New Pasture for New Year

Ready for the new year?

Do you have goals or ideas to try something new in 2019?  We hope you do!  At DS Family Farm we are always in change mode or trying to be.

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.

Benjamin Franklin

Over the past few months we have developed some new pasture area right around the house.  This area has been in the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) for over 30 years.  In 1987 it was seeded to a native grass mix.  When we moved to the site in 1997 we planted a number of trees as windbreaks or what is known in the area as a “shelterbelt”.  After the dirty 30’s dust bowl there was a huge effort across the Great Plains to plant shelterbelts to help slow the wind.  Many of these old shelterbelts have been removed but we bucked the trend and actually planted one.  Shelterbelts provide a number of benefits beyond slowing the wind including:

• Wildlife habitat
• Pleasant views
• Block noise (road traffic)
• Trap snow

Bringing in the herd

It is our guess that this land has not had any significant animal impact for over a hundred years now.  With the new fence in place we can begin the process of rotating the herd across this area.  Yes we will graze through the trees along with the grass!  The shelterbelt has grown up with all kinds of diverse vegetation over the past 20 years, the cattle will love it.  Using proper grazing management, the herd impact will only improve the entire area.

The grasses are in desperate need of beneficial animal impact that the cattle herd will provide.  With lack of grazing, the grass stand is stagnant with bare crusted soil areas between individual grass plants.  Cattle hooves are designed to break this soil crust and stomp the stagnant grass making a more desirable seed bed to grow new grass.

A key monitoring site was established east of the house several years ago.  We are photo monitoring and recording basic grass species composition at this site.  In addition we have taken soil samples and will track the changes to the grass and soil as the animals return and make their impact.

Again we wish you the best for the new year and urge you to get out there and make the change happen that you have dreamed about.

If you are in the area, please stop by and check out the herd that is always on the moooove.