My Learning to Farm: Newbie Renovating Pastures in MD

[tony Cecil]

Quality seed seems to work out most times, if not planted too early or too deep.. Not to imply I haven`t made similar mistakes, but sometimes just taking the dollar amount of just one thing, like planting two acres, and applying common sense---then if it just doesn`t make sense---re figure.....

What you are doing is very gratifying, and I hope one year you get your own place...Tony

 

[Learning to Farm]

Picture of the Ford and seeder!

 

[Ranger Rick]

With all of the rain from TS Lee that you had and the warm weather this weekend I would think that you grass seed should be coming up real soon. Hopefully you did not suffer any damage from storm. We had 5 inches and we were on the dry side of the storm. It has been interesting reading your post as I need to renovate some of our fields on our farm. Rick

 

[Learning to Farm]

Hi everybody! Back for another season of pasture renovation! I have lots of news, but I just got back onto TBN. I will hopefully update this evening or tomorrow. But here are the highlights:

1. Idiot farm managers fiancé took the mower that I rebuilt last year out while the owner of the farm and I were both gone: First, did not take the tie up cord for the shaft off, so it cut part of the shaft cover off before it broke. Second, raised the mower to high and rubbed the hard rubber front tires until they broke chunks off and one of them broke the bearing. Third, set it on the ground and used it like a plow... because it had flat front tires. (Oh yes, was I mad)

2. Spread green-up fertilizer (first of 4 applications of fertilizer I can do a year).

3. Got boom for 25 gal ATV sprayer, and sprayed my two fields.

Hope all your renovations ended well, I will talk to you all soon.

 

[Learning to Farm]

Ok, so I kind of jumped the gun. The seed grew and it is wonderful, it was the first time I felt like I was farming. I have pictures of the love little green rows that wintered so well and are very hardy with the spring.

I started the season with doing the spring fertilizer. At 300 lbs an acre, of custom blend I was a little nervous, I watched the weather and went out and spread it just before what was supposed to be a light rain storm. Well the rain NEVER came... I mean for 3 weeks, we go nothing. I was pretty dishaeartened to say the least, I am normally a go foward person but I was stuck with a negative vibe (the mower was also broken at this time but I am not going to rehash that). It also did not help that the boom that I ordered for the 25 gal sprayer that sits on the ATV was "being built" and the weed were coming up. I really was worried that all the hard work and money that was spent last year was going to go right out the window. The best thing that happened in that time is that the sprayers went on sale and I called the store up and asked if they would credit me for the difference and they did.

21 days after I ordered it, the sprayer arrives. Now kind of a funny for all the weekly cubicle jockeys, I have everything delivered to my office... I get some strange looks :confused2:. I had to wait until the weekend and finally got it assembled. Sprayed both fields and waited, came back the next day, still nothing, on the third day the leaves were yellow and the stems were droopy. Then the rain came, just a little then 2 days later more. Those weeds just curled up. Now they are not gone, but they are MUCH less than any other field on the farm. Also, with the rain the grass started growing, not very fast (but deep green).

Last Thursday went to the first Maryland Rotational Grazing Seminar of the summer Renovating: Overgrazed Winter Pastures, it was good I had some questions about arriation. They have one every month on different topics.

Then on Friday I went to the Soil Conservation Dinner for my county at the invite of my Agents. It was so nice to see other farmers (all 200 of them) and talk shop.

Spent the last couple of days cleaning up the left-over round bale mess, taking it up to the manure compost. Found out that if the hay sits it is a perfect place for flies to breed.

I also, have started to take the goats out with me when I work. They are pretty good at eating the weeds in the pasture and thier pen has been completely overgrazed.

I posted an implement I found on ebay looking for the "drag" and I got a slew of folks that are all about me making one. So this year, I am! I contacted a fence guy today and asked if he could call me when he removes a chainlink fence, offered to pay for a used 8 foot section. I said height is not an issue, don't need anything but the link. He said he would and would like what his scrap guy pays him. I am not sure what scrap fence runs.

Promise I will post pictures soon, let me know if you have any questions!

So glad to be back! :tractor:

 

[BeezFun]

Hi everybody! Back for another season of pasture renovation!

Welcome back, I remember your adventures from last year. The only thing of pasture significance for me has been the aggressiveness of the bindweed. I'm going to have to do something this year, I think I'll use the approach of putting some roundup in a container, immerse the top of the plant in the container then cover the whole thing with a garbage can to keep the critters out. Supposedly if left this way long enough it will absorb the roundup into the roots and kill this nasty stuff. It's like a science fiction movie the way this stuff grows.

Spring has been great here, warm and wet so the pasture is lush. Dandelions are just going to seed in the last few weeks but we've got two horses that really like them, so they eat them down pretty good before they seed. I try to mow the rest. Also bought a 75' round pen so they get their exercise every day and can spend a little more time on the grass.

Hope the weather cooperates for your fertilizing and weeding. I've never had to put anything on our pasture, I think once you get things in shape the grass should be able to fight off a lot of the weeds.

 

[crbr]

Thanks for the pictures.

 

[Learning to Farm]

Ok, more pictures although for some reason there are none of the the boom.

