Hello, we recently purchased 10 acres and a house that needs a complete remodel. We want to establish a silvopasture/rotational grazing system, but that is a couple of years down the road (complete remodel and all..). The pasture has terrible pugging and was previously hayed and managed by the next door neighbor. In an effort to help regenerate the soil and give the land a break we decided to let the pasture lay fallow this year. We live in California and are now realizing that may not have been the best idea as it’s a fire hazard. Neighbors aren’t super happy with it, and it keeps me worried...
At this point it’s too tall and dry to mow and I’m not sure what our options are. It currently doesn’t have water on it. The irrigation system is in bad shape and will require a few thousand dollars before we can get it up and running (have to fix ponds and such first). I’ve looked into renting it out to have someone put animals on it, but here you have to pay people to run animals on your property (instead of them paying rent), and there’s also the issue that the animals wouldn’t have water access. I’ve wondered if there is a way we could knock down/crimp the grass and weeds that are still standing and maybe that would act more like a mulch holding more moistur and reducing fire risk...? Are there solutions I’m not thinking of? Thanks for any input!
