Starting new pasture..

Hi all.. I grew up on our family farm, driving tractors and doing whatever task my grandfather said to do...lol. But i never was the one who decided exactly what needed to be done in the fields, i just did as Pop said. Now much later in life, im the one making all of the descisions..lol.i have finally talked my wife into letting me take two acres out front of the house, and turning it into pasture. Im trying to cut down on the amount of hay i buy for our goats, plus we plan on getting two Dexter calves this summer.

Up until now, the front two acres have just been the normal landscaping yard grass with mixed weeds. I want to grow a mix of grasses, clovers, alfalfa, mixed pasture type forage, to rotate the goats n cattle on. Yesterday i dropped off my soil sample to the state AG dept, so soon i will know what all i need to add to the soil. Now this is where i could have used my grandfathers advice. I dont know if i should plow, disk, cultivate, or just broadcast my initial seeding. Ive been reading up on " no-till farmimg, and looking at pros n cons of how much i disturb the soil. Quite honestly, im feeling a bit overwhelmed with information.

One other thing to mention, as of right now i do not have a tractor. But that should be changed by the end of march. I am already looking at tractors at this time. So fellas, what advice do you have for establishing my new pasture.

Different locations require different type farming practices & types of grass. I'll suggest to plow the soil & have it tested for nutrient composition & fertilize accordingly.. Pick a type grass for your area & type animals you will have & plant it..

Plow it disc and drill it. Call your local seedsmen and see what he recommends for your area and what you want to do with it

Just me, but I wouldn't just jump into plowing it up and reseeding unless it proves to be necessary. I'd just apply the lime and perhaps some fertilizer the soil analysis shows is needed, and let it grow for a year and see what happens. It'll just depend on what sort of grasses are in the yard now. Around here, most yards will revert into useful pastures or hay fields simply by not mowing them.

He has lawn grass

Yeah, I understand. But that could mean a lot of things. Around here, "lawn grass" is the same as pasture grass, it's just been mowed. My yard butts up against one of my hay fields. If I didn't mow, the yard would revert back into a hay field. Actually, one of my smaller hay fields was mowed as a yard for years, not it's one of my most productive fields, though small. I never did anything but add a little lime.

That?s possible to but if it?s just something you don?t
Know what is I?d plant new

I am with MJMJ, you can't tell how what you have is going to do until you give it a chance. When I was starting out my partner and I just followed the soil sampling instructions and got nice hay from what had been weeds.