Thank you for this video, it was very instructive. My daughter and her husband just bought a NICE small house on 19 acres of which 12 are neglected pasture. The elderly widow who owned it was just too infirm to manage it so my son in law has a big chore ahead of him. The BIG issue is the trees in the pasture. I have urged him to lay out the pasture into small pastures for day grazing and save one big tree in each or build an open shed (roof, no walls) so the animals could get some shade. Then he needs to bring in a forestry mulcher and just clear out everything else. Leave it over the winter, disc harrow in the spring and fertilize and seed with a proper mix of grass, clover etc. The next spring he can put cattle on it. I am not a farmer so I hope I have this right. Comments are welcome. FYI, the waiting period and the disc harrowing is to be sure to cut up and knock down the saplings and be sure they compost.
Good job. Now you produce more grass then you need more fertile soil and more clean water running in that creek that the soil is releasing all the time
He is referring to strip grazing. Allocating one days’ worth of pasture at a time using temporary electric fencing. He mixes the seed together and plants it with a no-till drill.
i dont mean to be so off topic but does someone know of a method to get back into an Instagram account?? I was stupid lost the account password. I would appreciate any help you can give me!
@Shepard Warren I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site through google and Im trying it out atm. Takes a while so I will get back to you later with my results.
That is a daikon radish you see at 4:16. That mix was planted on September 2nd and the radish grow rapidly if planted in late summer. That short clip was filmed probably in late November that fall. You can go to the VFGC website at vaforages.org and look under the Resources tab, then Research and Publications and read the full case study summary titled Using Annual Forages and Grazing Management to Build Soil Health and Improve System Performance.
Thank you for sharing this. Can improvement like this be had on smaller pastures? We just moved to a very rural 10 acre property and the house sits on about 2 acres. The rest we are going to use for grazing. we essentially have 3 fields, with the biggest being about 4 acres, that we want to move 5 or so cows through. We're wondering if sectioning off the fields into smaller paddocks of about 1-2 acres would help, then rotate through them a week or so at a time?
How are cattle ranchers just figuring this out? Oats, radishes, vetch, and clover? Dude deer hunters have been planting that mix for decades, that's every food plot mix ever made lol
Maybe it was focusing on cattle then forage then soil. Riparian zone defense was a step. I'd say it's 1) perimeter fence, 2) water infrastructure 3) moveable crossfencing, 4) introduce and train mix of livestock to respect wire and eat weeds 5) move them tightly bunched according to where the forage is ready to have them put on and taken off, 6) observe and make adjustments in all factors according to holistic principles, 7) use yield to benefit self family community 8) train your replacement so your place will continue to have good care 9) give gratitude in all directions including up.
Mr. Gritman , You can email vfgcforages@gmail.com with your email address or phone number so that one of the board members can contact individually or perhaps contact your local extension office to look the site over and give some custom recommendations.
