Kevin Brown, Ag Resource Specialist, BCCD
So you have animals, or you want to get some.  You may have 1-2 acres that you can put them on, or you may have 10 acres.  To most people, when they look at that much land, they think “That is a lot of land and it will support however many animals I want to have”.  Let’s be honest, 3-5 horses on one full acre of ground doesn’t look like much.  Neither does 15 cows on a full 10 acres of land.  So, you get the number of animals you want and start a farm.  All is well.  The animals have plenty enough land to roam on.  They are comfortable and happy.   And when you start supplementing them with hay, you don’t think anything about it.  That is how it is supposed to be.  Right?  Well, no, not really.   Not for you or the environment.  

By: Kevin Brown, Ag Team Leader
​So, my first comment is “nothing can compete with well managed grass in the northeast”.  If you manage and feed your grasses correctly, they will outcompete everything else.  If you have weeds, it is because the grasses are not being managed as well as they can be.  They are lacking a good cutting schedule or nutrients.  Depending on the weed, cutting them on a timely basis will help a lot.  Most weeds we deal with are annuals.  They live one year.  You cut hem before they go to seed then you have that many less weed seeds next year.  Do that a few years in a row and there are “no” seeds left to germinate.  Now, that does not work on perennials.  They will be harder to deal with.  Call me and we can discuss how to handle them.  It will depend on the weed.

By: Kevin Brown, Ag Team Leader
I was struggling for a good topic this week when I guy walked in and started asking me about reseeding a field.  How to do it, what he should use, etc.  I think there are still enough people out there making hay on a lot of Bradford County fields so I will hit that topic this week.  First off, we need rain!  For non-farmers, how could you ask for a better year?  Warm, dry, just beautiful weather.  For farmers and gardeners, not so much.

​Kevin Brown, BCCD, Ag Team Leader
So, it is that time of year again.  Time to let the animals out to pasture.  No more feeding them stored forages that you had to make.  No more catering to their every whim.  Now, they can be let out and go take care of themselves.  Well, at least for a short period of time.  We like to say that we are “pasturing” our animals, but are we really?  Yes, there are some that are, and do a really good job of it.  However, opening the gate and letting them roam free on the same pasture for the next 6-7 months is not pasturing.  That is an exercise lot.  Yea, there may be some grass growing there originally, but unless you have an expansive pasture, that goes away fast.  And even if you have a big enough lot that you don’t have to feed them any stored forages, you really aren’t doing the best thing for any of the resources you have.  I will try to give you some information on some of the things going on with this style of “pasturing” that you may not know.  It could make you a lot more money.