Clearing woods to make pasture for animals- can it be done?

[rd200]

Okay, so we have been looking for a property for FOREVER. And we went and looked at a place today that is 12 acres- almost 100% wooded. Which is great for DH as he LOVES the woods and wants to live in the woods. NOt so great for me as i want to have chickens, pigs, and a milk cow. There is one spot where she has her nice raised bed, fenced, garden which looks like it gets a decent amount of sunshine. that is the only "clearing" in the woods. The house is pretty tight with trees also. Hubby loves the property, I do love it too, *BUT* how would i keep animals with no pasture??? I want to mainly grass-feed, and if there is no grass...... My question is, how hard or time consuming would it be to clear an acre or two of woods to have pasture. How would i go about making it into pasture?? I could leave the stumps, thats not that important to have them out for pasture i dont think, but once the trees are cleared, how long do you think it would take to get some grasses growing in there?? I would have to hand cultivate some different native grasses and such to make decent pasture for my cow. I would htink the chickens would like woods and maybe the pigs too. (just planning on having 2 pigs everyother year.)

I know it would be alot of sweat equity to get the land cleared and having to split all that wood (house has a wood burning stove in it) and store the wood, etc etc. Im just worried that we would get all that done and then the land would be too junky for pasture. its not heavily wooded, just trees, no pines, its super secluded and private, which is WHY we really like it. Im not a people person It has a small shed where i could keep cow and animals, im just so confused. Its not what i had pictured, but we arent finding anything else and for the price, and 12 acres, its a steal pretty much. I had just pictured moving to a nice place with a barn, large farmhouse, big, open fields of long grass for my cow....... but my hubby loves it and i know my kids do too..... if i can realisticly grow a good garden, and have pasture for my animals, then im IN. but i dont know how realistic that would be. We would have a lifetime supply of wood im sure just from clearing 2 acres though. Any thoughts???

 

[DrakeMaiden]

From what I have read, yes you can cut the trees, you can even clear the stumps by hand (but that is a lot of work) and then if you lime the soil appropriately, it should be able to grow a garden and a pasture. I would check into the soil before buying any piece of land. There is a website, NRCS , where you can get a good idea of the soil type. You should be able to find your area in the soil survey section. Good luck.

Personally, I would leave as many trees as possible, but that is just me (our land doesn't have very many trees and I envy those who have more shade).

 

[Beekissed]

Clearing a couple of acres of trees won't give you a lifetime of wood, so you can rest on that issue. Clearing the stumps is pretty imperative if you want to be able to cultivate for sowing seed or for mowing and it takes mowing to build good pasture.

Your best bet? Clear the land, build some great fences with any locusts on the place. Thin your existing wood lots and let the hardwoods get some sunlight. Time and mowing will get your cleared area ready for growing grass or you can hurry it up by doing a controlled burn, then plowing and sewing seed. That is, if you want to mow hay off this place.

I wouldn't be in a hurry to get a cow just yet. Good pasture takes time and hard work. If you want it fast, it takes time, hard work and money....even then you will have to wait and see how it goes. Do you have a water source near this pasture? Need to think about how you are going to water this cow out there on pasture.

Then I'd think about alternatives to clear cutting land to make for plain grass pasture. Some folks leave trees and let the sunlight into some areas to make for areas like game plots for deer. They take some time and let a more natural meadow develop, keep it mowed every once in awhile or let the cow rotate through the smaller meadows to keep the grass down more naturally. They overseed with the grass types that grow locally in that kind of soil, etc.

It can be done but you can save yourself a lot of heartache and hard work by doing some research about pasture on small acreage and how to utilize your small acreage better to keep your woodlots healthy. Twelve acres isn't exactly a cattleman's paradise and it would be real easy to spend too much money or ruin your beautiful new land by doing anything in haste.

 

[rd200]

Thanks for the suggestion, i will have to check it out. Yes, good soil is a must. I was thinking more in the lines of clearing the BIG trees to let more sunlight in, and then just hand cultivating in seed, and letting grow for 2 seasons before leting a cow on it. would that work?? I dont want to CLEAR/STRIP the land, but i need something for my cow to eat!!! I guess i should've titled my post...semi-clearing the land..... personally i think if i were a cow in the woods it would be kinda nice. Shade, cool breeze, some sunlight. But the bugs/mosquitos im sure would get bad in the summertime.

