On Sep 6, 2004, at 1:52 PM, butterfingers@acadia.net wrote:
> Hello folks, I have a neglected pasture that has been overgrown with
> choke cherry, maple and oak saplings, spirea, and goldenrod. There is
> still a fair amount of grass. I'd like to put some young steers in it
> but am concerned about the toxicity of these plants. Would bushogging
> and allowing them to dry down make them safe or would it be better to
> leave them or not graze animals there until next season? Thanks! Ann
When we first started keeping shigs (er, sheep and pigs :) ) I worried
about this too as we had old unmanaged pastures with maple, cherry,
milkweed, thistle, burdock and dog weed as well as tons of berry
plants. I thought I was going to have to mow and improve the pasture
before I could get the animals. I read all about how toxic cherry and
maple were as well as other plants. At first I started hand cutting the
larger cherry and things. But, our vet said that 1) it was the dead
drying leaves and bark of the cut down trees that was the problem, not
the live saplings, 2) the animals would be fine if they weren't forced
to live just on those things and 3) they would tend to avoid things
that were truly toxic. So, I didn't mow - spending my time with a bush
hog wasn't my idea of fun. I just put the animals on the pasture. They
ate down all the brush and the pastures are much improved.
I limed some of the pastures one year (expensive) and scatter wood ash
on the pastures (cheap) which have helped with our low soil pH.
According to the soil tests I should lime twice a year at 2 tons per
acre but that's too expensive. Things are looking pretty good as they
are. The state soil test results aslo had all sorts of recommendations
for adding fertilizers but I didn't as it would have been prohibitively
expensive.
I did do test seeding of some areas to introduce more clover and
certain grasses. That worked but I'm not sure it's worth the expense.
Our ag extension agent says that there is a lot of seed in the soil so
to do this only if we want to change the mix. The best pasture is where
I did both liming, intensive grazing to kill the brush and seeding.
The most important thing we've found is getting the animals out on to
the pasture. This fits with what a friend told us as well from his
experience. Things tend to improve just from the action of the sheep,
chickens, ducks and pigs eating down the brush.
Cheers,
-Walter
West Topsham, Vermont
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