the complete guide to creating great pastures for your Dexter cattle

hi I'm Pete and welcome to just a few acres farm are you starting your own small farm or homestead and facing a situation like this old overgrown farm fields that need to be cleared for grazing Dexter's or other animals or maybe you're starting with this soil that's been overworked crop farming for years is low in organic content and bare how do you create premium high energy grazing ground when you're starting with these situations that's the subject of this video I'm going to give you a step-by-step process with a bunch of alternatives the first thing to remember is that you can't create premium pasture overnight it takes at least a year and you have to be patient the other general rule to remember is the more work you put in the better your pasture will be and that upfront investment will pay back over decades and unfortunately it's begun to rain so I'm going to talk about the rest of this subject inside I know of four different methods for creating pasture out of overgrown farmland and I'll go through them ranking from least amount of work to most amount of work the least amount of work is to just put animals on it and start grazing it cattle or sheep or goats sheep and goats are best for taking down bushes we have a lot of problems with buckthorn here and they'll don't browse those bushes but it's not a real good method in terms of the final product because you're working with what's there and you're not introducing some of the more high energy forage like alfalfa and some of the non-native clovers there are things that animals just won't graze like thistle and horse nettles and all of those spiny plants they'll pass them over so you're gonna need to come over with a mower to keep them down the second method is what I call mow mow mow you start out with an overgrown field you brush Hoggett you knock it down and in the first year you continue to mow it until the grass has a chance to start to take dominance and the weeds are subdued this is a fairly low labour method but it has the same disadvantages is to starting out grazing in that you're not introducing the high energy forages into your plant mix and your cattle or other animal nutrition suffers while you're whipping your pasture into shape the third method is usually used in combination with the first two and that's frost seeding / seeding or passing clover seed through the animals via their feed so that they seed the pasture with their manure this is a good way to introduce higher energy forages into your pasture but the problem is you can't see delft alpha this way and also I've never had much luck with it frost seeding is really touchy as far as when you do it you have to do it when it's freezing and thawing to work the seed into the ground and over seeding has such a low percentage of germination it's just never worked for us the great thing about these first three methods is they don't require a lot of specialized equipment and when you're starting out with a small farm you have to make the best of what you have so they will work they're just not optimal in my book so let's move on to the fourth method which I believe is by far the best it also entails by far the most work and that is plowing up and receding pasture this is the method that we used when we started our farm we took our land back from a soybean farmer who had tilled it all every year he plowed it up he applied lots of chemicals he planted soybeans and he kept having to put on more and more nitrogen to get the same yield that's the old story so the ground was exhausted when we got it we took it back from him in five to ten acre increments to make the work manageable because as you're gonna see it is a lot of work to do and frankly I'm glad that it's over in our pastures are on their way now and producing well here's the fourth method in a nutshell wait until the proper time of year plow the pasture level the pasture pick the rocks off the pasture let the seeds establish mow while they're establishing to keep the weeds down and wait at least a year for the pasture to take hold so here are the details to this method the best time of year to create new pasture is early in the spring as soon as the ground dries out which in around here is mid-april you plow up the ground or if you're taking previously proud ground like we did you can get by with disking that ground to work the ground up to provide a seed bed you've got to level the ground with either a set of disks or even better a field cultivator or set of spring to thier own and they're gonna pop up all the rocks you have which Russ was a lot I think our best crop is rocks you can also seed in the fall during the wet months after August so September through October in our climate I don't think it's as good as seeding in the spring because the plants have to go dormant soon after establishing through the winter before they can really get going the next spring now is the time to assess the land that you're working with is it wet year round is it seasonally wet doesn't need drainage put in now is the time to do it while you're tilling it up the other thing to do is have soil samples taken we send our soil samples to dairy one and they take samples nationally and the big thing to look for in the samples is the pH of the soil because that's what affects the plant growth the most you can deal with low organic content and low content of any of the other principal nutrients because when you get your pasture going it's going to be starting that cycle which will draw minerals up from deep in the ground and supply those nutrients that are missing in our area we have to deal with low pH our PHS will run from 5 to 5.5 and to get legumes going and thriving you need ph's of around 7 or 7.5 so the application of lime is always part of our