Planning 2017: Establishing the Pasture

The farm sits on 7 acres of land.  The house, yards, and orchard are currently on about 3 of that.  The remaining 4 acres is currently sitting mostly empty since we moved in.  We have planted a few trees.  As well as planted a small food plot for deer, but for the most part, we have done very little with it.

We enjoy being able to look out the back of the house with the chance to see birds, deer, and pheasants enjoying the habitat letting this land go to nature has provided.  The drawback is the noxious weeds that we have to control and the very little benefit we receive from the land.  I am hoping to find some balance that allows the best of both worlds.

The first step will be to get the weeds under control.  I have mowed small areas for a trail and to plant the food plot.  I have been pretty surprised with the stands of grass with will come in when the tall weeds are knocked down.  The first step will be to be able to knock the weeds down consistently throughout the summer.  I haven’t been able to come up with an effective solution that doesn’t involve buying some equipment.  This will either have to be a belly mower for Allis Chalmers C  or a pull behind self-powered trail mower that can be used by the tractor or the 4 wheeler.

After we can knock the weeds down, we will be able to focus on trouble areas more easily.  We can attack trouble noxious weeds will easy access.  Then if we have to plant grass or another type of cover in certain areas with the focus on small areas.  Once that is established we can do a few things with it.  We could put some livestock on it.  We could mow it and use it as hay.  I am sure there are other things that I just haven’t thought about it.

I would also like to put parts of silvopasture concepts into the land.  This is basically adding trees into the pasture.  I would like these trees to have a few uses.  One would be to give us some food items.  These would be less managed than an orchard, but would still allow us to forage for food.  The second use would be for them to provide food for the wildlife or livestock.  The last would be for a harvest of wood.  Some of the types of trees I am considering mulberry, oak, crab apple, osage orange, walnut, and maple.

This will definitely be one for the more expensive and labor-intensive projects for the coming year. I feel that we have waited long enough to tackle it and it will only become harder the longer we put it off and rewards that will come from getting it done will easily make it all worth it.