With the unseasonably warm days we had in the beginning of November, we put some of our other work (including some of the kids’ studies) aside and got to work improving our rear pasture. The rear pasture is about 1.25 acres and “rough” to say the least. Based on the size of the poisonous pin cherries [...]
Archive for the ‘Forage Management’ Category
18 Oct
Poison in the Pasture – Pin Cherry
Both Wild Black Cherry and Pin Cherry trees are members of the rose family commonly found in Southern New Hampshire. Pin Cherry is a common first-generation species after logging or forest fires create an opening (thus its alternate name, Fire Cherry) and is one of my chief concerns on our property. We’ve cut several [...]
17 Oct
Hay, hay, hay!
The incredible increases in fuel prices have definitely worked their way into the hay price structure, and now the drought in the midwest and South has ranchers slaughtering cattle early and selling good horses for less than the price of a bale. Some friends of ours in TX are reporting $14/square, and with one of [...]
13 Oct
Winter Rye
Note: this is installment 3 in a series (Legumes, and Grasses, and Weeds, Oh My!), studying forage and pasture management in in New England. Winter Rye (Secale cereale), also known as Cereal or Annual Rye, is a cool-season annual grass. Unlike the previous perennial forages I’ve discussed (Timothy and Orchardgrass), Winter Rye is unlikely to be [...]
4 Oct
Orchardgrass
Though the most common grass used for hay in New England might be Timothy, another very common component of baled forage around here is Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata). Unlike Timothy, which takes a bit of care to get established, Orchardgrass often finds its own way into pastures and hayfields. Propogating both by seeds and by tillers that spread from its dense, [...]
26 Sep
Forages: Timothy Grass
This is the first installment in the Forage Managment section of our blog. For more information on why I’m doing this, click here. Timothy grass (Phleum pratense, or Herd’s Grass) is most likely the base of hay you buy in New England – it’s the predominant species for most well-cared-for and cultivated hayfields around here. This [...]
26 Sep
Legumes and Grasses and Weeds, Oh My!
One of the fringe benefits of my new job is the ability to take courses at UNH. At first, I considered working towards another Masters, or even a PhD. I started looking through the catalog at the course titles, but “Fun with Complex and Imaginary Numbers,” “Astrophysics For English Majors,” and “Advanced Intermediate Navel-Gazing” just [...]
A Joyful Birth
