I’m looking into acquiring a pasture of land & creating an ecologically friendly pasture. Tips?
Question by soilsweetie: I’m looking into acquiring a pasture of land & creating an ecologically friendly pasture. Tips?
I have been offered to buy a small pasture of land to tend to because I plan on owning a farm and business in my later years and this will be an introduction for the real thing. Before I make my down payment, there are a few concerns I would like to address; such as crops, grazing systems, irrigation, livestock, types of soil, production, etc. I was thinking about using loamy soil because it very rich, in addition to a rotational grazing systems of sheep and goat. I figured that I could get milk (possibly cheese) and wool. What kind of prices am I looking at, here? I am also considering about 2 dozen hens and 1 rooster, to fertilize eggs (organically) and making a profit. How much profit would I make? How much would it take to care for these livestock? I know that I will need coops, feed, hay, and other necessities. What are good prices to set for my produce? I’m looking for diversity and health. My irrigation must be close to my crops, but I don’t know what type of irrigation that would need. I’m thinking about red clovers and alfalfa because that would be best for the chicken, plus flowering plants and bumble bees as pollinators. I want to harvest 50% of my forage. What other pollination/irrigation/harvesting things should I look into? And how can I manage waste? Another concern I have is what type of labor do I need to hire, aside from what I do myself? Please offer any tips you have, I need to put in my down-payment in 2 days time!
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One Response to I’m looking into acquiring a pasture of land & creating an ecologically friendly pasture. Tips?
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I seriously think you’re getting way too ahead of yourself. Just focus on working with that little pasture of yours and what you’re going to do with it in order to keep it productive year-round. You may not even have enough room for all the animals you have planned for it let alone crops to sow. I have no idea what how small a “small pasture” of land is that you’re being offered, whether it’s 10 acres or only 2 acres in size. Small pastures generally are only big enough for one enterprise, being livestock, not crops.
Utilize rotational grazing on that little piece of land with some sheep and/or goats and a few chickens if you like. You can use dairy goats to produce milk to sell, and the chickens to sell eggs with. You may or may not make a profit, but you will get a little bit of an income as a start. But, you will definitely get an ecologically friendly pasture if you leave it as grass, graze it responsibly and don’t turn it over into crop production. Work with the soil that you have and the plants that grow best in that area, don’t try to change something to what you think is best but may not be best at all. Learn to ADAPT, that’s what many producers do on a daily, monthly and yearly basis.
Not all farms need to have everything to be a farm. You don’t have to have crops, you can just utilize the land as grass instead and use it for grazing livestock on to both improve the land and to make it more sustainable than what it was. Chickens don’t eat clovers or alfalfa, they like to eat grass and to scratch threw the droppings of goats and sheep. They’ll eat bugs too. Goats will be a natural weed control method; same with sheep. Sheep and goats, though, do like the mix of clovers/alfalfa with grasses for added nutrition in their diet.
Cropping systems are counter intuitive to what you’re trying to achieve, so please do yourself a favor and scrap that idea. You don’t need crops, you don’t need irrigation, you don’t need to have to split your land to hay it, and you don’t need to hire anyone to work for you, if you’re doing something real small, you’ll find that you’ll have enough work for yourself. You can buy hay and feed from another source, if you need it so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Just remember, if you want to actually make a profit from this venture, you must operate in such a way that you minimize your costs so that your income exceeds your costs. If you do that, you can easily, EASILY get an operation based on diversity and health! Just don’t over think or over do things to the point where you may be bankrupt before you get really into it. Also, never think of things in terms of profit only. There are much bigger shoes to fill, such as the health of the pasture, your animals, and how you are going to do things to make less work for yourself in the long run.
ETA: I’m sorry I couldn’t give you any prices or costs or anything because I have no idea what you’re trying to achieve, where you are located or anything like that. You seemed to be going all over the map, so I could only give advice where it mattered. I hope you are successful in your endeavors and wish all the best! 🙂
WRB
October 9, 2013 at 4:50 pm