Pasture Soil Building Update

I’ve been going through my photo files for pictures for 5 Acres & A Dream The Sequel. I found these and had to stop and be amazed. They were taken in February and March of 2015 and 2016, before we started on our pasture soil improvement strategy in 2018. I know that soil building takes years, so the then-and-now photos I’m about to show you are extremely heartening to me.

I didn’t even remember that they once looked like that in winter. Is anyone else as amazed as I am?

The straw at in the bottom of the last photo is one of the methods I’ve been using for building soil in the pasture. I toss a diverse forage seed mixture down on the bare spots and cover with dirty barn bedding. The other method has been to subdivide the pastures and rotate where the goats graze. The rotations have been sporadic, especially in winter when forage growth is slow, but we’ve still been sticking with it and doing it the best we can.

It’s not as lush as I’d like it, but considering the time of year I can’t complain. On the plus side is that  we’ve had a relatively mild winter, which means more growth because fewer species will go dormant. Even so, because of the temperatures, regrowth is slow. But something is there! And it looks so much greener than anything we’ve ever seen on our property this time of year. I am exceedingly thankful.