I would do some research(talk to a local older farmer?) on why the forested part wasn't cleared years ago, or kept clear if it once was cleared?
I do see people here nibbling away at woodlands to extend fields, but then I also see the big equipment rutting up soft ground as usually its quite wet... Usually there's a reason no one in the previous 100-200 years didn't farm it? What I'm seeing in general here is farmers concentrating on improving their better acreage and marginal farmland is being cut up and sold.
Also I don't see many people pasturing beef anymore, but that may be a local thing, up here with a shorter growing season its more cost effective to run land as hay fields than pasture as you need hay for 5 months of the year in any case...
Maybe try clearing a smaller chunk and see how it goes, or get your woodland professionally evaluated? The woodland may provide a smaller, but with a fraction of the labor and investment, source of income forever, if managed properly?