pasture establishment process the next step in this greatly depends on what you're starting with if you're starting with overgrown land like I showed in the beginning of this video you're gonna spend a lot of time cutting down brush either with a chainsaw or loppers brush hogging pulling out roots this is hard work and it's going to take you a while if you're working with old cropland like we were the process is much easier because all you really need to do is disk up the ground to get it worked now I am NOT a fan of tillage I hate to see exposed soil but in this case the benefits outweigh the cost because you only have to do it once and if you maintain your pasture properly that system is self-perpetuating so you won't need to till it again after the soil is plowed you'll need a means to level it and work up the clods the best way to break up the clods is with a disk the best way to level the soil is with a field cultivator or a drag Harrow each tool has its own specialized use disks field cultivators and spring to thier own our common farm tools so you don't need to go out and buy them because chances are there's a farmer near you who has them that you can hire to do this work once you're done working and leveling the soil my favorite part starts and that's picking rocks this is our rock picking wagon it's built like a tank and it's held a lot of rocks back in the days before we had a bucket loader we'd fill up this wagon with rocks and it was a family affair me and Hilary and our three kids would all go down and pick rocks we fill up the wagon by hand and then we'd have to unload the wagon by hand which was a real pain having a bucket loader made this works so much easier because we could just load up the bucket I'd drive the tractor to the edge of the field and dump the rocks in a pile half the work picking rocks is an agonizing process we would spend days picking off a 5 or 10 acre field and it occurred in three steps first we'd pick the rocks before we seed it and we would methodically go over the field back and forth and back and forth to get all the rocks then we'd seed the field and then after we seen it inevitably as rain washed the soil and the soil settled for rocks would appear so after seeding and after the seeding came up we'd go back and do a second pass in the same way back and forth and back and forth the third time is after we've mowed the field once and we've caught rocks on the mower that were still there that mysteriously popped up after the second pecking so we do a third pecking all this is a lot of work and you're usually doing it in the heat of summer because that's when the grass is coming on and this whole process is occurring although I've you picking rocks as a character building exercise for our children there are easier ways to do it for those who wish to avoid it completely there are toe behind rock picking machines and once again if you have a neighbor farmer with one maybe you can hire them out to do it and save yourself a lot of work once you've got the field relatively clean of rocks and everything's level you can start with seeding and I recommend a diverse mix of plants for your seeding we use a mixture of about 40 percent legumes alfalfa red and white clover along with timothy grass currant perennial ryegrass and orchard grass there's a lot of other species out there these are just the ones that we've found that worked best over time I definitely recommend using alfalfa because it cycles nutrients from deep up in the ground it's very deep-rooted we use this to seed fields although it's upside down now when you turn it right-side up it mounts to a three-point hitch and it's a broadcast seeder it has a hopper that you dump the seed in the bottom whirls around and broadcast the seed into the field it's not the best way to seed it's better to drill seed if you can with a seed drill but we don't have one and they're expensive and these you can pick up on auction for pretty cheap and they're also good for over seeding or frost seeding if you ever have to do that right after you broadcast the seed the best way to work the seed into the ground is with a cult a packer and that's just a row of wheels that have points on them that run across the ground and pack the seed onto the ground and into the top eighth inch or so of the soil you can also work the seed in by rigging up something on your tractor that drags a chain behind the tractor and just scarify the ground a little bit to work the seed in it doesn't need much cover after you seed the field you wait and you hope for rain it's going to take a while for the seed to come up and the weeds will come up faster than the seed no matter how well you've worked soil the weeds are going to take over and the way you keep them at bay and the first growing season is through mowing we use a sickle bar mower to do the first mowings and typically there's two in the first year about a month after seeding we mow to knock the weeds down and then you have to do it again a second time about a month after that mowing with a sickle bar mower does a good job because it's easy on the plant roots whereas rotary mower like a bush hog tends to tear at the roots and also a sickle bar mower lays down a nice even swath of the cut weeds and they wind up being mulch for the new seedlings to help hold moisture in the ground so your pasture is going to take that whole first growing season to develop and establish and interim mowings will help that establishment greatly if things work out well we're able to take one cutting of hay off that seeding late in the first year but we will not pass your cows on that land till at least the next spring because before hoof traffic gets on them and before cow start munching on those plants and pulling at the root systems they need to be well established the final task for getting