Pasture assessment
for absolute beginners
Owning a
large amount of land is an incredible responsibility. If you do not know what
you are doing you may very well make some serious mistakes before you have a
chance to learn how to do things correctly.
You
cannot just do nothing with the land. You will either need to lease it to
people who know how to manage the land (although when you do not know what is
required to manage the land it is actually impossible for you to know if what the leasee is doing is correct!) or you will
need to manage the land yourself. If you choose to manage it yourself you will
need to ensure that you keep some plant growth in the paddocks to prevent the
topsoil blowing or washing away. The top soil is not very deep and contains the
required nutrients that enable plants to become established and grow. Once it
is gone it is very difficult to establish any plant life. A bare paddock and a
very windy day are a disastrous combination. You will also need to keep your
weed burden down so that weeds do not take over your pastures and leave you
without any stock feed. Also, your neighbours will not thank you if your weed
seeds are forever blowing into their paddocks. You do not want to be driven out
of town by an irate group of farmers. You will need to select the plant species you wish to grow and then
ensure they can become established and stay established by eliminating the
competition from the undesirable weed species that will forever be trying to
invade your paddocks. You are going to need advise and help from the very start
of your venture if you are going to succeed. You do not have the luxury of
spending ‘a few years’ learning how to farm while your paddocks turn to dust!
I cannot
advise you on what pasture you need to grow or what chemicals you need to spray
to control your weeds. You are going to need advice from specialists who know
your area. I can advise you on whether or not the pasture you have growing on
your property now is adequate to meet the nutrirional requirements of your
stock. That is what I will attempt to do in this chapter!
