Making A Pasture

[Baymule]

It has been so dry here that my sandy ground was like talcum powder. I wouldn’t graze the ewes in the horse pasture because I was afraid their sharp hooves would damage the new Bahia grass. We have FINALLY got rain, not much, but enough to settle the dust. The over growth is about to get away from me, so I have turned the girls out on the horse pasture where they are happily chomping away on weeds. They aren’t grazing the new grass.

The new Bahia isn’t thick, but it is growing and most important—it’s surviving.

Lots of browse.

We may have to bush hog all the over growth if it gets dry again. I’d rather graze the girls on it!

 

[Beekissed]

It has been so dry here that my sandy ground was like talcum powder. I wouldn’t graze the ewes in the horse pasture because I was afraid their sharp hooves would damage the new Bahia grass. We have FINALLY got rain, not much, but enough to settle the dust. The over growth is about to get away from me, so I have turned the girls out on the horse pasture where they are happily chomping away on weeds. They aren’t grazing the new grass.

The new Bahia isn’t thick, but it is growing and most important—it’s surviving.

View attachment 75568

Lots of browse.

View attachment 75569

We may have to bush hog all the over growth if it gets dry again. I’d rather graze the girls on it!

We see lovely browse, other people see a problem. And that's the good kind of browse....tree sprouts and tender young weeds and shrubs. Perfect for sheep!

 

[Baymule]

We have been cleaning out two small areas under the sheep barn roof. The hard pack was a foot deep. BJ used Robert's tiller to break it up a layer at a time. A neighbor kid and I raked and shoveled it into the mule and we spread it over grass in the side pasture and one of the front pastures. Black and crumbly, it will improve the soil. We spread the loose top waste hay over grass too. This coming week, we are going to clean out the main sheep barn, the hard pack in there is not as deep, we cleaned it out more recently LOL. We are going to spread it over Pasture #2.

 

[farmerjan]

Every little bit helps..... even if it doesn't help your back!!!!

 

[Baymule]

Every little bit helps..... even if it doesn't help your back!!!!

Actually I’m not sore. Tired, but not sore. Poor BJ is whupped. Running that tiller has worn him out. He’s napping now. I’m canning chicken dog food, put up eggplant and froze some tomatoes to can when I get enough. He’s in pretty good shape and so am I, who needs a gym to work out, we are farmers! LOL

 

[Baymule]

I took a few pictures of pasture #1 where we spread waste hay and Sheep compost. Most of it is too shaded for good grass. We have argued over cutting trees, I swear BJ has them named and numbered. I did get him to let me and our son cut saplings a couple of years ago, we cut over 125 of them. Still plenty left though.

 

[farmerjan]

From what little I can see, the spacing of the trees looks like what we refer to as "silvopasture" here. There are some more shade tolerant varieties of grasses, unfortunately fescue is one.... but how about good old crab grass? It makes great eating/pasture even if it isn't liked much in the fancy type lawns. Maybe try overseeding in the late summer/fall when it cools off there a little and you are due to get more moisture? The trees may use the moisture but they also protect the ground from being "cooked" from all your hot sun.... so a mixed blessing.

 

[Baymule]

Since crabgrass loves my garden so much, I have dug it up and planted it is various places. Maybe this will help the soil and I can transplant some crabgrass.

 

[Baymule]

From what little I can see, the spacing of the trees looks like what we refer to as "silvopasture" here. There are some more shade tolerant varieties of grasses, unfortunately fescue is one.... but how about good old crab grass? It makes great eating/pasture even if it isn't liked much in the fancy type lawns. Maybe try overseeding in the late summer/fall when it cools off there a little and you are due to get more moisture? The trees may use the moisture but they also protect the ground from being "cooked" from all your hot sun.... so a mixed blessing.

Haha, a little too much "silvo" and not enough "pasture" I had some nice rye grass growing in the shaded areas, but the sheep didn't want it. They wanted the grass growing under full sun. I deduced that the shaded grass didn't have the nutrients or taste of the more preferred sunny grass.

 

[Baymule]

We worked on the big part of the sheep barn. It’s fairly dry and had a loose layer of manure under the loose waste hay latter. We shoveled 6 mule loads into the mule and spread on pasture #2. Pasture #2 is featured on page 1 if this thread. We are plenty tired!

There was 4 mule loads of loose dry manure, then had to get the tiller for the last 2 loads to loosen it up. We are tired. There’s more where that came from!