B. Hicks

Thank you very much.  Those are good pieces of advice.  I wonder what to do about the paths.  I don't want to waste good organic material piling up mulch on them, but I should try to keep the grass down I guess.  Does anyone have any recommendations?

Hello all you wonderful people,

We just moved in last fall to our 12 acres in Western Maryland, and we are feeling our way through the beginnings.  Any guidance you all could offer on the following questions will be much appreciated.  

We have 16 hens out in electronet on a small (160 sf) paddock and a mobile coop.  They have been parked there on that part of the pasture for the past couple of months so they will kill the grass to prepare the area for a garden.  

Now, the grass seems to be about 75-80% killed, but there's parts that are really hanging on.  Should I trust that they'll be gone by August?  Maybe should I feed them less grain so they'll go for that grass that's left?

Also, when they move out of that paddock, leaving bare poopy dirt behind, that's hardly an ideal seed-ready garden patch, isn't it? It's too compacted.  I know I should pull it up a bit and aerate it, and I plan to broadfork it in order to do this -- Getting a pig might be another option, but it requires more prep than ordering a broadfork from Johnny's and waiting for the UPS truck.  I imagine amending the soil some more is a very good idea, too... I have on hand the following materials for free:

-Very old (2-3 years) hay
-Newish hay just cut from our pastures
-Lots of wood chips
-Straw plus wood chips plus chicken poo from the indoor coop that they slept in before we put them in that paddock.
-All of the above spiked with dog poo and pee from the puppies' kennel (probably not a good idea, at least for a year or so).

I could also easily get some horse manure and probably some bags of leaves.  

Whatever material I get, I reckon it'll either be folded in (quick incorporation, more work, what do I use to do it?) or sat on top and let rot (takes a long time, easier to do).  

Do you all have any opinions or advice about this?  I appreciate any guidance you are willing to give!  Many thanks!

Take good care, and rock on!

--Barb and Geoff

Hello all --

We are very new to homesteading, and moved into this 12-acre place in Western Maryland last fall.  We are getting a fence put in around two 4-acre pastures and would like to put a dairy cow out there when we do.  My husband has gone out with a scythe and mowed less than half an acre of one of the pastures, just as kind of an experiment -- we made a bit of hay with that.

We are planning to do intensive rotational grazing.  But all the unmowed grass is so tall (thigh-high), having not been cut since last fall.  And now that it's early June, I imagine the quality is going down.  Could a cow do all right on the unmowed places, or should we get the neighbor in to mow / bush hog it all?  

Any advice would be appreciated.

--Barbara

I sure appreciate the input, everyone.  You are all quite generous with your time and expertise.

… Make a mobile coop framed with metal pipe, like a giant tinkertoy set?   It would be an A-frame with no walls but a roof, and electric fencing around it.  

Is there a reason I'm not seeing other people doing this on image searches?

Thank you for your input.