Good News Bad News. It will grow something now that the sun is on it. The bad news it probably woun't be what you want.
Now take a soil to the ag department and get it tested. You will probably need lime to get the grass to grow.
Cansider a braod leaf hebaside to kill the underiserables if that is your cup of tea. Cut all stumps below bush hao height and get ready to manage.
1. Feed in this area.
2 Bushhog often. Weeds will die out if keep low
3 Use a spring tooth chisle plow to get the soil distrurbed.
Fertilize as needed.

 

I recommend the book "One Straw Revolution" also "All Flesh is Grass" both excellant books on pasture.

 

Fence it off, and put 3 to 4 hogs out there. They will root up all of the stumps and put down some good fertilizer. Put the pigs in the freezer or sell them. Clean up the stumps, and plant grass seed.

 

If you are going to put goats on it, whatever grows up will probably be to their liking. Check out what grows in your area. If there is goldenrod, you will get goldenrod, if there is buffalo grass, you will get buffalo grass. It will self seed. We had our pasture disced, completely bare. The following year there was some grass, clover, wild carrot, aster, all kinds of things.

Sheep and goats prefer forbes, so we're talking weeds, not grass. If nothing comes up in the spring try broadcasting oats. They are annual, but I don't know if they will keep coming up where you are. The chickens seem to like the oat grass and it's an attractive green. I have used it while waiting for nature to take her time.

 

If you sow grass seed in Febuary on top of the ground, it will come up in the spring. That's called frost seeding. The freezing and thawing of the ground will give the seed sufficient cover to sprout and grow. There will be all sorts of weeds and tree sprouts coming up right with the grass. As mentioned, sheep or goats prefer most of those to grass. That would give the grass time to get established if it isn't overgrazed and ate off also. A soil test is a good idea. Lime can be spread on top the ground while its frozen.
As for what types of grass to sow, it would be good to check out what grasses do well in your area. Here in zone 5 bluegrass makes a good permenant pasture as it grows well in early spring and late fall while there may be light frosts. A very fast growing grass is prennial rye grass. (not the grain) Kentucky 31 fescue is tuff and stands traffic well, also does well in hot weather. Get a little hand cranked seeder and sow about 10 pounds of a mixture per acre. I hope you have a good woven wire fence.
Around here blue grass will take over bare ground if you keep the weeds down without sowing it in about 3 years.

 

Check out Native American Seed company for you grass seed needs. They sell individual bags of one type of grass or special mixes for whatever your needs may be.

 

Thanks. I'm new to all this. Do pigs really up root tree stumps? I love the thought of putting some in there and letting them do the work for me. What kind of time frame are we talking about? What if I only got 1 pig ( my husband is not an animal person like I am ). I was hoping to get a bluegrass/clover mix. The seed I put down last spring around the house didn't take very well, looked great at first but didn't hold up through the summer heat and drought.

 

If the stumps are over 4 inches across, it is unlikely they would get them out. They would however make the place so rough you would need a dozer to put it in shape and clean up the mess.

 

If there's a chance of erosion I would suggest putting some winter rye on it right now.

 

Pigs thrive better when there are two or more. You will need a small shelter for them to sleep in. We made ours from scraps of limber with a tin roof we found in our creek. They will dig up the ground pretty good and will dig under a fence. We used welded wire tacked to railroad ties to keep the pigs in their area. I suppose that you could use a portable electric fence to keep them in.
Linda

 

Thanks. I'm new to all this. Do pigs really up root tree stumps? I love the thought of putting some in there and letting them do the work for me. What kind of time frame are we talking about? What if I only got 1 pig ( my husband is not an animal person like I am ). I was hoping to get a bluegrass/clover mix. The seed I put down last spring around the house didn't take very well, looked great at first but didn't hold up through the summer heat and drought.

