Making A Pasture

[Baymule]

It poured down early Sunday morning, woke us up at 3 AM. Thunder, lightening, HARD rain and hail. We got it done just in time! The powdered dust is wet now, the grass sprigs we planted are well watered and the grass seed got pounded into the sand. We got 2 inches.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hope that does the trick for ya!

 

[Baymule]

We loaded up the hogs out of pasture #2 on Sunday, November 6. DH got on the tractor to fill in the moon craters and smooth it out.

They had rooted up a lot of the Bermuda grass, but Bermuda likes that and will come back stronger next year. But if we had left them much longer, they would have utterly destroyed the grass.

While DH repaired hog damage, I went to the front part of the pasture and raked where the hogs had started rooting. They hadn't done a lot of damage there yet, thank goodness. That's where we had sprigged grass and covered it with mulch.

We got busy on spreading mulch on the freshly smoothed dirt. On Sunday DH dumped 21 front end loader buckets of mulch and I spread it with a garden rake.

Monday morning we hauled the hogs to slaughter, detoured through the car wash where DH blasted the trailer clean, then we went home. We spread 24 more FEL buckets of mulch in the pasture. We even covered up the patches of Bermuda grass to add humus and provide shade for the roots next summer.

Before.

After.

Then I sowed 50 pounds of Kentucky 32 non endophyte tall fescue, 50 pounds rye grass, 5 pounds chicory, 10 pounds white arrow leaf clover and 10 pounds white Dutch ball clover.

Once again we finished just ahead of the rain. Yesterday it rained a slow drizzle all day long. We had 3/4" at 4 PM when I checked the rain gauge and it was still raining.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Perfect timing!

 

[Baymule]

The pictures above are pasture #2. I have kept the Sheep off it all winter.

What it looks like now.

The clover is deep!

Then there is pasture #1, we never put pigs in it. As we drive down the driveway we point and say, Pigs-no pigs.

This is the far end up close to the road. That’s what we call Pore dirt! The above picture is the best grass in pasture #1. In the picture below, on each side of the light pole, I’m now building 2 chicken tractors for Cornish Cross Poop Masters Chickens. LOL when I move the tractors forward, I’ll water the chicken poop in real good, might as well utilize the chicken poop.

 

[Baymule]

This is the pipeline. It has the worst soil on the place. This is the best it has looked since we’ve been here. I planted it in rye, endophyte free fescue, white ball clover, white arrow leaf clover and chicory.

I’ve been grazing the sheep on it for 2-3 hours a day. I increase it a little each day, preparing them for pasture #1 & 2.

The grass and clover is ok, not great, but better than it ever has been.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Looking good! I need to do something similar.... always something else to put on the list!!

 

[Mike CHS]

That is some major improvement.

 

[Bruce]

What is that green stuff on the ground???

 

[Baymule]

It is improvement, but these are cool weather grasses and will die back in the heat. I planted the clovers to help the soil. Hopefully, the Bahia and Bermuda we sprigged in pasture #1 & 2 will grow well this spring and summer. We will more than likely start sprigging the pipeline sometime this growing season.