Divide and Conquer

The grass in our pasture is growing with the rain that has been falling.  I'm using rotational grazing in which I have the 3 acre pasture separated into 7 different paddocks and I move them either daily or every two days into a fresh new paddock of grass, depending on how much they are eating and how fast or slow the grass is growing.  By using this technique, I'm optimizing the usage of the grass.  Joel Salatin says that cows graze like people do at a salad bar, picking out the best stuff first.  But if you limit their access to just one section of the pasture, they end up eating most everything, instead of being like that family member that picks the shrimp out of the bottom of a shrimp and okra gumbo!

Anyway, over the past 17 years, we've never fertilized our pasture, unless you count the tons of chicken manure and cow manure that have fallen over those years.  In taking soil samples, we've learned that the pH is off and we are needing lime.  In fact, we need 1 ton of lime per acre to bring the soil to an optimal 6.26 level.  Getting the soil to the correct pH will allow the soil to 'unlock' the fertility that is already their so that the grass can access it and grow.

With just a 3 acre pasture, I'm finding it hard to get someone to come and broadcast lime on such a small parcel of land.  So I thought to myself, what's the best way to eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  Tractor Supply Company was running a special on lime at 3 forty lb. bags for $9.  I measured the square footage of the first paddock and did the calculations based on a ton to the acre to determine how many bags to put out.  The first paddock required 10 forty lb bags. 

I got out my spreader and got busy after work.  1 paddock down, six to go!