Creating new pasture - how to

If you were to leave large stumps, you would have cattle rubbing on them, critters digging under them, and insects eating them. They will fall over much sooner than you think.

Three grower size pigs can turn a half acre of impenetrable brush into bare dirt in about three months. I don't know how they would fare with huge stumps, but on anything less then four inches, they will push the tree over, eat the branches and roots, then push what remains around the pasture until it ends up against the electric fence. Here is a poor picture of what they did to my pen. I slashed a path through unwalkable brush with a weed whacker, brush blade and an chainsaw for the big stuff, fenced it in with electric wire and let the pigs at it.

My friends have horses & goats. The land they live on is partially treed - like, not so thick you can't walk through the treed area, but still too thick for the horses to use those areas as pasture.

They fence off an area of the trees and turn the goats in. They eat happily for a year, eating down all the little trees. What is left are bigger trees that the horses like for shade. And with the natural fertilizer left by the goats, they say it makes wonderful pasture!

Perhaps you could fence an area, turn in your goats, see what they can do in a year, and then cut down the big stuff they leave behind? It'd be easier to get in and take out selected trees after the goats clear your underbrush.

Just a thought ... I sure like the pig idea, too!

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Apple Jack Creek
near Edmonton Alberta
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If you plan to establish a garden where it was forest and cut over I think you may be quite disappointed. Firstly when those stumps are removed with large equipment you'll lose what topsoil is there; secondly that ground will be so compacted as to almost be a parking lot. Thirdly, We have seen all around us clear cutting - and the land takes a long time to recover because not much grows in the remaining subsoil; the land in woods is usually quite poor fertility. It was quite popular to sell 5 acres and a manuf. house here - the 5 acres were cleaned off clear cut and the ground was pitiful to see. Fortunately we were able to find better by waiting a year. You may want to look for places already on such land and see what it's like in your region for yourself and see if anyone is actually gardening, orcharding on such land.

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We really don't wish to get livestock to do any clearing for us. I mentioned in my original post, we don't plan on having livestock, I just don't want to rule out that we may "have" to get them. Never cattle or horses though.

You can't really leave stumps and roots and plant an orchard. The ground needs to be cleared. We will want to install a watering system.

Perhaps we'll just continue to look for land with some pasture on it. I know the Ozarks and it's soil quality pretty well, and can generally tell when an area of ground has decent enough soil by the trees and plants growing on it.

I didn't consider the fact that dozer would compact the ground however, that's an excellent point. Isnt' that typically how new pastures are started though?

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CJ,

here's an article with links to others (one about Salatin): http://thebeginningfarmer.blogspot.c...og-dozers.html. A link in one of the comments discusses the benefits of following the :1pig:s with s.

Best regards,

Doug

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Live and learn. Die and forget it all.

I have heard the old way of clearing land was to cut the trees, run pigs in there until they "root up" the stumps, then run goats to clear out the brush, then let it grow in grass and run sheep or cows to keep it in grass.
I haven't used pigs to clear land, but I have seen it done and yes, they will dig up stumps while looking for bugs around the roots. The land will be full of holes and pilkes when they're done, so there ill need to be some shoveling necessary to level the land, but it will be tilled and fertilized by then.
So, yeah, consider it an option.
I have hired a dozer to clear land for me before. The dozer pulled up trees one at a time, stumps were cut off and set aside, all the branches were chipped and the chips were allowed to fly everywhere to act as the first application of mulch and the logs were stacked on th eside for firewood and or milling. Some brush was made into a huge pile and the stumps were set on top. Then I let it dry for a summer and burned the whole thing over the course of few days using 5 gallons of diesel poured on the pile, a match and a backhoe to tend the fire. The fire is big at first, so I burned it on a day when it had been raining and everything was wet. The pile burned just fine and nothing else was at risk of catching fire. Stumps that have a oot of dirt cliinging to them won't burn...dirt doesn't burn...I have tried. It doesn't work. The dirt must be knocked off somehow beforehand. I let the stumps get dry, then dangled them from a chain hooked to a backhoe bucket and smacked them into a tall stump a few times to knock off a bulk of the dirt.
A simpler option is to leave the stumps to rot on their own where they'll provide shelter for lots of creatures

CJ - We are in the same boat with you! Although, we already have the land. Much of the area where we live was, at one time, all farmland and pasture. DH and I have the time, like you, but are lacking in the funds department. So, we are clearing by hand, for now, and learning as we go. You can do a lot with a chainsaw, loping shears, a weedwhacker, and a rake! Plus, it feels oh-so-pioneer-esque. Not really. But for $4K a acre here to clear, I'd rather do it myself!

Before:


After:


This took us all day, oof, but wow, what a blast! And it only cost $7 - for the beer afterwards!

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CJ,

BTW, my father is from Pottsville. In fact, my great-uncle was the mayor of Pottsville in the late-80's. I have lots of family in Russellville. If I could get my wife to move, I'd join them.

Doug

Murron, that looks really nice, way to go!

We might just go the pig route and by hand route.

Doug, I don't suppose you know of any nice land for sale eh?

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CJ,

unfortunately, no. I've visited many times, but have never lived in the area.

Most of my family lives in town (R'ville) now. At one time, a few families owned adjacent land on Crow Mt., but only two families built (one family twice). Only one family remains there on a 3 acre parcel.

Best wishes in your search.

Doug

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Live and learn. Die and forget it all.