1 and 2. Grass, real grass that I planted growing in rows

3. Looking out at the pasture last fall.

4. Interesting fact for those that like cats, I thought it was cool.

5. Pasture with hay feeder this spring after spreading fert.

6 and 7. Looking through the paddock that abuts my fields at my fields. You can see the less yellow more greenness of them.

8. Critter I do this for and me at a very rainy hunter pace. He is not as thrilled as I am to be in the rain.

 

[Learning to Farm]

Welcome back, I remember your adventures from last year. The only thing of pasture significance for me has been the aggressiveness of the bindweed. I'm going to have to do something this year, I think I'll use the approach of putting some roundup in a container, immerse the top of the plant in the container then cover the whole thing with a garbage can to keep the critters out. Supposedly if left this way long enough it will absorb the roundup into the roots and kill this nasty stuff. It's like a science fiction movie the way this stuff grows.

Hey Beez!

We talked about the bindweed/mile-a-minute last year, sorry to hear it is still a pain, did you talk to your Ag Ext Agent? I think your right about getting to it with Round-up.

Spring has been great here, warm and wet so the pasture is lush. Dandelions are just going to seed in the last few weeks but we've got two horses that really like them, so they eat them down pretty good before they seed. I try to mow the rest. Also bought a 75' round pen so they get their exercise every day and can spend a little more time on the grass.

Woohoo on the round pen... hehehe, make'm work for thier dinners. I never asked how many head do you have on how many acres and what are they? What do you do with them?

Hope the weather cooperates for your fertilizing and weeding. I've never had to put anything on our pasture, I think once you get things in shape the grass should be able to fight off a lot of the weeds.

Thanks, the weather is becoming more normal, we are having rain on and off and the temp is maintaining spring-like (not summer/autum). My goal is to not to have to put fertilizer down but once a year (if that) and to not have to spray, but given that the quality of the field was so bad (40% or less of desirable, if any ground cover) that the best option was kill it and start over (not one that I could do). I have to take some drastic measures now. I can already see where the grass is preventing erosion and the weeds are less (even before spraying) because the grass is "strong". The last siminar this summer for the Rotational Grazing is "Au Natural, Non-Chemical Weed Control", which is pretty cool.

Happy Friday!
LTF

 

[Learning to Farm]

Thanks for the pictures.

Crbr, your welcome. :thumbsup: I love to take photos and this is a good place to put them. If you have any questions or would like to see something in particular, please let me know.

 

[Learning to Farm]

Happy May, well since my last post I picked up some chain link to make the drag and did some mowing. I will probably start a thread when I start making it (and post a link here). I also took some pictures of the sprayer and a few of the fields (which I will post from my phone).

 

[BeezFun]

We talked about the bindweed/mile-a-minute last year, sorry to hear it is still a pain, did you talk to your Ag Ext Agent? I think your right about getting to it with Round-up.

Did talk to extension office, they said it's tough to get rid of, they gave me the name of one chemical they claim would kill the bindweed, but it's such nasty stuff I didn't want to use it. They said the roundup thing should work, but it's labor intensive. Since my labor has no value, that's the route I'm going.

Woohoo on the round pen... hehehe, make'm work for thier dinners. I never asked how many head do you have on how many acres and what are they? What do you do with them?

We own two, we've boarded anywhere from 1-3 others, right now we just have one. We have a Paso Fino and an Icelandic, the boarder is an old quarter horse. We have 5 acres of pasture and 1 acre of grass around the house. We let the older horses on the house grass because they don't tear it up. Everyone else goes on the pasture. We live across the street from 3500 acres of forest preserve that's setup for fox hunts (no real foxes), so there's jumps and mowed trails. My wife is a dog trainer so she taught the paso to do all kinds of tricks using the same clicker techniques she used with the dogs. So the horse will situp and beg, fetch the newspaper, heel, pickup her toys, all kinds of stupid things. And of course she rides her. We do shows at retirement homes and kids birthdays with her, she's quite the hit. The Icelandic is new, he's a 4 year old stubborn blockhead, lots of training in his future.

 

[pacerron]

My wife and I went through your thread primarily looking at the pictures and some of the descriptions. You posted the link on "Blue River's" thread this morning or yesterday.
You sure have been busy on your project and are beginning to see some results. Is the soil very sandy there? Looks that way in your pictures.
Is there a problem with horses having "sand colic" in the area.
Did you broadcast a cover crop last fall to fill in between the drilled fescue?
In your picture it doesn't appear so. How long did your extension agent say it would take until you have sufficient cover to allow some limited horse grazing
on the seeded area?
My wife, who is the real horse person, made me promise that we would own property, as soon as possible after marriage, where she could have horses.
It took a few years as a military obligation limited our ability to accumulate much money quickly but she has happily had horses on our home properties for about 40 years now.
Her immediate comment on your last post of pictures was that low square
2 board high thing, which is probably where you put the round bales you mentioned, is just an accident waiting to happen. Horses are beautiful animals but if they can find a way to hurt themselves, especially their legs, they will do it or their buddies in the pasture with them will force them into getting hurt. Just a split splinter sticking out of an old oak rail fence can do a lot of damage if a 1000 pounder runs into it or decides to rub there.

Good luck on your pasture renovations and in your competition events.
Keep posting your progress on TBN.
Ron