I have 20 acres consisting of 6 different soil types meanding throughout. when we baught it 20 years ago, it was formally an arrid open range land of several thousand acres . I hired 3 D9s to make 16 acres level to grade ( excluding a creek and house site ), deep ripped it to 2 feet deep, disced , and planted pasture mix grasses and clovers. Annually, i spread manure produced from 105 tons of alfalfa hay and 8 tons of corn, wheat, and barley grains in addition to the pasture grass yealds. The pastures have doubled in the yield ( from ankle high to knee high ) for late Dec., Jan, Feb., March so about 3 1/2 months due to our annual rainfall. I increased the animal carrying capacity by 4 animal units, but still have to buy the same amount of feed for the year. Since we are surrounded by range lands that are not kept up and weed infested , we have an annual invasion of star and bull thisle, Johnson grass and tumble weeds to no end. There is NO way that I can keep up with hand pulling or hoeing even with using 10 migrant workers for 4 passes for 2 full days each time over the year to control these invaders. I have to spot spray with roundup to kill new weed growth a few weeks after the workers. My entire property is reseeded with these unwanted weeds by hoards of blackbird flocks numbering into the thousands every fall for 2 to 3 weeks straight before they fly elsewhere. Just a couple pleasures, head ackes and hard work you need to do in farming in a arrid high desert type environment.