Pasture Update

Green!!!!!!!

I'm starting to see greenery coming up from the first sowings. The next sowing is just getting greenish. And the third section is poking up green here and there. No sign of green from the fourth section sowed, but it's too soon for that. But it feels great seeing green starting to cover over the dirt. 

Three weeks ago I had a hippy style wwoofer stop by, a young man who heard about my blog and farm. He came to "enlighten" me about using a faster and easier way to seed my pastures.............seed balls. This young man was very enthusiastic and idealistic, eager to share his knowledge and show me the better path. I was amused, seeing a bit of my younger self in him. So I let him "educate" me, and since he was in dire need of some paying work, I hired him to make a bunch of seeds balls using the oats and grass seed I was using. 

To tell you the truth, I had already read about seeds balls, came to my own conclusions about the pros and cons, and decided that they would only be useful in certain situations. My farm wasn't one of those. But this young man needed to learn this for himself. 

For only $20, I got about 200-300 seed balls made and thrown about a section of pasture I hadn't seeded yet. I asked this fella to return 2 weeks later to see the results of his efforts. Not surprisingly, he never returned, which is a shame. Perhaps he will still show up sometime. It would be good to see what came from his effort. 

Anyway, the results ------

Wherever the seeds ball landed, a little spot of annual ryegrass seedlings had germinated. It was easy to see, a polka dot of baby grass. But none of the oats survived. None. Why? Pheasants. Yup. Any and all oats that were visible to a pheasant's eye got eaten by thus pheasant. Yum. All those seed balls were just laying out a oat seed buffet for the birds. But the ryegrass seed was small enough not to be of interest to the pheasants. But seed balls really isn't a good way to go even for seeding the ryegrass. The grass came up in little dots helterskelter. In some spots there was no grass for several feet, while in other spots many seeds balls had fallen in dense clumps. Overall the seed ball experiment was a failure. Not worth the time, effort, and cost of the seed. Under different circumstances seed balls might have merit. This wasn't one of them. 

I've had far better success broadcasting the seeds, then covering them lightly with a bit of coarse mulch. In this case, I've been using the lawnmower to grind up the ferns that I pulled and using this as the mulch. It works. Yes it takes more time than throwing seed balls. But unlike the seed ball method, I'm actually seeing oats & grass filling over the bare dirt. The mulch hides the oats from the birds, giving it a chance to germinate.

Creating Pasture, the Hard Way

One of my pastures has never been improved in any way. And 99% of the greenery in it was inedible. So it didn't take the livestock long overgraze it. I've been using this pasture just as a big corral and put the animals in to this "pasture" for basically two reasons only.

 First is to protect the other pastures from getting overgrazed, thus ruined. When the animals (horse, donkeys, goats, sheep) have been rotated through the pastures and it's not yet time to make another rotation, I'll move them to the corral and provide them hay and hay cubes. Second reason is to get all the livestock into the safest and most secure pasture for when I'm away. This corral-type pasture is central, thus surrounded by the other pastures. If perchance the animals managed to break out while I was away, they would still be contained on the farm. That hasn't ever happened (a breakout, that is), but the idea is good insurance, and peace of mind when I'm away.

The land in this pasture has never been bulldozed. Thus it is quite rough with lava rocks and boulders, ups & downs, pukas (big holes), and plenty of trees. There is no way to use large equipment to clear or seed, without it being a grand affair at correspondingly grand expense. So any work I plan to do will be done by hand. 

Since I'd like to see this pasture become a real and productive grazing site, I am going to have to put some work into it. And like most of my projects on this homestead, it's going to be a slowly done, longterm task. By now you most likely know that such projects don't depress me in the least. I'm good at slow, steady, longterm trudging. 

First step - clear away the inedible growth. I've been using the weedwacker for the past few weeks and have about 1/2 acre cleared now of the heavy overgrowth of ferns. Don't picture a 1/2 acre square devoid of tall ferns. No, I cleared out the easy parts first -- the trails, the flatter spots, the more open spots. I worked my way around trees, humps and holes. It is like I created wide walkways. So I'll concentrate on this half acre first. In many areas I was able to hand pull the ferns, leaving bare dirt. I'm focusing on these areas as the first places to plant grass. Why? Because leaving the soil bare damages soil fertility here on my farm. Perhaps it has something to do with the constant heat or heavy rains, but when my soil is left bare, it becomes less fertile. 

Oh I forgot to tell you that I'm cross fencing this "corral" pasture. It's about 3-4 acres in size and I'm cross fencing it into four sections. In the photo below you can see the new fencing that is creating the first cross fence. So I'm now going to work on grassing the first section of about one acre or a little less. The new fence is protecting it from being grazed by the livestock. 