Depending on the area you want cleared out. I have done this several times with 3 to 4 hogs. I do not even cut down the trees I let the pigs root and knock down the trees. Then we cut them up with a chainsaw (trees, not the pigs)
I use hog panels to keep them in. I do not remember exact time frame, but it was only a few months. I will be doing it again this spring, and will take pictures, and give an update.

 

Only thing, Tick, is get a great fence. A GREAT fence. Most people around here use pallets nailed together with 2 or 3 boards.
I was thinkinging about getting pigs for the same reason. Then I realized the fence thing. I am just going to rent a stump cutter and a ditch witch.

 

Since I am going to put goats on it I was thinking woven wire. I have a lot of cedar posts too. We also have a fox problem, not much worry for the goats but I also want to have the chickens in there. I lost three chickens to a mama fox feeding her babes this past spring.
I'm still not clear on the time line. I would think that if I put out seed the chickens are just going to eat it. And if the goats are on it won't they be tramping the new growth? I come from the city so all I know is lawns, and when you try to start a lawn from seed every one says to stay off.

 

If you sow the grass in Febuary you wouldn't have stock out there until May, and the grass would be up by then. Don't put animals on the pasture until it looks like pasture. At least you would have pasture this summer this way. If you wait until spring to sow it, it wouldn't be ready until late July.

 

The best and easiest fence for pigs is electric. You don't need a strong one for pigs. 2500 volts is plenty. I used a 1000 volt to fence an acre with out problem. Run one low wire about 4 inches off the ground for a ground wire. Run another at nose level. Keep the area asmall at first to train them. As they get bigger increase the area. By keeping the small they will till the ground better as well. To big an area and you just end up with a minefield.
Last summer we kept 10 pigs including 2 500lb sows and a 600 lb boar. The piglets grew well. We solt off the remainder of the litters and raised 7 piglets on one acre. My feed bill was less than 1/4 of what it is when I confine my pigs. They live almost entirly off wasted pasture.
If you feed whole soaked corn around the stumps they can root out some very big stumps and rocks.
Then level the field, lime and plant some clover. Native grasses will move in by them selves, don't waste money on grass seed.

 

Gene Logsdon's book All Flesh Is Grass is a great book for someone looking for realistic ideas about starting and using pastures.

 

To get pigs to root out stumps just take a steel prybar and jab/pry it under the stump then just throw your corn in the hole, repet till stump is lose Ive seen some good sizeoaks removed this way.
Timeline ,Something will gro there this spring with or without your help keep the live stock ypu want to raise in there with 4-8 pigs and feed them whatever you want them to eat .By next year the seeds will get lose and pass thru the digestive track and soon you will have that type of pasture. Kill anything that grows that they wont eat and you will have a good clean pasture in two years.

 

.... I was hoping to get a bluegrass/clover mix. The seed I put down last spring around the house didn't take very well, looked great at first but didn't hold up through the summer heat and drought.

We've had good results establishing clover by using Buckwheat as a cover crop. It grows very fast (our bees love it, and we like buckwheat honey), and it seemed to do better in the slightly acidic soil than other crops. We can easily do 2 crops of Buckwheat a year, and the birds (ducks, chickens & turkeys) gobble down the seeds as they ripen.

It's taken us 3 years of fighting off the weeds to get down to some useful pasture, plowing each spring or fall and then seeding. Herbicides only knocked down the tall stuff at first, other stuff took it's place so fast, everything we planted was quickly overtaken... Until we started planting Buckwheat. It held back everything.

BTW - buckwheat seed is CHEAP compared to clover seed!

 

dont put pigs on your land they willl ruin it and dont worry about the stumps they will rot a lot faster if they are left alone and will save you a lot of work. check at your farm store on what kind grass they sell for pasture here it is KY 31 fescue. it works really well here in Va. so i would think it would for you also and you can sew it down now and it will come up with out working the ground. if your gonna get goats put them on it asap. feeding hay over rough spots is also a good way to get it sodded quickly. but pigs is a bad idea unless you put rings in their nose to keep them from rooting.