Pasture Disking

The pasture has finally been disked!  Since the fields have not been plowed up in at least 50 years it took three times over with the disk to break all the sod.  We also had giant ant hills in this pasture that got broken down with the disk.  This field looks really great now with no trees, no big clumps in it and all the junk grass dead!  This process took about 4 hours for roughly 10 acres.  The average price per acre in this area is $10-20 for disking. 

There is now only one process left for this section:  PLANTING THE SEED.  I will be extremely excited to get this part completed and be done worrying about it for the year.  Then in the spring I can begin worrying again about it coming up!  Our seed is ready at the seed dealer and we can plant anytime after November 15th and before the ground freezes -called frost seeding.  It will just be a matter of which day our guy can plant it and throw the fertilizer on.  He will broadcast seed it then pull the harrow over it so it goes in the soil.  This method is less time consuming and less costly than seed drilling due to the different sizes of seed and the need to plant them separately with the drill.

This has been a long and time consuming process and I'm not really looking forward to doing the larger field next year, but I am looking forward to a beautiful pasture that can sustain lots more animals than we currently have and give us our own hay for winter! I am sure my husband will want to purchase a hay baler next so we don't have to pay someone to do that!  

Anyway, progress is being made and soon it will be completed.  I have learned a lot of things while trying to get this first section completed and will already be aware of the in's and out's of the next section so it shouldn't be near as time consuming.  In the end it should make for some happy cows, horses and goats! 

Fences are My Nemesis!

Fences are my nemesis!  We have been battling old hedge post fences from day 1.  The fences weren't something we gave much consideration to when we bought this place since we had no animals at first, but we knew they weren't in top condition.  They have contained our animals for the most part for the past few years.  As the interior and property fences get worse, we have been replacing them as fast as we can afford but FENCES ARE EXPENSIVE!

Our dilemma now is that our whole south fence is pretty much barely a fence anymore.  The horses stay in there and we're not sure why.  They could easily walk right over it.  Our problem is that we have the cows in the small pasture that is almost out of vegetation for them and the large still lush pasture is the one with that awful fence and a corn field on the other side.  Much too inviting for the cows!!  It is roughly 1325 feet long so it will be an expensive venture.  The cows need to eat so we either will have to replace it quickly or buy electric fence. It is too far out to run electricity, though so we will have to use solar.

After pricing the solar electric fencer from Parmak, which I am told is the best, our decision is clear for now.  For about $350 we will have electric running the whole fence with maybe a day for installation.  The new fence would cost at least $2000 and take lots more time to install.  Eventually that will have to be done, but hopefully the electric will hold them until the pastures are reseeded.  

It always seems as though if it's not one thing, it's another around here.  Someday I am hoping that we will have all new fences that will last the rest of my lifetime!  Too bad I don't have a secret fence fund just to get them all done!  Lesson learned this time that maybe we should have looked into fence cost a little more closely when we bought this place and replaced them before we got any animals.  That would be my sound advice to anyone thinking of buying an old farm that needs updating.   



Update: Pasture Reseeding

 

The field has been sprayed.  It has taken a long time for it to die, probably due to the cooler weather we have had.  But it is dying.  We used a combo spray of roundup and 2-4-d to kill everything.  It didn't take long to spray the 10.5 acres we are doing this year.  It took longer to find a day that wasn't windy so they could do it without killing our yard or the corn field next door.  By the time we had a day the corn field was no longer an issue.

 

 

The next step was that we had lime spread on the whole field.  The big truck came and spread a ton of lime on each acre.  Not a real pricey event, but one more step completed. 

 

After conflicting recommendations on when to plant the field, I talked extensively with pretty much whoever I could get to give me an opinion on this.  We have decided to wait until it gets cold to plant it.  Hopefully this will give it a good start to come up in the spring. 

 

We also have waited a little while to disk it due to it's slow dying process and still no rain, which makes it very hard ground to work.  This pasture hasn't been worked in at least 50 years!  Well, last weekend we had 2 inches of rain here and a few sprinkles today.  That should make the ground a little more workable as soon as it dries a bit.  I am looking forward to getting that part done.  The only things left will be the seeding and fertilizing in November!

 

I have learned a lot this year about seeding and the whole process and what is recommended.  The NRCS office is very helpful as long as I know to ask the questions.  We have already started the tree clearing on the next section which is much larger than this one.  Next spring we will have the fields ready to be sprayed as soon as this one is grazable.  When it is all completed they have told us that we will be able to take at least a cutting of hay off of it and have plenty to graze all year.  The hay would save us a ton in the winter and maybe have enough to sell some?

 

This all has been a ton of work, especially the daily cutting of hedge trees for my husband as I am no chainsaw user.  I have covered all the phone calls, setting up the guys to come do the various stages and research into each step of the process.  It will all be worth it in the end and we will have beautiful pastures that sustain our small operation!