Field of Broomsedge 

The picture above is one of the first pictures we took of the farm, before we even owned it. This was taken 14 months ago.  Half of our pasture was covered with a wispy, broom like grass that was so tall, we couldn't see the terrain features. It scared Liz to death when I drove the truck right through this field of what we later learned was primarily broomsedge. There was a lot of dog fennel in there as well. Neither of these is "desirable", we later learned, for grazing.  So, they would have to be "weeded out" so to speak.  But since we were against using chemicals on the land, how would we do this?  Thus began our adventure to heal and restore
Dog Fennel our pastures with as little impact as possible.

We started with a soil test which confirmed that our land, like most in the south, was low in pH and organic matter. In fact, broomsedge is often a fairly accurate barometer of the acidity and organic condition of the soil.  So, right away (to buy me some time), I cautioned Liz that it would take three years in my opinion to restore the pastures to great grazing condition. The strategy I deployed included these steps:

1. Begin mowing (bush hogging) the pasture frequently to knock down the weeds, thus preventing them from shading the grasses and encouraging the grasses to grow.
2. Lime the pasture at least twice, once last fall (which I did) and again this spring (which I will do) to increase the pH and create a less favorable environment for broomsedge, dog fennel, etc.
3. Only plant new forage very selectively and only in the first year of operation. 
   
4. Focus on improved management strategies for three years and see what impact the effects are of management intensive grazing.  In other words, help the animals do the work.
   

Last year I bush hogged a lot.  Late last fall, I broadcast spread ryegrass, which is now coming up and will take root and shade out some of the weeds. Half of our pasture is a beautiful old stand of tall fescue which, regrettably, is not the endophyte-free variety and therefore, poses a risk of toxicosis.  However, the endophyte is located near the seedhead so I figured that I could mitigate this risk by managing rotations carefully to ensure it never approached that level of maturity.  So far it's working like a charm and the cows love it.

Additionally, my plan was and is to seed in Durana Clover, a persistent, productive and long-lived white clover that would fix nitrogen in the soil, provide a wonderfully nutritious legume option for the grazers and reduce the density of the fescue in that field.  However, to ensure the best chance of success in establishing the clover, I needed to increase the soil pH; hence the need for a second application of lime this spring.   As Durana Clover is a cool-season forage, I will plant it with a no-till seed drill this fall.

Spreading pasture seedOther than the clover, I have no plans to mechanically plant anything else.  However, that doesn't mean I'm not doing my part to add variety and new sources of forage to the pasture. As part of introducing new forages only in the first season, I opted to hand seed selected forages along with daily rotation of the cows.   My plan was to create a pasture mix of nutritious and palatable forages that were missing in our pasture, and to seed them by hand daily just before moving the cows to their new paddock. The picture to the left shows me doing just that this last weekend.  Those cows are mesmerized by my every move, waiting patiently for their new salad to grow.  Either that or their anxious for their daily move.

Joel Salatin likes to use the phrase "salad bar" when describing ideal forage for his animals, and I think that's a good description of what we're going for.  A lot of farmers in Georgia, and elsewhere, will plant one crop, such as Coastal Bermuda.  This may make fine horse hay and sells for a "pretty penny", but would you want to eat just that every day?  Liz and I often sit right in the middle of the cows and watch them graze. They can be so selective in determining what they want., so we want to give them a varied diet.  The mix I'm spreading in the picture consists of three cool-season forages; Crimson Clover, Puna Chicory and Birdsfoot Trefoil. 

The Chicory is leafy, highly palatable and has a deep taproot, making it a good choice for drought climates.   It's actually an herb and provides both spring and summer grazing.
Seeds we're planting

The Trefoil is also a highly palatable forage and quite beautiful to look at with its yellow flowers. Perhaps you've seen it...click here to see a picture.

And the Crimson clover will provide similar benefits to those mentioned previously for the Durana Clover.

Why did I plant them this way, and will they "take" without being "drilled" into the soil?  Well, they probably won't take without being drilled, but I decided to let the cows do the drilling for me. Their toes are magnificently designed to twist and turn, pushing any seeds spread before them right into the soil as they graze away.  As if that's not enough, they're kind enough to fertilize the planting for me, all in the same day before repeating the cycle again the next day in the ensuing paddock.  The picture to the left shows the cows hoof print after a grazing
Cow Printday, with the seeds being pushed firmly into the soil.  Sure, this is a fair amount of work (for me, not the cow) and will take some time, but it's a good way to introduce new forages into our pasture since we're out there moving the cows anyway. And it give us a few extra minutes with them which is always a pleasure.  But, man are they impatient. Moo, moo, moo is all I hear which translates into "hurry up and finish and moooove us!".

In the end, I still think three years is the right answer.  Pasture condition, in my opinion, reflects the management quality of that pasture more than anything else.  We all like to say it's the drought, weeds, etc., but in the end we can't control drought. We can control how we manage the land and the grazing, and I believe that proper management will return this land to beautiful, palatable and highly nutritious grazing land.  Time will tell.