Abigail stands in thick pasture; 50% grass + 50% buttercup
We cross fenced our main pasture 3 years ago and separated it into 5 paddocks. One of these paddocks was nearly taken over by creeping buttercup last summer.
I had spread a few yards of compost over the whole pasture in mid-spring, on the theory that it would give the grass an extra boost to out-grow the buttercup. Boy was I wrong! The grass took off, but so did everything else. By July everything was going great, but the grass was barely above the buttercup, and morning glory had twisted around everything. I was not impressed by the low percentage of grass. It was worth grazing, so we put the goats onto it.
- High density grazing in a 16’x16′ pen
Our grazing routine uses 16′ welded wire combination panels to enclose the goats into a small area. They get a fresh patch of grass every day. We run a mix of milkers and kids in the pen, but it if you add them all together, we put about 1000 lbs of animals in 256 square feet. This is how we do high density mob-grazing with only a dozen goats. If you do the math, it is equivalent to 170 cows/acre, which is a LOT.
That stand of grass & buttercup was so thick that half of it was trampled into the ground as sheet mulch mixed with fresh manure–an excellent way to grow soil.
This year: Virtually no buttercup, and even less morning glory. The grass is beautiful, and it greened up earlier than anywhere else around. WooHoo!