Clearing Woods....Next Step??

[trapsht]

1st timer with my first post. I've spent a lot of time using the search function and have learned a lot. I don't have experience with raising cattle at all. Been reading books and googling. I live on 55acres that is mostly woods with my young family. I'm trying to buck modern day parenting, and get my kids off electronics and outside. We've been raising chickens for awhile, and want to raise the bar with beef. I don't care about making money with this, I just want to teach my kids life lessons and provide quality meat for my family and friends. Of course I'll be selling it to them. I'd like to start with 2 young steers and finish them. If all goes well, then maybe I'll venture into cow/calf.

I'm clearing out woods to make a pasture. Currently, I've cleared a little over an acre and want to end at 2 acres total. All root balls are coming out. I don't know where to begin once I have it cleared. Naturally, I want to have cattle as soon as possible, but I don't want to let my eagerness get in the way of a properly planned pasture. I'm going to assume that I should have a well grown pasture before I introduce cows. Should I consider planting this fall with the hopes of introducing cows in the spring? Or plant in the spring and wait until the following spring(2017) to purchase cows? I live in northern Illinois with a short growing season. Thanks!!

 

[M-5]

I would assume you have neighbors that have some expertise in this this area. I would encourage you to get to know them and ask for their help in getting things set up properly. Good thing about living in a rural area is people will help you if you ask and often for nothing. Especially if you offer your services to them in exchange for learning. It also teaches children to be generous without expecting anything in return.

now once you have it cleared and a seed bed established you can plant a winter forage and have grazing in a couple months. you need to be prepared to feed grain and hay for the most part until you have a forage system established. Your location may be a limiting factor cause I don't know and don't want to know a thing about SNOW.

 

[Dave]

You will want to check with your local extension service for advice on which pasture species to plant and when to plant them. Here I would plant cool season grasses in the fall. In your location they might winter kill.

 

[dun]

2 acres isn;t going to provide much forage. I'm sure your aware that to feed out steers you're going to need quality feed.

 

[trapsht]

2 acres isn;t going to provide much forage. I'm sure your aware that to feed out steers you're going to need quality feed.

Really?? A local farmer told me that 1 acre per cow is more than enough. I wasn't planning on supplementing much unless I carry them into winter. Now I'm worried.

 

[dun]

I'm not familiar with that part of the country. Most places it takes really good forage to be able to run 1 per acre. According to the farmer is that year round or just during the grazing season? In order for the forage to be of high quality it has to be in the vegetive stage, not going to seed. You may have to break the pasture into several smaller grazing cells. Talk to your local extension office people or NRCS to see if anyone is doing MIG in the area. The person doing MIG will be able to help you out with forages to plant and how to best manage it.
If you buy weaners in the 600-700 range it's going to take probably 4 to as much as 12 months to get them to slaughter weight/condition. Don;t mean to pee in your punch bowl but the more people in your area you talk to the better you'll be prepared.
For newly clea4reed land the order I woulddo things is soil test and fertilize/lime to the test data, then plant a fast growing cover crop like annual rye. The reason for the cover crop is to protect the soil from wind/water erosion. Along with the cover crop I would plant whatever grasses are common forage grasses in your area and I would also interseed clover.

 

[Rhune]

What is your fence and water situation like?

I have been slowly clearing wooded areas on my place. Oak and Madrone mainly. Thick enough to only allow minimal grass. I found that letting cows into an area that I plan on thinning really helps knock stuff down and makes life a lot easier for me when I start cutting.

I also don't remove stumps. But I am on hills I am not going to be working the ground with a tractor. I cut stumps off as close to the ground as I can get and then hit em with Tordon.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Things should have likely been planted by now as frost won't be far off, and now seeding in the spring isn't gonna establish fast and thick enough to be ready for a summer of grazing. You can put steers out there mid summer perhaps, but they aren't really gonna be butcher ready unless they were near 1000 lbs when you put em out there. To buy that steer around here would cost you 2000+

 

[Stocker Steve]

You will want to look into sheep before buying some steers.

 

[jedstivers]

Keep clearing. Your stopping to soon.

 

[trapsht]

Thanks everyone. This is the kind of info I was hoping to get. Some times you need someone to pee in your cheerios when you are uneducated on a subject. Sounds like I need to talk to more local guys and potentially wait until 2017 for cows. Its disappointing, but I want to do it the right way. I have a skid steer with grapple bucket so clearing woods is actually fun for me.

The local farmer that suggested 1 cow/acre was only talking about the growing season. This is why I was hoping to buy a weaned calf in the spring and slaughter in fall. I have local guys who will sell hay if need be. I need to get more facts before I dump $3k in a fence. Thanks

 

[fenceman]

Keep clearing. Your stopping to soon.

