24 bale

A 10 acre portion of that pasture I talked about in the last post just yielded 24 round bale of hay comprised mostly of bahaia grass.  We expect to get at least half as much in the Fall following more rain throughout the summer months. 

The only off farm input was lime and water from November 2011 onward.  Before that we had about 18 head of cattle on the whole 40 acres, so they provided the nitrogen.  Soil tests revealed we are still deficient in nitrogen (about 1 ton/A), and P and K.

I know a lot of folks in the beyond organic crowd frown on hay production with regards to pasture renovation, but we need to do something to keep the land in ag use for taxation purposes since we no longer have cows on the place.  This was an easy, no-cost fix (someone else baled for half the hay).

Sporobolus indicus mitigation in Texas pastures

This is not a scientific study.  This is an observation of what happened during a 1.5 year timeframe on my pasture when compared with that of my neighbors across the road.

Like our neighbor's pasture, our pastures were overrun with small smutgrass with some bahaia and weeds mixed in.  Suggestions were made to mitigate the smutgrass with poison and mechanical removal.  Both options were not attractive.  I had pretty much decided that I would use animals and heavy rotational grazing in an attempt to reduce the selective feeding habits in a continuous grazing system, thereby giving the other grasses in the pasture a fair shake.

Various circumstances, some out of our control, prevented us from following through with the rotational grazing plans.

Killing Chickens

Well if everything goes as planned it looks like I'm going to have an opportunity to help a local farmer butcher 100 birds on Saturday. I met him through my investigation for a source of highly available phosphorous for our pastures. The search led me to a company called Fertrells who sells hi-grade, organic soil amendments. They in turn referred me to a local rep who also happens to be a pastured poultry farmer.

I know that this doesn't sound very fun to most people, but I'm really looking forward to the experience. Now don't get me wrong I'm not into killing things, but I am interested in learning how to process chickens since that is a skill that we'll need on the farm, and one of the many that I lack.

I talked to the guy over the phone briefly, and we really seemed to hit it off, so maybe I'll gain a friend out of it. That'd be nice.

I'll let you know how it goes. Unfortunately I will probably not be able to post any pictures as Suz (the photographer) will not be there, and I expect my hands to be a little too messy to wield a camera. Besides, I'm there to work and I don't want to hold up the show since this guy was nice enough to let a greenhorn come over and help.

Tractors and Stuff

Hey I figured if I'm gonna farm I need a tractor.

I can't and don't want to afford new, so I'm looking around for a good used one.

I like Fords. John Deere is good, but they are priced too high used (and new) if you ask me. I know nothing about Mahadra, Case, Massey Ferguson, Kubota, or International Harvester

I have a couple of really old John Deere (A and B) tractors that I thought about fixing up, but I'm afraid time is a factor, and I need something up and running within the next year. In case you think that is plenty of time, well, it isn't. I travel for work about 85% of the time currently, so a fixer-upper isn't something I can fit in my schedule.

Can anyone reading this give some advice on this matter? Specifically I would like for you to speak of equipment you've either owned or currently own. Talk about problems, maintenance, pluses, minuses, equipment options, whatever.

Also does anyone know if the older tractors have a problem with the ULSD (ultra-low sulfur diesel). The reason I ask is because I had to make some repairs to my old 1996 Ford F250 powerstroke due to the ULSD eating away at the seals that weren't spec'd for it.

Thanks.