Homesteading and Hobby Farm/Ranch

Sludig said:

God damn dandelions. My front yard has them bad this year. Barely made a dent after 2 packed down 5g buckets.


Not sure what I can read them with because as is typical for the rural area my lawn is a mix of grass but also large areas of clover or other plants I don't know the name of, but I suspect would die out from a carpet bombing.

I need to seed a few areas as well, and my concern is 2-4d it something that kills broad leaf I think will also kill new grass?

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Get dandelions under control first then seed. MEC D will do wonders, has 2 4 D in it. Won't hurt to seed after as a good rain should wash it away.

My fuckin yard ruined after the rains last few weeks...

This back area is only 3-4 acres, and probably not written bothering with, the goats largely seem to avoid the grass anyways. Though I have not mowed any of this all since last like October thru now despite warmth and wind.


But I still feel like I'd like a greener nicer grass field that I could get custom baled once or twice to give me some for winter.

Local ag place was saying around $500 to do a round of fertilizer roughly. Just not sure it's worth it if the field is good rough or if it does explode if I don't get it bailed.

Over the last 2 years I 95% elongate toxic milk weed, have one tiny patch still coming up.

But I'm not sure what this tall brown grass is the goats don't touch is, then I have areas all green but a good chunk that's all patchy with thatch. Some of those thatchy areas are where a good chunk of the year its varying degrees of muddy or even surface water from run off up hill.


So I'm not sure what I need to do to improve this plot and if that is even worth doing vs leaving as is. Some day may have a mini cow or two but I'm trying to avoid it.
BrutulTM

Spend a little money to get a soil sample done. Or just shoot in the dark and broadcast something like 17-17-17 across it yourself.

Wantonsoup95 said:

Spend a little money to get a soil sample done. Or just shoot in the dark and broadcast something like 17-17-17 across it yourself.

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I did for free through the extension. Been 2 years so I imight take another and better because I'm not sure I got deep enough last time. I know my soil is fairly deficient, I think a result of so much rain water that washes through compared to any other flat place, I'm half way up a hill and another 100m down from me is the creek on neighbors land. I'm happy I'm in ag central so a few places around me, without seeing the analysis the $500 was just a kinda ballpark for what's commonly bought, though he had said a few ingredients are up again like I've heard is happening for a couple years now. That's taking a giant bin of theirs home and spreading it myself. He might have estimated high too for my actual land size, and that of that 3 acres, there's maybe 1 of it that would be less ideal to waste the fert on or already grows nice so gets me down to closer to 2 prime acres I'm trying to grow well.

Just not sure if the fert will magically make everything grow thicker better and choke out a few less than desirable stuff. There's a few things mixed in with the grasses, but the goats and emu enjoy the random raspberries everywhere.

Nitrogen went down. I know the 46 0 0 we sell went down about 8 bucks a bag from last year. Potash never seems to go down though.

BrutulTM said:

What part of the country are you in? Obviously you're in the south in a higher rainfall area. I don't know those grasses but maybe you have a mixture of warm season and cool season grasses and your warm season grass has shut down for the year.

Goats are browsers rather than grazers so while they will eat grass, they prefer forbs and brush and leaves and whatnot. Cattle eat grass predominately and sheep are in between, eating a bit of each.

I doubt you'll see your money back from fertilizing and haying. Cutting hay is the worst thing you can do for your soil, taking all the nutrients out of the soil and not putting anything back. That said, it's probably not as detrimental where you are as it is in my environment.

I take it your goal is just to not have that brown grass showing in the winter time?

EDIT: There's an app called "picture this" which can identify plants that you take a picture of. It might not work too well right now but if you can get a pic that includes the seed head it's pretty accurate even on grasses. Of course the extension office could help you with identifying plants as well.

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You wound me forgetting, eastern Oklahoma "green country".

I would say the extension guy that comes out isn't the best, a lot of things he wanted to take a sample to give to others to identify lol. I'm hobby farming so making money back isn't always the goal, just kinda want food security for my critters in the winter rather than relying on buying hay, sometimes if you wait a little too long or something it kinda dries up and gets real pricey.

I wish I could let my donkeys just roam out there, but they need a dry lot, or else risking overeating and all kinds of issues turning a desert animal loose on a forest. I wonder how my ram would do that lives with them, he's seperate as for now we've left him intact so I dont need him running wild on the goat does. That and he's regrowing his horns after they were cut by someone, so for now he loses badly to a smaller horned goat.

I'm sure no matter what I'll get brown in winter, I just don't like when everythings lush I still have brown out there seems bad. I feel like I want to burn it all down and let it regrow but challenges with neighbors house right over fence line and controlling emu's during the process, retards I bet would run straight into the blaze. But it's probably my city showing through that I want just a pretty green field though I know it's possible seeing other properties. Same way I wish my 2 acre "lawn" was straight grass and not this kinda mix of things.

Ultimately, the fact that I could probably grow rice back there is going to be I think the biggest detriment both to what will grow nice, and trying to work the field as it's so deep mud spring through to late summer or whenever we stop getting rain for 3 weeks or so.


Finally getting to the point where I might go for a sales tax exempt w/ the state and file a Form F or whatever w/ IRS which is needed. Goat herd is about established where I want and will be selling all future babies, and I've got fancy geese I've been selling eggs for $25/goslings for $125. It's pocket change, but it at least is to where the farm is close to sorta paying for itself minus my time.

Sludig said:

just kinda want food security for my critters in the winter rather than relying on buying hay, sometimes if you wait a little too long or something it kinda dries up and gets real pricey.

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Hay is nuts. In my area it ranges from $4 a bale to $15 a bale depending on the seller and time of year. (I mean for regular cow-quality hay, not some fancyass horse hay)

It makes me wonder if there are some dudes with big barns playing the arbitrage game. Youd have to have a bigass barn to make money on it but thats quite a price range.

BrutulTM said:

Where's the water coming from? Would it be a possibility to do some dirt work and reroute it around the property or even dig a small pond to collect it? Since I live in a 13" annual rainfall zone, excess water is not a problem I'm familiar with.

Your land will be healthier with a mixture of plants. Diversity may or may not be our strength in human interactions but it is important for plants. Different plants bring different things to the party and there's nothing natural about a monoculture. That said, it's your 2 acres and you can make it whatever you want. If you want it to look like a golf course then more power to you.

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I have a pond that is a little leaky on the back end, i'm not sure if it's good that it's holding a fair amount back or bad that it then kinda slow releases a bunch. There's kinda like 2 broad paths of water that reach the back field but they are rather wide, so I think I'd have to do some pretty precise sloping to try and get everything into one narrow channel and go out the back.

First post think I said, I'm on a pretty good hill where it flattens a bit with some properties before continuing downhill. As such we get a lot of runoff. Like 12 hours after a storm there's still water flowin in the road and I stay soggy for a longer time than most would expect say in town.