Should we take land out of row crops for hay/pasture?

[sassafras manor]

We have 15 acres of property that we own. Approx. 2 acres are around the house/barns, 2 acres are used for garden, orchard, and rotating the hogs, 3 acres are fenced as lightly wooded pasture, 4 acres are good grass/legume pasture and the last 4 of those acres are tilable and farmed along with the neighbors adjacent property. We have the opportunity to provide a local high end restaurant with grass fed beef and pork but in order to meet demand it would require us to take the 4 acres of tilable land and fence it in for pasture. It is fairly good yeilding (profits about $250/acre in our share of the grain share), slightly rolling and drains well. In years past I have thought about planting it in a grass/hay mixture then grazing it after the first cut but I can buy large rounds from our neighbor @ $25 delivered when I need them. I am on the fence as what to do; should I take our grain check this fall and fence in the open 2 sides (about 1400 linear ft.) and plant it in a pasture/hay mix and leave large access via gates/panels for tilage equipment or leave it in field crops and rotate them thru the stubble each fall? One side of me wants to grow our herd then the other side says to wait. What our your thoughts?
Thanks - Matt

[allenslabs]

I guess what you would need to consider is, after you take the expense of planting the grass and probably doing some fencing for that 4 acres, would you make enough off of the 2-3 head you could pasture on that 4 acres to compensate for the money you would lose off of that 4 acres??? So if you lose that 4 acres at 250 an acre, that's $1000....could you make the money on those 2-3 calves a year to compensate for that?
I know....clear as mud aren't I? LOL!

[sassafras manor]

My thoughts are if I can have it baled once in spring it would give me a dozen bales for us and a dozen for the neighbor who would do the having. Then using rotational grazing I could easily add 4-5 more head based on our existing stocking rate we use. I plan to leave room near the gates so that I can have the flexibility to put it in field crops on years we do not need the pasture space.

[Callieslamb]

I was reading this thread to learn....so I have to ask. Can you rotate pasture out and put in field crops that easily? Doesn't new pasture need a bit of time to gain root strength for good growth? What about the cost of reseeding? Is that prohibitive?

[Parttimefarmer]

You should get more than 24 bales off 4 acres. Am I reading that right?

[sassafras manor]

I regards to rotating out of pasture into row crops, it would not be a regular event but say every 10-12 years. Many around here will run row crops for 1 season to then follow with hay & pasture again. As far as the bales of hay are concerned, I should have clarified the bales - my neighbor has a round baler that drops 5'x6' bales.

[Callieslamb]

Whew!! I was afraid you were pasturing a couple years and then row crops.....not sure I could keep up that schedule on my place. I don't know about you, but I just need someone to come out and just tell me what to do here.....