As you can see in the above photo, there are areas that are totally devoid of greenery. Just dirt. I'm going to hand sow some annual ryegrass seed in order to get a quick and relatively cheap grass cover. Since its been raining frequently recently, the seed has a good chance of germinating well. I don't plan to rely upon the annual ryegrass as the sole pasture grass, but it will provide quick cover and protection for some of the other seeds I plan to sow later. I view the annual ryegrass as a pasture bandaid.

I'm also hand transplanting some young grasses. Below is a small section of guinea grass seedlings that I transplanted today. 2-3 times a week I happen to pull this amount of seedlings from my mother's lawn. It is a coarse grass that forms lumpy clumps that are dangerous for a 93 year old lady. They are a serious tripping hazard, thus the reason I pull them out. Since I'm pulling them out anyway, I'm bringing them home and planting them into the pasture. 

The animals willingly grass this grass and do well on it. It transplants very easily, grows strongly, and tolerates drought and poor soil. So I'm using it to fill in the bare areas. 

Another grass that I am transplanting by clumps is kikuyu grass. Just as with guinea grass, it transplants readily and roots quickly. 

So how quickly will this new pasture be usable? If I were just sowing pasture grass seed, it would be months (at least six) before the animals could be allowed to graze it lightly. But by transplanting guinea and kikuyu grass like I am, it will be half the time. Within four weeks the seedlings and clumps will have rooted securely enough that they will not get pulled out by grazing. But I'd like to see 8 weeks go by before the first grazing so that there is enough top growth that the livestock won't try to eat the entire plant. This new pasture should be able to handle a light grazing monthly for the first 6 months before going into the regular pasture rotation schedule. Yes, guinea and kikuyu grass is that quick to establish here, as long as the weather cooperates. 

Creative Repair

It's not uncommon around a working homestead farm for quick emergency solutions to problems that pop up. I've done dozens so far. It's such commonplace that I don't even think about them. 

Today I moved my horse to a neighbor's pasture. The neighbor lives on the mainland, so the pasture is vacant. In order to keep the pasture from over growing, she allows (actually encourages) people that she knows to use the pasture. Nobody has had livestock there for a few months and with this crazy weather the grass is getting out of control. So I moved my horse there. Yoshi will think she died and went to pasture heaven......belly deep grasses of all sorts. 

I saw right off that the gate that I was familiar with was gone. Most likely rusted away. Someone had improvised a gate. 

Two young trees sacrificed to make suitable poles. Then creatively attached to the fence posts on each end using some old telephone cable. 

Nothing sophisticated, but quite functional. 

Definitely wouldn't hold an escape artist in, but my mare won't bother testing this gate. For the next couple months she'll be content to eat grass. 

A proper gate would cost hundreds of dollars. But since this pasture doesn't have what one would consider to be proper fencing, this gate will do just fine. And it didn't cost a penny.....except somebody's time. 

Pasture Maintenance

Creating new pasture is one thing, but maintaining it is another. On my farm, it's not just the livestock that try to destroy the pastures. The downpours try to erode it away. The aggressive "weeds" try to kill off the edible plants. 

I have a number of different nasty plants that want to take over my pastures. I don't know their proper names, but I've got a few I've learned. Nutsedge is one. It's a grass that none of the livestock likes. Oh the goat will eat a little, but not enough to control it. It spreads rapidly, choking out the good grasses. Round-up doesn't kill it. So I use a mattock to dig out the major clumps and weedwack off the seed heads as they start to develop. It comes back every year because the birds spread the seeds. 

    Nutsedge    (photo from patriotpestfl.com)

Mexican elderberry is a pain. If I don't kill it when I see it, it sends out side roots that starts more plants all around it. The goat eats some of this but not enough to control it. Since it shoots up from roots readily, Round-up is needed for good control. I've pretty much eliminated the big patches from the pastures, but it comes back because birds spread the seeds. 

    Mexican Elderberry   (photo from natureathand.com)

There's a couple types of grass that the livestock won't eat. And of course, these grasses are the type that spread rampantly, sending out aggressive runners. The easiest way to keep their numbers down is to graze off the pasture then go around and spray the noxious clumps with Round-up. Easy to see and find them when everything else is short. I never get it all because I don't want to kill off all the edible grasses too, but at least I keep it from taking over the pasture. 

Ferns. 

Don't know the name but these ferns spread aggressively via underground runners. And when you pull them out, you never get all the pieces so it comes back.

 ( deferned area ready for over planting with sweet potato vines)

 But if I pull out a section, plant sweet potatoes as a cover, then pull individual ferns as they reappear, I can gradually eliminate it. I'll also seed pasture grasses or transplant grasses in with the sweet potato vines. Eventually the livestock gets to graze it. 

This pile of pulled out ferns will go as organic fill in one of my pallet grow boxes. The black stick in front of the pile is four foot high.