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["Robert Walton" <waltonrp AT gmail.com>]

> How long would it take, do you think, to plant and establish pasture?
>

It depends on what is growing there now. For instance, if weeds and
scrub have established themselves, and you don't want to spray
herbicide, you'll have to beat back whatever is growing there.

If the fields have recently been cropped and weeds are not
established, you could till the land, plant a nurse crop (oats, wheat,
rye) along with your choice of grasses and legumes. You harvest the
nurse crop, let the pasture mix grow out that season. Maybe cut a
little hay on that in late summer. You need to heavily control grazing
the following year, or better yet use it for hay. That way the pasture
grass can get really well established before hooves start walking on
it and your animals eat it down too low.

A mix of cows and/or horses, sheep and/or goats would work well to
keep the weeds in balance. Remember in the New York climate, you'll
need plenty of hay. Reserve land for that.

You also need to consider fertility. Does the soil need lime? What are
the nutrient levels? You can't easily establish a good stand of grass
if the soil is too acid and needs fertilizer.

I grew up on a dairy farm, we regularly rotated between corn, oats or
wheat, hay and pasture. My experience here at this place is that the
tillable fields have acid soil, low fertility and well established
weeds, saplings, etc. Without spraying poison, it's going to be a few
years, cost money and labor before I can have beautiful pastures.
Meanwhile goats thrive on weeds.

Building fertility is a concern. I'm am using chemical fertilizer,
lime and green manures. I'm cautious with the fertilizer and will drop
it at the right point. If you have a problem with chemicals, where are
you going to get enough manure to build fertility?

My suggestion is once you get far enough into negotiations, get out in
those fields with a shovel and see what the soil consists of. You can
make results of a soil test and perc a condition of the contract if
you get that far, I did.

Rob - Va