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

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 9:24 AM, Lynn Wigglesworth
<lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com> wrote:
> Rob; It's always a nice surprise when a plan comes together. Are both fields
> going to be pasture or do you rotate them to be pasture/field crops?

I have about 10 acres open to work with, the other 25 is woods. I want
to get at least a half acre of good pasture for next year. The other,
I'd like to crop. I'll leave the other 8 in pasture, but it's poor.
Goats do good on it and it's been limed, so I just need to work it
over. It's really bumpy and you'd have a hard time haying it. I'm
thinking about plowing up and starting in on another acre of two in
spring.

> I've cleared some of the
> brambles with a brush hog, but it's a lot of work.  I've been thinking about
> getting goats to help clear the brambles so I can have more grass (the sheep
> are too scared to go into the woods...what a bunch of wusses). My goal is to
> have enough pasture so I only need hay when there is too much snow to graze,
> and I'm hoping I can make that much hay myself so I don't have to buy any.

That is basically my goal, too. To rotate an acre or so in crops and
have the rest in pasture. If it's managed well, I should be able to
get by with out much hay. My goats are great on brambles. The half
acre I just seeded will be oat pasture in spring. Then they can work
on it off and on next summer. First thing they eat is honeysuckle,
brambles and tree seedlings. I'm really thinking about a calf next
year to eat the grass.

Rob - Va