Ideas on what to do with 20 acres

I got a 6' rotary mower and mowed down about 15 years of growth including a lot of yucca and cactus and some small mesquite trees. I've bladed my 1/2 mile driveway smooth and now the tractor just sits there and pleads to be used.

I looked at buying some haying equipment but that just didn't make sense for the amount of land I have left. It is unirrigated and we average about 17 inches of rain here. I've thought about getting a disk and grain drill and using it to overseed the grass and improve it for when I hire someone to come and hay it. Thought about a spreader to put down fertilizer on it. Just really haven't come up with any good options on what to do with it. Right now it is in native grasses and just sits there. I had it hayed about 5 years ago and it wasn't very good because of the cactus and stuff in it. I'm hoping that since I mowed all that down it should be better this year.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks, Nathan

I really like your first sentence. I have the same problem. So I did as you did, then with a neighbors coaching, bought some cows, then leased some land to hay, and bought more equipment to do rounds and squares, then contracted with the neighbor to do hay for "our" cows, then, when there is no hayin to do, I just drive em up and down the road. Grin.

Mark

What kind of cover would I put in? The 20 acres that I have left are split by the land in CRP (of course) and I have basically 6 acres on the far side of my property and 14 acres around the house. The 6 acres was put in wheat about 5 years ago but nothing since. Not sure what grass is on it but it is thick and looks good.

Thanks, Nathan

The government pays me a whopping $36 per acre to just leave it in native grasses and do nothing with it. I had to plant a couple extra species of grass and establish a permanent water source when I re-upped for 10 more years last year. Cost me a few hundred bucks for the seed and a few hundred bucks to have it drilled. I could have done the water source for really cheap (some farmers just put a 50 gallon drum of water out there in the middle of it and fill it once a month) but I spent about $1k to put in a nice little pond and run electricity and water to it.

You have to have a crop base to be able to put your land into the CRP program and I didn't have a crop base on all of it so that is why it all isn't in the program. (I bought the land in several small pieces)

HTH, Nathan