You know how I went to the farm last week? Well, nothing that needed to be done was done last week ... and the things that were needed to be done are magnified now because we have more than doubled the Dexter herd. So, since I am living the bachelor life today I am going to head down to the farm to spend some time with the cows and do some work. I won't have much time so I will spend the day doing some fence repair and prepping their winter pasture for the cattle. If I have a chance I may working on fixing up a fence where we are going to move them until the grass turns brown. The weather is nice and it looks to be a fine day for working.
The picture I have put up with this post is of the farm. It is one hundred and sixty acres and includes everything inside the red box. There are three small ponds and a bunch of rolling hills and timber. Roughly, less than half of the land is pasture with the rest being timber.
The land needs some renovation, but most on the edges between the pasture and the woods. My dad test drives zero-turning mowers so the pastures have been mowed continually and what was once weeds comes up in mostly bluegrass and clover (except for the portion of fescue). It is almost like we have been rotationally grazing much of the land for the past seven years ... we were just rotationally mowing it! I'm hoping to use some live stock to clean up the brush areas on the edges of the woods and hopefully open them up a little bit from the multiflora rose mess that they are. Oh, and the arrow points to where the cows are now!
The Journey of a Beginning Farmer :: As a child I spent most of my life in town living with my mom, but whenever I visited my Dad and his side of the family it was on the farm. From my earliest memories I have always wanted to be a farmer (except when I wanted to be a cowboy). Now, I am trying to fulfill that dream. This will be a journal of that journey :: my research, my joys, my frustrations, and all of the things that go along with the beginning farmer.
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