building pasture in FL

A question from some aspiring farmers in Florida:

Hello Shawn and Beth. It is so kind of you to give out your email address. We are in our first year of developing our farmstead and after a winter of cutting down 10-12’ brush in our fields this spring we should finally see some green grass out in our pastures and hope to acquire our first dairy cow!

From my understanding forage quality is important for dairy cows. We are in the Panhandle of Florida so Bahia grass is very common but not too high in protein (6-9%); also low in palatability. So our plan is to grow crabgrass with a mix of some other legumes and brassicas. 

Now that you understand where we are my question is simply this. Is the protein level and palatability of the forage in our field directly going to effect to the amount and nutritive value of the cows' milk. 

Thank you for your time,

-Matthew 

P.S. if you know of any homesteaders near us, Chipley Fl, let us know we would love to meet some like minded people and are finding it hard. 

Hi, Matthew,

Sounds like you are off to a good start.

Our advice on raw land that has little forage growing is always the same.  Get an animal or animals and rotate them as though there was grass, but feed broken square bales in the paddock.  You'll want to offer more than they will eat, so there is some residual hay on the ground.  We would buy the squares as locally as possible, from someone with more-or-less 'unimproved' pastures -- native and naturalized grasses and forbs, not alfalfa and timothy.  

Your soil is already full of seeds, and they are things that grow well in your area.  By feeding native hay on the paddock, you are adding organic matter, forage seeds, a wide array of soil probiotics from the gut of the animal(s) you are grazing, and urine for irrigation.  Your livestock's hooves will drive seed into the soil, get good seed-to-soil contact, and leave divots to capture and slow-release rain -- all ideal conditions for seed germination.  

The truth about pasture plants is, you get what you manage for, within the limits of the ecosystem.  Your soil and climate provide good conditions for an array of plants, but what thrives will depend on your management -- how often and how hard you hit it, the size and type of paddock, the qualities of the animals you graze, and so on.  

A planted pasture of 'forage' plants, as determined by a pasture specialist, will be a relatively small array of plants judged primarily on their suitability for fattening livestock for sale.  The much wider array of plants that make up a native pasture will contain plants to address a much wider array of animal needs, more than 'science' will ever be aware of.  Nutritionists emphasize the need for many plant species in the diet, even for humans, because the broad spectrum of micronutrients (phytochemicals, plant-assembled compounds) feed our immune systems and promote natural health.  Grazing animals have the same requirements.  Humans seldom eat more than a double-handful of different plants, but by consuming the milk and meat of animals grazed on native pastures, we share in the benefits of the hundreds of species they include in their diets.  

By encouraging native and naturalized pastures, we promote our animals' health and our own.  Easier on everyone.  In addition, native and naturalized pastures -- plants that self-select to be there -- provide drought and flood resistance, that is, resilience in the face of weather variations.  Whatever meteorological variations are thrown at it, the native/naturalized pasture has plants that are there for precisely those conditions -- IF the pasture is holistically managed.

Works.

We hope this helps.  Do keep in touch and let us know how your farm is doing.

Many blessings,

Shawn and Beth

A follow-up question:

Wow what a wonderful explanation to the advice you gave thank you for giving me such understanding on this topic, I am not nearly as worried about the forage now! 

Two things. 

1) I’ll start trying to find a resource for hay! 

2) I am slightly concerned my situation may vary slightly because our land and home was vacant for 3 years before we bought it which means it has been growing nothing but dog fennel and golden rod for the past three years and I'd imagine there is an immense number of undesirable seeds out there . Previous to the 3 years of dormancy it had been row cropped for peanuts one year and cotton the next for 12-15 years; before that, it was pasture. So for the past 15-18 years there has not been any grass growing on our land. Our land is essentially 12 acres of dog fennel and golden rod now. Will the hay method still work for this or should I brush hog all the standing 10’ tall dead weeds, do research on native plants and help jumpstart the grasses by broadcasting native grass seed for my first year? 

I’m sure everybody thinks they are the exception to the rule but this is, I'd imagine, an unusual scenario so I just wanted to confirm. 

Hi, Matthew,

Well, you have lots of pasture seed in the ground already, and even more so since it was pasture so recently (ecologically speaking, 15 years is short-term).  So in your place we wouldn't bother with seed, just feed hay in place.  But the question about mowing is a good one. It's a great idea to knock down the skeletons of last year's tall weeds (goldenrod and dogfennel among them) and get more sunlight down to germinate seeds.  As the forage begins to grow, we would keep grazing over it on long-ish rotations, supplementing with hay on the ground as necessary.  After each pass, we would assess as to whether it would be a good idea to clip (mow high, 8" or more) right after grazing to disadvantage the tall weeds.  

There's nothing wrong with throwing some seed out if you like, and if you have the money, or if you need to cover bare ground, but you can do the same thing with bale grazing and get the added benefits that you are feeding your cows, adding organic matter etc, and cultipacking the top layer (with animal hoof impact).