recommendations for a 3 year neglected pasture?

DroppedAtBirth · #1 02/08/12, 01:02 PM

I have 14 acres of mostly pasture. It was neglected for the 3 years prior to us moving here. Part of that neglect included some llamas that were left here to graze (the owners developed health issues and had to move closer to medical care). So now I have pasture that has tons of weeds and a bit of clover in spots. I have a jersey cow, a jersey/angus heifer, and an easy keeper horse on the place now.

How would you all go about fixing the pasture? tilling will be tricky due to buried water and electric lines through the fields to the different wells and pump houses.

7thswan · #2 02/08/12, 02:33 PM

We just burned off the small pasture where i used to keep my sheep. I plan on putting a jersey calf there. I also burn off my veggie gardens.Also check to see if your soil needs lime-that's a biggie arround here.

Tad · #3 02/08/12, 03:16 PM

If it can't be tilled I would frost seed it with clover and maybe timothy as something to mix the clover with. Then I would split the pasture a few times, rotate the animals through and when the weeds are left behind mow them off if you have acess to a brush hog. It will take awhile but you knock the weeds back enough times their roots run out of food and they die, and they don't stick around long enough to go to seed.

Gabriel · #4 02/08/12, 04:42 PM

Mow it to clean it up right off, then use M.I.G. Tilling and reseeding are slow and expensive. Broadcast some seed right before you put the animals in and they'll tromp it in for you.

Tad · #5 02/08/12, 05:09 PM

I have heard of one guy that would feed clover seed to his cows and they would plant it with some fertilizer in the pasture, never tried it though!

myersfarm · #6 02/08/12, 08:11 PM

Soil test first

Cindy in KY · #7 02/09/12, 05:45 AM

I know it sounds crazy, but we mow our 12 acres with 2 riding mowers. We got tired of the big tractor tearing up the ground and all the gas it used.

Mowing is a blast, and we look forward to being able to go out and mow. We put the mowers in fast mode with the deck way up high. We leave thick tall grass this way and knock down any weeds and broom sage. We have a lot of Lespedeza which can get tall. When we get to poop piles and sticky weeds we can slow down and lower the blades to scatter them. It is really our most fun times out in the sunshine, especially going down hill in 5th.

It doesn't cost more than $10 to mow it all, and we can see and check all the pastures while we are mowing. The green grass gets put back into the pastures and it is so beautiful. Only problem we have is very hard rains. Our land is slightly hilly and the hard rains wash our organic material down the hill.

sammyd · #8 02/09/12, 05:50 AM

with only 3 animals I think you'll have a hard time keeping it all grazed down.
You will need some sort of mower to keep the pastures topped, even the grazed parts will need topping as the animals will ignore some stuff.
Frost seeding some clover and timothy isn't a bad idea.

DroppedAtBirth · #9 02/09/12, 10:49 AM

Thanks guys

It got grazed pretty hard for a while. We just got rid of the llamas last weekend so I am looking forward to fixing the weed mess out there now. We have a brush hog and a large finish mower so that'll be easy peasy

Copperhead · #10 02/09/12, 08:14 PM

Got Goats?

DroppedAtBirth · #11 02/11/12, 02:22 AM

Had goats back when I my other half and I were teenagers. To quote him "you're NOT getting a $#%$#%$# goat!" I've tried the weed control/a brush hog that he doesn't have to take time out of his day to operate, still no dice

gonna keep workin on him, but atm, I'm considering myself lucky to have conned him into as many of the critters as I currently have hehe