Most of us go into raising animals with the intent of raising them on pasture. We are often told how easy it is. Just put some chickens out there and they will take care of it. After a while you start to realize that as great as it is to have chickens out on the grass, you aren’t seeing any real progress. How do we go about improving pastures on our homestead, while using regenerative practices?
Simple Suggestions For Pasture Improvement
Improving pastures can get expensive quickly. With research and planning, the costs can be greatly diminished.
- Study what is growing in your pasture right now. The plants that are growing in your pasture are indicators of it’s health. For example, buttercups are a sign of overgrazing and are not palatable to livestock.
- Be realistic about how many animals you can raise. Give the pasture a thirty day rest before it is grazed again.
- Use a sacrifice field to keep the animals on once the grass has stopped growing. This allows for fall seeding and lets the delicate new growth mature before grazing resumes.
- Adding chickens in the pasture rotation mix. Chickens do a wonderful job of tilling. Move them onto any weedy and unpalatable areas and they will decimate it.
- Start thinking of your pasture as a garden. What nutrients does it need? The weeds you have hopefully identified will let you know the condition of the soil. Then decide on the most reasonable approach to make amendments.
- Research what, when and where is the right time to seed. Grass seed has skyrocketed over the last couple years. There is going to be some trial and error but doing some research will help avoid some errors.
Improving pastures takes time. Pay attention to your animals and make sure they are getting enough to eat. This can lead to some hard decisions about selling off stock and or supplementing with hay or grain. Each year you will notice improvements and see what works and doesn’t.
