Pastures

The Pastures of Hedgerow Farm

Approximately 70 acres of pasture are cleared though only about 15 acres are properly fenced for livestock. We keep cutting the open fields to prevent their return to woodland. We consider the future possibilities of expanding the sheep flock, or adding other livestock.

The pastures are a mix of fescue, Bermuda, clover, vetch, Johnson grass, thistle, dandelions, and many other forbs and weeds I cannot yet identify. We intend to be a bit more intentional going forward with seeding in specific forages of grasses, herbs so that the animals can graze what they need, as they know it.

Grazing and browsing is a natural way of life for horses, cows,sheep. Nature’s intention, so it seems, that these creatures consume grass, weeds, broad-leafed plants.

Jacob sheep are the primary grazers of Hedgerow Farm. We rotate them among the pastures and keep a small group of rams separate from the ewes until the 6 weeks or so of breeding in the autumn. Our laying hens are also roaming one of the pastures and future plans are to raise Thanksgiving turkeys and heritage meat birds each year on the other pastures so that nature’s model of birds following the grazers can break the parasite cycles on the land and generally sanitize the pastures while also fertilizing them.

Magazines, Books:
The Stockman GrassFarmer
Small Farmer’s Journal
All Flesh Is Grass: Pleasures & Promises Of Pasture Farming

Websites:
The Contrary Farmer
Eat Wild
White Oak Pastures
Small Farmer’s Journal