your pasture going in the first year is pH adjustment remember I talked in the beginning about having soil samples taken to look especially at soil pH always in the fall of the first year after the ground or map we call the local seed company to come and spread lime force at a rate of two tons per acre and that's the maximum you can top dress with lime usually the recommendations from the soils lab or that we add five tons per acre of lime but you can't top dress with that much so our plan is that we start with that two-ton top dressing and then after that initial application in about five year intervals we go back and do further two ton top dressings to keep the soil pH alkaline even if you're not establishing the pasture per my recommendations of tilling and all this rock picking and stuff lime will always benefit soil pH if your pH is acid and it'll make an amazing change in your pasture clover and alfalfa growth so even if you're working an old pasture into shape lime can do wonders for you when you put on lime it takes a while to work and usually what we see is about the late spring to middle of the second year the legumes really start to explode and another side benefit of adjusting the pH is that higher pH will crowd out the weeds the weeds just don't like it when the soil gets up into the above 7 pH range and you won't see them anymore the grasses that you've seen it will finally take over now onto maintaining your new pasture when we started farming I thought well seeding a new pastures great but we're going to have to reseed it every 7 to 10 years because the legumes are going to get crowded out and the whole system just needs to be renewed I've changed my opinion completely on that I think with proper grazing and hanging these pastures will last indefinitely and only become more productive over time the key to keeping your pastures at optimal growth and getting that cycle going faster and faster of grass growth and carbon sequestration and soil building is to always keep your grass at the Steep point of the growth curve and that steep part of the curve is between eight inches tall and when the grass starts to go to seed which is when the stock starts to emerge from the plant you always want to be grazing in that situation or taking hay off of it if it gets past you if you don't do that your pasture system will decline its productivity will decrease because the plants aren't being stimulated to keep growing and to keep sending out their root systems and spreading and sending their roots deeper and developing more resilience to cattle grazing so you want to keep your pastures going in that way grazing the pasture this way at the Steep point of the growth curve which is a very common idea you can find it in books and other videos all over the internet is that it also keeps the legumes from being crowded out or shaded out by the taller grasses it's quite common to see first seated pastures explode with clover and then the clover to decline over the life of the pasture and that's because the the grasses are allowed to get too tall and the clover gets crowded out but if you keep your grass short the clover will keep thriving as well as the alfalfa which is also a shorter plant next point of proper maintenance is clipping the pasture if you're just using the field for pasture and you're not taking hay off of it there will be weed plants here and there that the cattle will pass over a horse nettles is a big one here the cattle just won't eat them they're very thorny so once in a while you have to go over the pasture either with a brush hog or a sickle bar mower to take down those weeds and keep them from spreading it's just a part of having a good pasture system if you're taking hey you're going to be knocking down those plants to begin with so you don't need to worry about clipping in between grazing --zz final point about pasture maintenance don't graze your pastures too late in the season when late fall comes the plants need some time to store their energy into their root systems so they can get started the next spring and this is especially true with alfalfa so when you're in the last month of the growing season it's best to keep your cattle off of that particular field so the plants can regenerate and store that energy now after the plants go dormant you can run the cattle back over them in gray stockpiled forage which is just what they've left above the surface for the winter until they start new sprouts in the spring starting a new pasture right is an investment and you can choose which way you do it from the least work to the most work but I guarantee you the more work you put into it the better your results will be and I absolutely hate things like picking rocks and even tilling up the soil but now we're reaping the war rewards so my advice to you do it the right way and sit back and see how healthy your fields become thanks for joining me and I'll see you next time oh by the way we just hit a thousand subscribers this morning on YouTube I am so grateful to you all for subscribing if you haven't subscribed please subscribe this is where we wanted to be from the beginning to start making a little money off of YouTube so I am extremely grateful to you all for that see you next time

Channel: Just a Few Acres Farm

Views: 299,004

Keywords: Dexter cattle, Dexter cattle homestead, raising dexter cattle, dexter cows for meat, dexter cows for beef, how to raise dexter cows, dexter cattle grazing, small farm life, farming, farm, homestead, just a few acres farm, growing dexter beef, how to plant pasture, how to plant cattle pasture, best grazing for cattle, planting field for hay and grazing, different methods for planting pasture, best pasture plants cattle

Id: Z3zILB_iCNw

Length: 18min 2sec (1082 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 31 2020