Two summers ago we had a drought that did a number on my pastures and then last year, we had a ok year in terms of weather but I was over stocked, I had allowed my sheep flock to get to big, I had added in a horse and the milk cow was no longer a calf/yearling but instead was a full sized grazer/with calf at side..

It was to much for my pastures.. I feed hay all year around, but sheep being sheep, they will eat every single scrap of pasture before they will turn to hay.. to say overgrazed is being kind.

That means that between the two years, my pastures have been put back in a big way.. We are coming into spring in much better shape,  my sheep flock is down to nine ewes, and one yearling ram, what will be one yearling calf (but only for part of the season), and two horses, plus the pigs, and geese..

The first thing we need to do is a bit of inside fence repairs so that I can close off different pastures, the small pasture is going to be the horse grazing pasture only, no sheep allowed, other then for a odd short grazing if needed..

The pigs are going to have the corner pasture this year, I want them to turn it, and beat the crap out of it, they will have a small pond to dig and play in,  If they do it faster then I expect, then I will move them over to the barn paddock and rake, flatten and re-seed out the corner pasture.

The big pasture, well I had dreams of splitting it off into at least two pastures but the truth is, now that I have the horses, I need that space to be able to do proper ring work with them, to have that full open space to do my training, to do my horse agility..

The front corner pasture currently part of the big pasture, however is getting fenced off with a gate and its going to be re-seeded and done..

All the pastures need a light feeding of compost, and a good heavy frost seeding.. The area that we call no man’s zone is going to be electric fenced off and will be the pigs first turn out zone, I want them to dig and flip and mix to their hearts desire, then I am going to plant that area into a three sisters this year.

this year the poo piles that are horse and cow patties, that are picked up are going to a different place for composting, I am going to drop them down on top of a brush pile creating a adhock hugelcutlure that is just being used to fill a swale in a area that I don’t want it to be..

Then the rest of the compost/bedding etc from the barns is going to be used to start leveling area’s in the big pasture to work towards smoother riding, after I get my new hugelcutlure beds finished for the year.

How are your pastures? Sitting pretty? Doing well? Need work? Needs lots of work? What do you have planned for this year?