How to start a pasture in yard

[Tonikaya]

We recently bought a new house with 15 acres. We are getting our first calves and chicks next week. The calves are jersey heifers and will be used for 4-h and for a family milk cow. About half of our property will have to be mowed if we don't pasture it. So it's a high priority for us to turn a lot of it into pasture for right now, I'm looking at about 2 acres near the barn in the backyard to start with. It is a slight hill but not too steep. Looks like all grass to me. Now what do I need to do with it? I was going to over seed before the next big snow with a pasture seed mix. But not sure if I am going about it all wrong. Also what are your ideas for fencing? I Was hoping for a multi use fence/pasture so the fence doesn't have to be redone for calves or sheep, etc in the future. Possibly horses too but they will most likely go in the front yard pasture when we do that. Any input advice comments etc would be great. We are in Northeast Ohio. Thanks

[OH Boy]

Do you plan to put up some hay to feed in the winter, or are you thinking you will just make it all pasture and then buy hay when you need it?

[Tonikaya]

I don't want to use any of the land to make hay. My sister lives next door and they harvest round bales.(I'm not sure if I even said that right, this is all new to me LOTS of them. With plenty to sell or trade. So access to hay is not a problem if/when we need it.

[treefrog]

hairy vetch or one of the other self-reseeding legumes is a good thing to plant where you want a pasture. hairy vetch works well here (north florida) but something else might be better for your area. good protein content for your livestock, adds nitrogen to your soil, little or no maintenance. a mixture of pasture plants is best.

[Tonikaya]

Still trying to figure out what to do with all the trees lol but I'm more worried about getting seed down right now. But this is the area and the barn.

[M5farm]

Those trees are planted and too young for livestock to be in there

[Tonikaya]

They will be removed before livestock is put in there. Trying to figure out how to sell them.

[jwal10]

Me, I would fence the perimeter and cross fence the pasture you are using, temporary hot wire works for calves. You may even rent some pasture. May want to fence livestock out of the trees and use other parts of the property. The perimeter fence will hold even if they get out of temp fences. Yes you can spread seed, even snow seed legumes. IF it grows up, I would mow all you can to improve the pasture you have....James

[rambler]

Well, that's a little different than 'all grass' like I thought you said.....

What will it look like if you get the trees removed, don't think I would seed anything until the trees are gone. Will be a lot of digging and heavy traffic until they get gone.

When planning a pasture setup, look at the big picture. You said maybe 15 acres.

I would make a livestock yard, small, by the barn. Water and feeders there, good good fence. A place to gather the critters, sort them, bad weather times, if the pasture fence breaks down you can lock thrm in here....

Then I would like to make paddocks, maybe 4, which are each a pasture of their own connected to that main yard area.

You can make a big pasture and then divide it up into paddocks with cross fencing, often the outer fence is tougher, the cross fencing is simpler cheaper construction. The cross fencing can be put in later, but plan for how to set it up right away.

Or, you can do a paddock at a time, 2 avcres now, and another few acres beside it next time you build fence, etc.

But plan for the access, the flow of critters, so they can be put in any of the paddocks while the others are closed off. So the water and mineral block is located where they can get to it.

The goal of the paddocks is rotational grazing, let the critters into one pasture while the other 3 are rejuvenating and growing back up. It yields a lot more pasture on the same acres.

Paul

[idigbeets]

You need to find out what grasses and legumes if any you have in that field. A snowy picture isn't going to help anyone here online diagnose whether or not you have a good pasture available.

You could try using a seed drill and planting direct into the sod, that may or may not give you a good stand,e specially for things like alfalfa, clovers etc. If you go the route of tillage, then you're looking at about a year before the pasture is established enough to handle livestock reliably.

If your family makes round bales... then maybe you should ask them to come over and look at your grasses and educate you about what makes a good hay field and pasture instead of coming online ?

Also, you have livestock coming without anything prepped for them yet? putting the cart before the horse isn't it?

[Tonikaya]

Originally Posted by idigbeets

You need to find out what grasses and legumes if any you have in that field. A snowy picture isn't going to help anyone here online diagnose whether or not you have a good pasture available.

You could try using a seed drill and planting direct into the sod, that may or may not give you a good stand,e specially for things like alfalfa, clovers etc. If you go the route of tillage, then you're looking at about a year before the pasture is established enough to handle livestock reliably.

If your family makes round bales... then maybe you should ask them to come over and look at your grasses and educate you about what makes a good hay field and pasture instead of coming online ?

Also, you have livestock coming without anything prepped for them yet? putting the cart before the horse isn't it?

Wow, I guess I kinda thought this was where I could get help, not be put down for my choices...my bad!

The picture was just showing the area I am using, I wasn't trying to ask what type of grass it is. My brother-in-law makes round bales, only because the people who used to own their hay land used to do it. He is learning, but is very new to it, he would have no clue. He doesn't do it for a living or I would have asked him. As for getting the cattle before having a pasture, yup, thats what we are doing. My daughter is in 4-H and it is her first year, she is 8 and is in 3rd grade. Our timing isn't perfect, but there is no other way around it. As for many things in life, you have to start out young if you want to be really competitive at something, including 4-H. We have date ranges for when the calves need to be born and want to get them when they are young and manageable still. The large jersey dairy farm we are buying from NEVER takes the cows outside, so I don't see why it matters if our pasture is ready or not. We have the calf hutches and fences set up in the open barn and will build free stalls for them in the near future. On Sept. 1st, we were planning on staying at our current house for another 5 years or so, which was 1 acre, have grass/home and half cleared wooded area. On Sept. 2nd, the house beside my sister and her family went up for sale and we bought it instantly. The kids were in 4-H Cloverbuds in the other county we lived in but did not and would not have livestock. Things changed quick and so we have a little bit of catching up to do to get our daughter going in 4-H. And, sorry to upset some of you by my questions.