 

[Wannabefree]

Your better bet IMO would be to sell the timber. Find an outfit that select cuts, and let them get the bigger stuff out of the way for you and PAY you to do so. Then take out the small stuff yourselves, and possibly rent a stump grinder to get rid of those. We cleared an acre by hand, and had grass the following year without seeding, because we didn't allow clear cutting or heavy equipment back there. We still have a few small stumps and nubs sticking up here and there, but nothing that bothers the pig or birds we have. It's just an idea, it seemed to work well for us, but we don't look to have a cow anytime really soon either.

 

[rd200]

Clearing a couple of acres of trees won't give you a lifetime of wood, so you can rest on that issue. Clearing the stumps is pretty imperative if you want to be able to cultivate for sowing seed or for mowing and it takes mowing to build good pasture.

Your best bet? Clear the land, build some great fences with any locusts on the place. Thin your existing wood lots and let the hardwoods get some sunlight. Time and mowing will get your cleared area ready for growing grass or you can hurry it up by doing a controlled burn, then plowing and sewing seed. That is, if you want to mow hay off this place.

I wouldn't be in a hurry to get a cow just yet. Good pasture takes time and hard work. If you want it fast, it takes time, hard work and money....even then you will have to wait and see how it goes. Do you have a water source near this pasture? Need to think about how you are going to water this cow out there on pasture.

Then I'd think about alternatives to clear cutting land to make for plain grass pasture. Some folks leave trees and let the sunlight into some areas to make for areas like game plots for deer. They take some time and let a more natural meadow develop, keep it mowed every once in awhile or let the cow rotate through the smaller meadows to keep the grass down more naturally. They overseed with the grass types that grow locally in that kind of soil, etc.

It can be done but you can save yourself a lot of heartache and hard work by doing some research about pasture on small acreage and how to utilize your small acreage better to keep your woodlots healthy. Twelve acres isn't exactly a cattleman's paradise and it would be real easy to spend too much money or ruin your beautiful new land by doing anything in haste.

I dont have any experience with how much wood it takes to heat a house for a whole year as we dont ahve a wood-burning furnace, but im just saying it looks like a lifetime supply of wood!!

No, 12 acres isnt a cattlemans paradise, but for 1 cow and its calf, it sure is!!! I dont want to make hay from the land, i dont think that is feasible for me, id rather buy it than have to own the equipment to do it or pay a farmer with the equipment to do it. For water i would probably just have a tank with a float hooked up to a garden hose running from the spicket outside the house. Or we would run an underground line from the house to the "barn" and then put in a hydrine and then use the hydrine for water for the cow. I know cows drink alot of water - especially in the summertime.
A more "natural" feel was what i was going for. I know it wont provide as much nutrition for the cow as alfalfa/grass land would, but im okay with buying hay and supplementing if necessary.

That is the ONE thing i dont want to do is to RUIN it by big ideas and impatience. I woudl definetly research alot before doing anything. thanks!!!

 

[rd200]

Selling timber sounds great!! I like the idea of Making money on this!!! hahaha

I had thought about that, they can take the big stuff, pay us, then we can deal with the smaller stuff and chip and cut up what they dont want. Im not looking to clear alot, so Im just wondering if a job this small would even peak their interest. I know alot of places dont take on smaller jobs cuz it just isnt worth it for them financially or timewise.

 

[the funny farm6]

i do know that the guy up the road has cattle and they are on a 50-50 pasture/wooded land. and during the summer you never see them out in the pasture, they stay in the woods for the day.

the land my home sits on was once wooded land. we have quite a few trees in the front yard, it does get some sun. but up front where the trees stop, the grass is dead and brown, but under the trees it is still kinda green.

also if there are any maple or nut trees you might want to keep them.

 

[baymule]

We just had 10 acres cleared last year by loggers and still haven't got it all cleaned up. One word. MESS!!! We got a bulldozer to put in our 7'x22' culvert in the dry wash that turns into the Nile River in a heavy rain and cleared up 4 acres. I sowed giant bermuda NK-37 and it is growing real good. The seed also happens to be the most expensive I found. But I bought it anyway!

 

[baymule]

We still have stumps, sticks and uneven ground in our little 4 acres, but we have grass started. We put up a cross fence to keep the horses off of it for now until it gets established.

On the 10 acres, you need to determine how many acres you will actually have dedicated to pasture. Then divide that into 3 or 4 pastures. The life of a pasture is rotating the stock OFF of it so it can rest and regrow. Stock loves the tender new shoots of grass and will literally eat it down to the roots, ultimately killing the good grass and you are left with a bunch of weeds. You might want to look into growing mangel beets to supplement the feed for winter.

Here in southeast Texas we sow rye grass in the fall for winter pasture. I don't know where you are located-do you have snow all winter, can you plant winter grass such as winter wheat or rye grass?