & bad. But mine takes some heavy traffic -- rebounds well.

Nutritionally, I like a mix out there. And the vetch, comes up in cold, grows like a house on fire, tall & almost a vine, then dies. BUT if it has bloomed & those not eaten, black pods form (kinda bean looking) which are full of hundreds of tiny seeds. It will overwinter & come back. Short lived crop. Also, nitrogen fixing plant. The nutrition can be almost as good as some alfalfa. Here I get a couple months by rotating pastures. Nice hit for the ewes/does with new kids to support.

People with only lawns to mow just have no idea how complicated a "pasture" can be.

 

[Baymule]

I’ve thought about making cow panel mini pastures for a variety of weeds, herbs and grasses that can’t take the abuse like Bermuda and Bahia can. Open them up for a couple hours, then shoo the sheep out and let the patch recover. I’ve got tons of lambs quarters and wild sunflowers— all in my garden! LOL Also have a yummy weed called poor joe that they love.

 

[greybeard]

Also have a yummy weed called poor joe that they love.

I had loads of that is some 'always damp' areas. I had to kill it off..cows won't touch it and it was invasive as heck. It spread more every year.

 

[Baymule]

I had loads of that is some 'always damp' areas. I had to kill it off..cows won't touch it and it was invasive as heck. It spread more every year.

I'd tell you that you need some sheep to eat the weeds, but I already know your answer. LOL LOL

 

[Baymule]

Today we let the Sheep on pasture #2 for a couple of hours. They ran, grabbing bites here and there. They bounced like antelope, then finally settled down and grazed.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It looks great - ya'll did good! I'd say you succeeded at making a pasture.

 

[Mike CHS]

Especially considering the soil that you have to work with. Great job!!!

 

[Baymule]

Thanks y'all. I just hope the summer grass we sprigged grows and takes off. We sure are proud of this pasture!