Pasture "Management"...

[Tim Horton]

This is maybe a little different prospective..  So hope this is an appropriate place to be able to post and share info..

Our big pasture is reclaimed bush and lodge pole pine, logged and stumped going on 20 years ago.. For the last number of years there has been no large livestock on it.  So some bush and invasive grasses have come back..

My basic plan, on the cheap, is to brush hog mow to subdue un-wanted plants..  I mow pretty much all of it every other year. This being a mow it all year.  Then on alternate years I mow patches to control things like thistle, and drag a chain harrow and rack of old tires over patches. 

The harrow and tire drag is quite effective in that it will break down most weed stalks.  It will flatten the grass, but grass seems to come back quicker.. Somewhat suffocating, or significantly setting back weeds..  

This process takes more time, and tractor seat time, but what I can read is much cheaper than the plow under, replant from a start method..  The only animals on the pasture are wild life..    We do rake and gather behind the brush hog mower some  cuttings for our small livestock.. 

In a couple areas I tried seeding perennial rye grass.  Doing this different times of the year, but it seems with no result..  I am the definition of "black thumb" when it comes to growing most any plant..  But I will keep at it.  

We do plan to plant several rows of local berry bushes..  These for the fruit and wind breaks, snow accumulation in the pasture. 

I'm sure if we could find a herd of goats or sheep to let graze it down for a couple summers would help... But with the game trails past our swamp and pond livestock like that would turn it into more of a bear magnet than it is now.. 

A prospective from the far north.. 

[bearcreekfarm]

We had goats a long time ago. I think we got rid of them ten years ago. Since then many unused areas of our 240 acre farm have become quite overgrown with grass, weeds, brambles, junk trees, etc. Recently we purchased a herd of a dozen Nigerian Dwarf goats. The herd is split in two with the four males in a small paddock up near the barn and the eight females in a separate paddock near the orchard.

It has been insane watching how fast these goats are eating through all of the unwanted vegetation- kind of scary, actually, lol. We have had to expand the male goat pen three times already- we are mob grazing them in the hope of forcing them to eat more of the weeds that are low on their list of favorites, but we will wind up cutting down a lot of stinging nettle because they don't seem to eat that- although they do eat Canada thistle, go figure.

The females started out in a larger paddock and it took them 3 weeks to work their way through that. I expect that their current paddock will last at least 6 weeks, maybe longer if we get some rain and the first half of it grows back a bit.

The ground in our pastures is too rough to mow. We have pocket gophers that wreak havoc out there- we trap them constantly but they leave behind huge dirt mounds that are rough on the equipment. I think that once the goats have eaten away enough of the vegetation so that we can see the mounds again hubby will till them up with his large tiller, then rake it all down and level the ground but it is a lot of work. He might decided to just leave them and let the goats graze them as the grass will grow on top of them.

But as far as keeping goats fenced- we are using electric netting this time around and it is working beautifully well. I know that at least one manufacturer makes a bear proof electric netting fence, so depending on how large an area you are trying to clear......

We are using netting from Premier and also a brand called Powerfields that we get at our local farm supply store. Each roll is 164' long and we are using three rolls right now for the larger girl goat pen. Only one for the boys as we are moving them around to different sides of the barn so that they can clear all around it. If you could get some of the bear proof fencing that might do the trick. We have bears in the neighborhood but rarely see them and doubt that they would come after our goats. Coyotes, on the other hand, we have a ton of, but the electric netting has kept them away from our goats.

Not sure if you would consider the electric netting to be cheap or not in your situation but we are thrilled with it here. It takes a little bit of time and effort to clear a path to set it up in but once that is done the first time maintaining it is pretty quick and easy.