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Our New Farm

3K views 27 replies 12 participants last post by  JCnGrace 
#1 · (Edited)
We are hoping to close on our new home very soon.

Excited to start getting the place ready to foster a couple of our favorite rescue horses. There is a lot of work to be done. Where would you start?

Here is the house.

Here is the barn. Electrical, Water, 2 stalls, concrete wash rack, and a good sized feed/tack room.

A couple of pics of the totally overgrazed and grassless pasture. It amounts to about 2 fenced acres. Planning on fencing in a bit more soon.




What would you do first?
 
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#2 ·
Looks like a well kept place. Congratulations!

Check fences: make sure there are no loose posts or boards with nails/screws sticking out.

Prepare the soil to bring back some grazing when your planting season has arrived.
 
#7 ·
first thing I'd do is spend a few days sitting out there with a chilled beer, toasting my luck to be there!
You got that right!

what general area of US is this?
This property is in Northeast Georgia. Just outside of Jasper.

Planning on planting a White clover, Fescue mix starting in early march. The should yield decent spring and fall grazing. I'm still trying to work out a decent warm season seed mix to put down in the May June time frame. Not planning to keep pregnant mares or foals on the property, so fescue should be fine. Annual Rye and some other legumes will go down in the fall.

We will not be putting horses on the property until the fall, so I am praying for a healthy summer growing season to get a strong stand of grass established.

Once I know how stressed the grazing will get, we may move to more of a pasture paradise type setup to ensure there is always some kind of forage. for the horses

These are the horses we hope to adopt in the fall.

This is Maggie. She is some kind of mutt mix of Quarter Horse I think. She is a bit under 16HH and about 12 years old. Other than being a bit on the heavy side, she has no medical issues and is ridden regularly.



This is DoodleBug. He is a 15HH gelding Thoroughbred about the same age as Maggie. He and Maggy have been pasture mates for years. He is missing his front teeth, which had to be pulled due to periodontal problems. He still has all of his molars, and pulling his fronts resolved is periodontal issues. That's why he is sticking his tongue out. Trust me when I tell you that it just makes him even more adorable.



I honestly can't tell you how excited we are to start this new adventure. Getting out of the 'burbs is something we have talked about for many years...and we are hopefully going to make that happen in a few weeks.
 
#8 ·
I have a good friend rider-buddy whose qh had his front teeth pulled. he has his tongue out when relaxed. might be a problem in summer, may need a sun shade nose cover thingy. but, maybe not.

congrats on your new farm. looks like a lovely area. I've always wanted to go see Georgia. especially the coast islands.
been to New Orleans twice, but that is the total experience I have with The South.
 
#10 ·
Just curious... is DoodleBug able to graze without his front teeth? Or does he still have enough of them?
Good question! There is very little to graze in his current paddock. He doesn't seem to have any problems in spring. just gumming on new growth is enough to pull it loose. much harder on him mid summer when all of the mature growth gets more fibrous. If there is hay around he always goes to it. He currently gets pellet feed softened with warm water twice daily.

I'm ordering a measuring tape so I can keep an eye on there weight when we start making changes to their feed. They are currently on Triple Crowne Senior. We are planning to switch them over to something non GMO all natural feed like Triple Crowne Naturals.
 
#11 ·
Sorry if I missed it, but are you setting up another turn-out/paddock area for them to go in when you need to rest the pasture or while the grass is first growing, etc.? That's about the extent of what I know about keeping a pasture is that there won't be one if the horses are on it all the time! I live in the desert so... :lol:

Congrats on your new place! Its absolutely gorgeous.
 
#14 ·
A gorgeous farm! I agree with what's already been suggested and notice not one person has bothered with the house, lollollol

I am curious why you want to plant white clover and fescue?

Clover will pop up on its own when a good wind comes thru. the weed killer 2-4-D considers clover a weed and kills it.

I would not intentionally plant fescue in case you ever do have a mare in foal.

You might check with your county extension agent, Ag person, or Co-op and get their input:)
 
#15 ·
I am curious why you want to plant white clover and fescue?

Clover will pop up on its own when a good wind comes thru. the weed killer 2-4-D considers clover a weed and kills it.

I would not intentionally plant fescue in case you ever do have a mare in foal.

You might check with your county extension agent, Ag person, or Co-op and get their input:)
All good points. I have talked with the county extension agent. He is a helpful sort, but even though our county is covered up with horse farms, he seems to only know about how to feed cattle.

I chose white clover because I know it does well in our area and, being a nitrogen fixer, it will help reduce fertilizer costs. I'm actually looking to plant as many different species of grass and legume as possible because more diverse pastures are more drought tolerant.

If I had my druthers, my cool season mix would consist of Fescue, Sorghum Sudangrass, Barley, Pearl Millet, German Millet, White Clover, Alsike Clover, Alfalfa, and maybe Hairy Vetch.


Fescue is cheaper and does better in our climate than any other available cool season perennial. It helps that the risk of Fescue Toxicosis is quite low. We are too far south for Bluegrass and Timothy.

For peak summer grazing I am planning to add in some Pensacola Bahia, Bermuda Grass, and maybe even some Zoysia and Centipede.
 
#24 · (Edited)
#25 ·
I really would not plant fescue. It is clearly associated with lameness in cattle and quite possibly can cause lameness in horses. You already mentioned about the agalactia and fetal death in broodmares.

Why not:
1. coastal burmuda
2. bahia Seeds are available from Home Depot or other places
3. common burmudaSeeds available
4. Bluegrass

Or anything else.

Though I want to sow Common Bermuda, I have found it nearly impossible to get it established from seed and there is no way that I am sodding a dang pasture. Still, I will be trying to get some to grow.


Pensacola Bahia is supposed to do well in my area, but it takes more than a year and higher than average fertilizer rates to establish a good stand. It doesn't help that it costs $140 for 50 pounds and you need to seed at a rate of 60-80 lbs an acre at the start. All in costs are well past $200 an acre. To top it off, my children would sacrifice me to the wolves if I told them they can't have horses for another 2 years while the grass grows.

I have not seen Bluegrass grown successfully in my area, but would be willing to try it if I thought it could make it through the summer.


Maybe I'll put down a fescue mix to get good ground coverage the first year and try to replace it over time with Bahia, which is sod forming whereas fescue is not.
 
#26 ·
As someone who has a pasture full of white clover trust me, you don't want to plant it on purpose. It will show up on its own during a drought or overgrazed pasture and then take over the grass. The 2 main things I have to deal with because of it is horses who are overweight and they get the drools, BAD. In the summer they'll stand in the barn to get away from flies and they'll have a constant stream running out of their mouths which creates a nasty, smelly mess of the barn floor. Seems like I spend all summer scooping disgusting slop and refilling with lime screenings, which then turns into more disgusting slop within a couple of days when it can't absorb anymore.
 
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