[sammyd]

If you are buying calves then the pastures don't need to be ready right away the first year anyway.
I would get the trees out as soon as possible and till the soil in preparation for planting down to a mix of grasses and legumes. With luck your stuff would be ready for a quick graze through later in the summer when the calves would be more able to use the grasses fully.

Orchard grass is popular around here for pastures and a low growing white clover and a taller red type would fit in nicely.

You can get mixes in 50 pound bags at some farm stores and perhaps talking to folks at the stores would uncover some more detailed information tailored for your area.

[sammyd]

Also, you have livestock coming without anything prepped for them yet? putting the cart before the horse isn't it?

if calves are being bought and hay is available for later then having pasture ready isn't really a big deal.

[Tonikaya]

Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of a "livestock yard." I had been thinking about doing something like that but didn't think of doing that first while working on the pasture. And I really like the idea of it being a better, permanent sturdy fence too.

If I take a picture of the grass, can some of you actually tell what it is? I was overly ocd about our last yard, but about weeds and lushness, etc. but never even knew what kind we had. Now I need to learn a new way to ocd about my grass and have pasture ocd instead. It will take time, but I know I will do it, I love a nice green yard, so I will love having nice green pastures as well.

We are wanting to sell the saplings, it does make sense not to put seed down any time soon, because it's going to get trampled taking out the trees, but it sounds like we may need to till up the grass that is there before seeding. I don't care what we have to do, we are just hoping to do it right the first time. We have lots of trees to sell in the back and front yard, we are just trying to figure out how to do that. Hoping that the tree sales will help with the pasture set up and fencing, but obviously we will have to put some money into it up front until we get the trees sold.

Are there people who specialize in pasture care/set up?

[Tonikaya]

Here are snapshots of the property. We have a lot to work with. ALL of the green grass is currently hill area and not real useable for much else. So eventually it will all be some sort of pasture. We are NOT mowing 8 acres of pretty grass nor will we mow AROUND a couple hundred "christmas trees" lol I think the picture doesn't show all the new trees the guy must have planted recently in the back yard. I guess all he did was mow, almost every day. We don't want to do that.

[COWS]

Trees look like they were set out for Christmas trees. If so, do you plan to grow them up and try to sell them? If so, grazing around them doesn't sound good, but I have no experience with Christmas trees. Otherwise, getting rid of the trees is no problem at that age, just rotary mow them. For that small area you could cut them by hand. Digging up the trees and selling them sounds fine if you have a market. What kind of trees are they?

Perimeter fence with electric fence for cross fencing sounds good, as someone else mentioned. Nice looking property BTW.

COWS

[jwal10]

Someone spent money for the trees and planting them, ever thought about growing them and doing U-cut sales? May work to your advantage in the future for the kids and on farm sales. Pumpkin patch etc. With 15 acres, use the hillier land for pasture. I would still plan on perimeter fence after making a small secure run out area right around the barn....James

[TerriLynn]

Something else to think about is that if funds are an issue....invest in good fencing first. You can turn a cow out on pasture and they will eat most any grass, especially if you have more pasture area than cows.

You can always divide up your paddocks and replant them one at a time, you'll have to remove them from rotation after planting until the grass becomes established.

[Rosepath]

How far is the barn pictured from the house? It looks pretty far away, but pictures can be misleading. Just thinking how far that is to walk carrying a bucket of milk in the winter, can you tell I am not a fan of cold weather during milking? I guess some people have those spiffy Gators for trips like that, LOL.
Have your girl work with her heifers every day, it makes a huge difference come fair time. We've all seen the rodeo of child with untrained calf entering and usually just as quickly exiting (while being dragged) the arena in front of amused or horrified onlookers. But at least Jersey heifers aren't the behemoths that beef heifers are, those things can do some serious damage.
Good luck with your new place, enjoy all the good things it will bring. Oh, and check to see if there's a seed dealer who specializes in rotational grazing pasture mixes around you, he'll be able to help you pick out what to seed with.

[idigbeets]

So it's a high priority for us to turn a lot of it into pasture for right now, I'm looking at about 2 acres near the barn in the backyard to start with

^^ You ask about starting pasture, then say it really isn't important to know what grasses are in there? You don't want suggestions about pasturing because the neighboring jersey farm NEVER (not true) takes their cattle outside of the freestall/loafing barn... You didn't mention your family is new to hay making, pasturing etc.

What is it exactly you want to know then?

I'm not trying to be rude, but this forum is FULL, absolutely FULL, of pasturing threads. Have you searched for those? Have you visited or talked to other (experienced) farmers about pasture, done a pasture walk, had an extension agent out... coming online and saying.. here's my fields what do I do with them.. I mean come on.