What does your pasture look like today??

Part of my other pasture...Topside

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TOPSIDE FARMS

Sigh...pasture envy.

evening All,
North West tn
One of a field I thought would be great and the one we are grazing now. Since starting this thread 3 inch more of rain
An added thanks to the Dean of rotational grazing Agmantoo
STeve
http://s1186.photobucket.com/albums/z369/Lowline44/

Taken this morning, December 22nd. This isn't exactly "pasture," but it is our hay field. Alfalfa and timothy mix. We're slowly transitioning to native grasses. Near Traverse City, Michigan.

Here's my pond. Cows are gone. Down to two horses and nine goats.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Alice, I sympothize with you. Of all the above posts and pics yours is the one that most closely resembles mine. I'm down to a skeleton crew of critters and have what appears to be the mojave desert scattered with cowpiles! Oh well, I'll drag them down come spring and pray for some rain. I'm planning on a period of mandatory rest for my pastures. I've had them grossly overgrazed for too long. This drought pushed them over the edge.

Praise the Lord! We've been getting regular rains lately. It's just that things are so dry the ponds haven't recovered and it's too late for my grasses to grow.

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Francismilker

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16

[QUOTE=genebo;5580189]SteveO,

Here's one closer to your home. This is Paradise Farm, in central Virginia. The grass is short, but they can still find a little to eat. I've been feeding hay since about the 1st of December.

The pastures were seeded with Red River crabgrass this spring. You can still see some of the crabgrass.



Can you share your opinions and experiences on that Red River crabgrass?

Seed rate, how long it lasted, what you do to bring it back year after year, and such...

Thanks

Um... No. We're just now getting some rain. It's rained on and off for a few days this week. Before that, it rained maybe once/twice every few weeks. We are normally slogging through mud towards the end of November and it goes on like that for the most part until the end of March.

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Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. ~Mother Teresa

Took these this morning 12-24-11 --- Merry Chirstmas

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"If you can't fix it you gotta stand it"

Here in coastal California, we haven't had rain really since the 8 inches in October...a bit strange for us temperate rain forest folks. However, we've had many days of unseasonably cold mornings. Every morning for the past few weeks,in the mid to high 20s warming up to mid 50s through the days. As much as we prolly need rain, I'm reveling in the relatively dry weather. And the cold is just fine with me...hoping it kills off some of our more endemic parasites, lol. The 8 acres our three calves are on are pretty grazed down due to the horses overgrazing before we got the lease on it. However, I've split it in half and we'll seed 1/2 and let rest and regrow...BUT this is traditionally redwood forest soil, i.e., CLAY. So we'll see what really grows.

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Joan Crandell
Wild Iris Farm
"Fair"- the other 4 letter F word." This epiphany came after almost 10 days straight at our county fair.

Great looking farm Ed. Merry Christmas.

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TOPSIDE FARMS

A little short, Topside, but not bad!

I do feel sorry for all you SW'ers dealing with the drought.

Gabriel, the locals use it as a driving range during winter....I'll ship you some sandstone if you ship me some clay...Merry Christmas

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TOPSIDE FARMS

Topside, can I get in on that trade? I'm so tired of our clay soil, especially this year with the warm weather and tons of rain.

Anyway, interesting thread. Some really nice looking pasture pics. Our pasture looks similar to Highland's on the previous page. I'm surprised we have any green at all, but with the warm temps the grass has been hanging in there.

We moved the animals to their winter pen right before Thanksgiving. We have enough grass that we probably could still be grazing, but we were leaving ruts everywhere hauling water. Our biggest issue now is managing all the mud in the winter pen.

Oh I envy all the green pastures. With the severe lack of rain and months of 100+ degree temps, the blue stem grass couldn't keep up and then it went dormant early and so now it looks like a dirt lot. The rains we got this past week filled up our pond and that's good, but may be too late for the pasture. It's depressing.

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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow