Recommended Equipment to Clear Land for Silvopasture Cattle Grazing

[landrand]

A few thoughts on the cattle operation-

Be mindful that the Highland cattle are trendy right now, while maybe not the same boat as true 'exotics' the market can still be tumultuous. I've seen this same thing happen over and over, Llamas, Miniature Horses/Donkeys/Cows, Emus, Ostrich, etc and a lot of people really have lost their shirt over the years. Some of those markets came back, many never did. Don't base any of your future business decisions on current prices, at some point they may only be worth what you can get at the sale barn.

When we have bad land, areas with thin topsoil, poor nutrients, etc we feed hay there much as you said you are doing. The difference is we use a bale unroller and roll the hay out exactly in the areas we want to work on. Bale rings are easy, especially with a small number of cows, but they make a mud mess around them, cause soil compaction and don't distribute the nutrients as well as when you unroll. With unrolling the cows do waste more, but that's part of the benefit too.

I realize you are dealing with poor soil, but 15 head on 75ac is a very low stocking rate. We run about 1-2ac per head depending on the season. At some point too low of a stocking rate is self defeating to what you are trying to accomplish. You need to either increase your herd size proportionally or realize that you are going to be doing more bush hogging than grazing if you get all that cleared.

Hope some of this helps, we have a small cow/calf operation and sell 90% as freezer beef. FWIW, I haven't bought any fertilizer, lime, herbicide, etc in the past 10yrs and our pastures are some of the best looking around. Just takes good management and some extra time and effort.

Your info has been very helpful. Yes, I understand that the prices for Highland cattle can and probably will crash at some point. To tell you the truth, I didn't get into Highland cattle to make money off of. I thought if I could occasionally sell a calf or two and make enough money to pay for the winter hay I'd be happy. I bought my first three Highlands because I like having them around and they are very easy to take care of compared to a dog. I consider my Highlands pets. They are all very human socialized and well trained. They will come running when I whistle. I can walk up to any one of them and say, "come on lets go", and they will follow me. I trained them to get into a trailer. They older cows even know their names. I can stand by the gate, yell their name and say "come on" and they walk over to me. I have a 5 year old steer that I've been training to be a working ox.

The total acreage of the property is 75 acres, but not all is suitable for grazing. I'd say only 50 acres of forest/select logged forest is suitable and there's a 6.5 acre field that I currently put the cows on during the grazing season . The rest of the land is swamp or too rocky (as in rock bluffs) to be used for grazing. Also, next year I'll have 7 females that will be breeding so I should be able to increase the herd numbers in the future.

 

[Zewnten]

Your area probably gets cold enough to deter it but when I had looked into silvo-culture the parasite and pest build up was a big problem as the shade didn't allow enough UV/heat to kill them off. Most ranchers recommended one and done for the year or cut it all down and use shade wagons. But like I said maybe the cold is effective in controlling it.

 

[treemuncher]

What about rocks and forest mulchers? I understand a carbon blade will tolerate rocks, but how much will they tolerate them. This soil is plenty of boulders so I have to take that into consideration as well.

Rocks become smaller rocks and dust. They wear the teeth a bit faster but they are usually not a problem unless you demand sharp teeth. Steel is the worst thing for breaking teeth and carpet is a mulching nightmare - toughest thing to get out - you can't torch it out!

 

[treemuncher]

Being that this thread is regarding pasture, I thought I should post this pic. I went and started working on another investment parcel that I own while on the way home from a job completed in the AM. I did some clearing on it a year ago so it has but 1 season of growth on it. Nothing was seeded but the grasses are already filling in. It was just as thick in trees as what you see on the right side (shorter trees) when I cleared this patch last year. Mostly hardwood mulch. Lots of weeds but a very good, thick base of grass where I just cut it.