What I've learned So Far About Quality Pasture

Ok. I'm reading the book that I mentioned in my previous post. And all I can say is that there is a ton of inormation in a little space. In order to help me understand what I've read, I need to regurgitate it through talking about it. Toward that end, I will be publishing what I have learned from time to time.

What I find fascinating is that conventional wisdom goes against what this book teaches. Yet, these ideas are not new. Many farmers, if not all, used to put back what they took out of the soil not that long ago. Mr Nation, when beginning his journey toward sustainable agriculture, couldn't find the information he was seeking here in the States. He had to travel to other countries to find it. Places like New Zealand, Ireland and Argentina. These sustainable practices are common place in these countries. This raises the question, why are farmers in this country so reluctant? Most of the reason is that American farmers believe that grain is cheap. This simply isn't true. A pound of good, quality pasture is produces the same reslults as a pound of grain. The pasture is a lot less expensive (less lime, potassium and nitrogen inputs) than grain and takes only the energy of the sun to grow it and the energy of the ruminant animal to harvest it. No big tractors that take large amounts of fuel. No balers. No tilling etc. All of which cost money.

Quality pastures will have good amounts of organic matter, lots of earthworms, dense and diverse growth, young, infiltrated with legumes and relatively weed free. We are not growing quality pasture on Cedar Cove Farm, that is evident. Are you?

Soil organic matter is made up of dead roots from grass and other plants, and helps the soil breathe by creating pourousness, it also acts as a buffer against pestacides (which we don't use here), and ties up poisonous heavy metals like aluminum (that is neat!) What I have done is feed hay on various parts of the pasture to get the organic matter up through the left-overs. I also spread the chicken waste, ashes from the wood stove, and sawdust. High organic matter soils can absorb as much as four to five inches of rainfall without run-off. This effectively double the annual rainfall for your farm through retention.

On the idea of lime. The soils desperately need it for the calcium. But conventional wisdom says to dump a few tons every few years. This can produce the opposite effect by over doing it. What should happen is, applying 200-500 lbs pre acre on an annual basis. Spring being the best time of year, when the rainfall is good. Rain is needed to wash off the residual lime from the leaves of the grass, then the cattle will eat it.

What we need to start with here is lime. Our budget is very limited, so lime will take precedence as it is the cheapest. I am interested in sending a soil sample to Fertrell for analasys and they will tell me exactly what my soil needs, (minerals etc...) and even custom blend it. Being a new Fertrell dealer, we will get it delivered to us and can watch and report the results. I'll keep you posted on that.

I have a lot of information to share, but I don't want to over do it. I'll share a little at a time. Keep coming back and check for updates. If you love your farm, I know you will find this as interesting as I do. Until next time....