# Pasture plans



## Willow (Jun 12, 2011)

[attachment=0:10kykygk]june 12 016.JPG[/attachment:10kykygk][attachment=1:10kykygk]goats may 062.JPG[/attachment:10kykygk][attachment=2:10kykygk]meadow life 016 water trace.jpg[/attachment:10kykygk]I'm thinking about seeding in my 1 acre pasture. I cant really get it plowed...problems with access. I though that i could rotatill some "stripes" in it...early spring and in the fall and plant some yummy goat food.
What do you think about flax and buckwheat? I noticed it at the feed store.
There is always winter rye. What else? 
The pasture is wet in areas for part of the Spring and this year... in Fall. This Spring probably wont be to bad...we dont have any snow...so no snow-melt. 
Right now we have a mix of grasses [including cord grass] goldenrod, asters, a little fleabane...too much buttercup[goats dont touch it]. queen anne's lace, yarrow, black-eyed susan, a little red clover, sensitive fern, Joe -Pye weed a little bit of comfrey that I planted. Willow tree sprouts and a few clumps of multiflora rose around the big willow tree. The goats enjoy picking through and browsing...just wondering what I could do to enhance it.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

:drool: Talk about goat paradise!!! I cant wait for Spring and green for the goats. I have been wondering what seed additions can be overspread without sowing necessary.


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## naturalgoats (Jan 3, 2011)

If it were mine I'd just plow up and reseed the bits that have buttercup... The rest seems like it'd be nice for the goats to have the variety...
Just my :2cents:
Have fun! I know the goats will!!!
M.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Parts of one of my pastures has milkweed. I want to get rid of it but pulling it up is near impossible the root system is incredibly strong. Maybe plowing those areas and reseedng would be good.


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## Guest (Feb 14, 2012)

I am planting Sainfoin, Birds foot trefoil and Cicer Milkvetch as well as Chicory in a mix. I will plant 3 acres of purple top turnips next month to give me something to graze till June 1


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## RPC (Nov 6, 2009)

Logan, I was thinking about using weed killer on our Milk weed this spring and then maybe in the fall also to get rid of it so none of the goats get sick and die from it. I have been wondering what we should plant for them to eat.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

on my list are sunflower, red clover, jerusalem artichoke, comfrey, carrots, turnips, rye, oat, birdsfoot trefoil, legumes, oat and mangel beets.


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## Willow (Jun 12, 2011)

Good idea to plow up the spots that have the most buttercup...and seed over. 
another idea....no till...put down cardboard to smother existing plants...dump on a load of barn cleanings....let it rots/compost...kill plants...then til and plant. It worked for creating my veggie garden! 

Yes...i thought of using round-up on parts of the field - we have spot that has some very deadly water hemlock - I think that I got it all out last summer - yanked it by the roots and sprayed some roundup - and kept goats out for several weeks. This year i was going to fence the area and let it come up enough to spray.. so it can take up the herbicide and kill the roots. The neighbors have some in their field..but they are not too cooperative about getting rid of it. I've offered to take care of it for them...just to keep it from spreading.

now..what to plant??


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## Willow (Jun 12, 2011)

Logan, delicious list you've got!!


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Willow I love the idea of the cardboard and covering the stuff we want to kill off. I have some hay bales I don't like and can use them to hold the cardboard down.  

Thanks! It is a list I have collected of planting for goats.


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## Guest (Feb 14, 2012)

Logan you may want to think about taking the Red Clover out of your mix and putting Sainfoin in its place. I had 3 acres of it and it really bloated the goats, killed 2 in one day. It is worse than alfalfa for bloating. I have never planted the Sainfoin before but bought 300lbs to put into my 20 acre alfalfa field which is 6 years old and thinning.


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## Steve (Mar 12, 2011)

Chicory!,goats love it and it is a good summer forage,winter wheat is good to plant in the fall and makes good early spring grazing.

Question about the milkweed,is this the milkweed that has the big fluffly seed pods when they open?
My goats love it and never get sick from eating it,i didnt think it was poison.


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

Yes steve that is the milkweed and it is listed on many lists as toxic. Not sure since my goats haven't been pastured in that field yet if they will eat it or not. 

onder: Sideplaner I thought I had read that red clover was ok but not the white or pink? So much different info out there. If the red is bad I will be sure to spread it sparsely since I already have the 1-# bag. 

Where do you get your seed in nice bulk like that?


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## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

When you all seed a field/pen do you just toss it out over the grass? or till everything up? Just curious, also is there anything that would grow in the shade really well? We have an area across the creek that was all wooded/grown up that we cleared out, and actually have grass coming up. I'd LOVE to plant something else with that grass if it would grow well. Or even add something to their pen/our yard since we graze them there as well.

I don't know anything about this stuff.

BTW, I remember with all the rain we had last year the farmers were losing a lot of cattle due to bloat from eating clover. We have a lot of white clover in our yard/goat pen but didn't seem to be an issue with the goats.

We do feed red and white clover hay. Last summer we bought a red clover mix <possibly timmothy?>, they LOVED that stuff, but couldn't find anymore  Right now we feed a white clover grass hay and they LOVE IT. We haven't had any issues with bloat that I've seen. But I had to back off of it because they were eating it and not wanting to eat the grass hay - getting too expectant of the clover hay <I gave a little in the morning and evening>. So now when I do give it, just once a day. Brats...


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

some seed can be overspread and just tossed around and will take others need to be sown in. I don't know which are which other than oat can be overspread.


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## Guest (Feb 15, 2012)

Logan I got my Sainfoin from one of several seed growers in Wyoming, it is becoming a very popular non bloating legume.
The birds foot trefoil and cicer milkvetch and turnips, chicory, I get from Arrow seed in Broken Bow Ne.
I thought I was doing the right thing planting a pure stand of red clover but soon found out I couldn't graze it,rabbits came from all over to though, and it made a tobacco colored hay, that the goats liked OK but it tied up one of my pastures so I got rid of it. One thing I thought was interesting is these radishes for loosening your soil. Another interesting forage is the tiller corn that Masters Choice came out with you can graze it and a 50lb bag will do 2.5 acres. It cost 125 per bag + shipping they are in ILL I think

http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/.../News-- ... r-Mark-In-.

I have seen a few milk weeds in the ditch and my goats won't touch them.
I use a drill to plant the bigger seeded stuff like oats and sudan, millet etc. I disk harrow and broadcast the smaller stuff like turnips trefoil and teff and then roll pack it. I have a 2 row planter I can plant anything with but it is at 30" spacing so corn is about all I plant with it.


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## Steve (Mar 12, 2011)

Generally you should at least break the soil with a disc or tiller to sow small patches.Sowing before a rain will help the seed make contact with the soil.The time of year you plant has alot to do with seedlings coming through,you should always plan one year ahead and plant in the fall of the previous year you want to graze,this gives seedling time to establish before being trampled and eaten.This is for perennials or biannuals.Two years ago i planted some chicory that i collected from plants growing around the garden and in the hay field,i saved the seed and sowed in the spring,thought the seed was bad cause it did not come up.That fall i had a nice stand of chicory growing and spring came with almost all of it growing very well.Some got weeded out by fescue.

There is alot of info on the net about reseeding pastures and establishing new ones.


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