What should I do with my Pasture??

Berty · #1 05/03/10, 09:26 AM

I have 4 acres of pasture for my goats. It has a good amount of clover, no alfalfa and this year TONS of dandelions. I'm afraid the dandelions have choked everything else off. Do we plow and plant a mix? If so, should I do it now and what do I plant? Thank you!

Jay27 · #2 05/03/10, 09:32 AM

I would apply a fair amount of lime and then seed over without plowing. Most of the weed species take over in high pH conditions... lime will correct that. (The pelletized version is super easy to handle/apply and not much more expensive). Lime and re-seed is all I have done to get a pasture to turn around quickly. Plowing and seeding will result in a real nice pasture, but you will still end up with weeds and it will be a year before you can turn goats out.

wintrrwolf · #3 05/03/10, 11:54 AM

Hey Jay so if you lime and seed how long should you keep the goats off the field? And what is a good seed mix?

TennesseeMama23 · #4 05/03/10, 01:23 PM

We plant a wild bird seed mix for ours every year. Also we plant wheat very late in the year for them to have fresh food in the worst of the winter.

KSALguy · #5 05/03/10, 01:29 PM

what exactly are you trying to fix??? goats are NOT grazers like cattle, they WANT the weird weedy brushy stuff, putting goats on just pasture like a cow wants will result in alot more parrasites as well,

let the goats eat what you have they love weeds, then you will be left with a nice clean grassy pasture to put cattle on lol, if you want to actually plant something that the goats want to eat think outside the box, brush and bramble of any kind, Vines, WEEDS WEEDS WEEDS, trees, etc,

Jay27 · #6 05/03/10, 02:33 PM

I'd lime before a good rain and then wait 2 weeks before seeding. The goats can be on the limed pasture. I plant a deer mix for my goats. I'm sure I'll miss plenty, but the mix I use has a clover, rape, rye, alfalfa, turnips, sunflower, etc. I'd let everything get started before turning the goats out... that will be dependent on rainfall... just looking for the root systems to get setup a little, not looking for any real growth since there would be existing ground cover.

In all honesty, my goats prefer the brushy part of their pasture... which is good because they keep the poison ivy under control. I've turned them out on the hay pasture and they just stand there and scream for food... cut and bale and they go apesh1t for the same grass/alfalfa. Despite having nice pasture, I feed hay 24/7 and they eat more hay than anything else.

Berty · #7 05/03/10, 03:49 PM

Jay, you have just explained perfectly how my goats act. I thought I just had crappy pasture lol. I know they would rather have woody, bush type plants and weeds. We do have 13 acres of woods. I was thinking about fencing an area for them but the pasture area is so easy because it's right off the barn. Hmmmm, what to do and how much ambition do I have for the fence work?

Minelson · #8 05/03/10, 09:17 PM

My goats do not eat dandelions. And they spend a lot of time on the grass only pasture.

Eunice · #9 05/03/10, 09:24 PM

My goats eat dandelions - if I pick them, but not if I expect them to pick them for themselves.

Heritagefarm · #10 05/03/10, 10:05 PM

If they eat the dandies, just leave 'em! Otherwise, check and see what you need to do to your pasture to change the PH so they don't like it anymore. Or you could clip them before they seed.

Pony · #11 05/03/10, 10:25 PM

Is it green? My goats will eat it.

Is it a tree? They'll get stuck in it, but they'll eat it.

I was surprised that the weed trees are still alive after the goats girdled them (and then some) over the past year. Lots of lovely leaves for them to reeeeeeeeeeach up and nibble.

where I want to · #12 05/03/10, 10:33 PM

Are you sure that you have dandelions, not a UYC (unidentifed yellow composite?) Because not a dandelion is left at my place- the goats ate it all- at least where they can reach it.
Could you borrow a horse because my horses eat every dandelions too. First thing before grass.

Berty · #13 05/04/10, 12:13 AM

I thought the goats would love the dandelions but they don't, won't even touch them if I pick them for them. I walked through the pasture today. Still a good amount of clover and nice grass. Thinking of testing the soil and reading up on pasture care. Is it really worth the effort of working on improving it if the goats don't really care for the darn pasture anyway? Do I put my efforts into fencing other bushy, overgrown areas? I could pasture my pigs all summer and I bet I'd have no more dandelions in there (but nothing else either!!):1pig:

wintrrwolf · #14 05/04/10, 09:05 AM

my goats graze some, have lots of clover in the fenced area, also have tree's and weeds, it was really hard to fence in the tree's along the gully and my goats are determined to kill the fence to get to the other side for more shrubs and stuff and it would be great to just let them clear the gully BUT after 2 neighbor dog attacks I am installing a hot wire have half of the pastured area done so far. Soon they will have cleared the brambles, trees, and weeds on this side of the fence and then I guess we will be down to feeding winter rations all the time (sigh) Oh will say in the fenced area I have NO dandelions, but front of the house pfft they are everywhere!

Pony · #15 05/04/10, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Berty

I thought the goats would love the dandelions but they don't, won't even touch them if I pick them for them.

Perhaps if you added a touch of vinaigrette, maybe a couple slices of cucumber, tomato?

whodunit · #16 05/04/10, 09:14 AM

Borrow our cow..... she goes out of her way to eat a dandelion plant.

Minelson · #17 05/04/10, 05:35 PM

My goats won't eat anything that is growing in their pen. Dandelions, grass, weeds, clover...nothing. They sit in there and pout. And yell at me when they see me come outside. BUT, if a piece of cardboard were to blow in there I'm sure they would eat that.

Cannon_Farms · #18 05/04/10, 10:39 PM

Leave it be for a short while clover wont last much longer but it will give you so much in the short life span it has. It takes the nitrogen out of the air and turns it into a usable form for the rest of the grasses, then if the weeds are still a problem use something like pasture pro. If you can keep them off it you can spot spray with a 2 4 D product
FYI, weeds dont do so great if the pastures are mowed on a regular basis.

My pastures are being redone, we are using rye in the winter and plain burmuda in the summer but over seeding with the clover during the cooler weather to help cut down on the fertilizer cost if the goat poop isnt enough.
as far a soil quality get a soil sample first before adding anything and you can save allot of money doing so, and if you want to get more into that id be happy to help. Its hard enough that we have to do guess work in goat medicine, when we can have exact facts we need to use them.
Just never use kentucky 31 to seed pastures

Heritagefarm · #19 05/05/10, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minelson

My goats won't eat anything that is growing in their pen. Dandelions, grass, weeds, clover...nothing. They sit in there and pout. And yell at me when they see me come outside. BUT, if a piece of cardboard were to blow in there I'm sure they would eat that.

You probably give them too good of hay. Yon soiled yore goats!