Don't stop at 2 acres. Your going to want more.
With that being said. Is your 55 acres fenced. If so go ahead and get your cattle. Your goals are not to high. 55 acres of brush will carry 2. You can grow at your own pace. Cutting and piling brush is great for teaching life lessons. :nod:

 

[greybeard]

.
With that being said. Is your 55 acres fenced. If so go ahead and get your cattle. Your goals are not to high. 55 acres of brush will carry 2. You can grow at your own pace. Cutting and piling brush is great for teaching life lessons. :nod:

Yeah--some dang HARD life lessons FM.
55 acres of woods will carry more than 2 here but where he is located may not have the "woods grass" thing we have here in East Texas. (I'll run 10 or more on 60 woods acres for short periods of time in Dec-Jan but If I was covered up in mesquite like you are , that would be a different story :yuck: .) It takes some pretty good and tough cattle to be able to make use of what some here call browse but I've seen some of mine eat green holly leaves, lots of yaupon, low hanging sweetgum, and anything else green during the early winter. I save the wooded area for January--less frost kill on the grass that is there. (and, I doubt he wants a brahma influenced breed like Beefmasters in Northern Illinois tho--especially just starting off) :D

I agree with all the rest--talk to the guys in your area---someone close has likely already done what you are now doing--learn from their successes .............and failures.
When clearing, do leave some clumps for a windbreak and for shade for the cows.
Wide open pasture may look pretty, but that sun can sure beat down in mid summer no matter where ya live, and the wet cold winter wind can take a lot out of man and beast. They can handle a lot of cold and a lot of wet but not a lot of both at the same time.

 

[skyhightree1]

.
Cutting and piling brush is great for teaching life lessons. :nod:

Yeah--some dang HARD life lessons FM.

:lol: :lol: :lol: I agree... Everyday I was in the sun cutting trees and dragging brush etc I told myself I should have done better in school.

 

[fenceman]

We graze the brushy pasture s in winter as well . Like you said not hardly any frost kill in central Texas up under the cedars. Also part of the reason they haven't been cleared is they are rocky ground. So tromping the he// out of em all winter dosent do any harm. Just not much there to hurt.

For sky.
To small boys go up to a rancher and ask him for jobs. Well what can y'all do he ask. The smallest boy says well I'm a,pilot. The rancher laughs, a pilot huh , well we can probably find you something to do. He ask the older boy, what can you do son. The boy answers . I'm a woodcutter sir. The rancher replies well sorry but I don't need any trees cut..The small boy begins to cry. What's wrong says the rancher, I said I'd find you some work. The boy replies, ya but if he don't cut it I can't pilot.

 

[skyhightree1]

We graze the brushy pasture s in winter as well . Like you said not hardly any frost kill in central Texas up under the cedars. Also part of the reason they haven't been cleared is they are rocky ground. So tromping the he// out of em all winter dosent do any harm. Just not much there to hurt.

For sky.
To small boys go up to a rancher and ask him for jobs. Well what can y'all do he ask. The smallest boy says well I'm a,pilot. The rancher laughs, a pilot huh , well we can probably find you something to do. He ask the older boy, what can you do son. The boy answers . I'm a woodcutter sir. The rancher replies well sorry but I don't need any trees cut..The small boy begins to cry. What's wrong says the rancher, I said I'd find you some work. The boy replies, ya but if he don't cut it I can't pilot.

:lol2:

 

[trapsht]

The 55 acres is not fenced. Im an avid hunter, and the 2 acres that Im clearing is in an area that wont affect my hunting. If I cant make it happen on 2 acres, then Ill just stick to eating venison. Thanks for the insight everyone!! Ill keep researching.

 

[dun]

We have some woods, broken up into smallish chunks. The rest is pasture or ponds. We deer and turkey hunt on the whole place. Never have seen any ill affects of grazing then pulling the cows out before hunting season starts. On our old farm about 20 miles north of here, the deer would be out feeding among the cows or at least in the same fields as the cows. This farm, if there is a cow in a field there won;t be a deer, even just passing through.

 

[hillbilly beef man]

I had to wait to kill my first deer till the cows moved away from it. Never had a problem with the cows bothering deer.

 

[hillbillyhammer]

We have some woods, broken up into smallish chunks. The rest is pasture or ponds. We deer and turkey hunt on the whole place. Never have seen any ill affects of grazing then pulling the cows out before hunting season starts. On our old farm about 20 miles north of here, the deer would be out feeding among the cows or at least in the same fields as the cows. This farm, if there is a cow in a field there won;t be a deer, even just passing through.

Same way at my house if cows are in the field no deer to be seen. Move the cows to another place see deer almost everyday.