Spring Clean up

[jen judkins]

Its been warmer than usual for February here in central NH, so its got me thinking about spring….we’re getting more snow tomorrow, so I doubt this thought will last too much longer:rolleyes:.

I was thinking about my first set of chores for the spring and how Peanut might help me with them. So I was wondering what some of your spring clean up ‘to do’ lists look like. Mine is mostly how to clean up or spread manure buildup in the winter paddocks. This year I am gonna re-seed a portion of my pastures as well. Never done that before, so I’m triing to sort out the best time to do it. I’ve been told that seed can be sown in the late winter before the thaw if weather permits, but its still unclear to me when that is ideal. Anyway, I’m a relatively new farmer and eager to learn more. What is the first thing you all do in the spring?

Keep in mind…as a task oriented person, I suffer through the mud season when you can do very little and being in the northeast, I have to wait till June to plant my garden, so I really need a constructive list of things to do in that limbo period or I will go MAD!

[Donn Hewes]

At least I can get your thread back to the top. I have used frost seeding with good effect. I seems to work best with the legumes, clover and trefoil for example. Grasses do a little better with more bare earth or tillage. The nightly frosts are supposed to set the seeds in contact with the earth, but harrowing large acreage with a team, or single horse, is great easy spring work, and will only help the seed. Early spring grazeing can also be used to set seed. One of my pictures in “horses and mules” is of a team of four up harrowing in the early spring. great fun. As for clean up, if I haven’t done it by spring it will have to wait. I hope you are having fun with Peanut. Donn

[jen judkins]

@Donn Hewes 6075 wrote:

Early spring grazeing can also be used to set seed.

I’m not sure what this means? Spread seed then allow grazing so the seed gets tamped into the soil? Explanation please…

[Donn Hewes]

we start to graze our sheep a little the first of May and they are usually our full time by mid May. The first few trips we really take them on a slow walk, let them graze a little, and put them back in the barn. These trips can be aimed at an area that has just been seeded to trefoil and it will help to set the seed. Usually I will seed into a hay field as as it will do less damage to the emerging plants than all summer grazing. Our hay fields rotate each year. Donn

[Robert MoonShadow]

I’m not sure about horses, but with my pack donkeys, they just naturaly fit the ‘stop-and-go’ pattern of pruning & cleaning up winter debris… probably even moreso with a cart – It got them out excercising with a light pack on them, snigging a large branch or two, a little bit of spring grazing with me supervising to make sure it wasn’t too much {donkeys can grass founder very easily on spring grass}. It got them in shape, the property cleaned up without a heavy lawn tractor leaving ruts or me pushing a wheelbarrow through mud, and the donks & I got to spend time together…
Does this help give you any ideas, Jen?

PS – If you pile & leave some of the dead branches, etc., it’ll give a haven for the “little ones” = rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, song birds, etc. – a woodland area can be too clean.

[J-L]

Jen if you run out of things to do, come on out to Wyoming this spring. Plenty of tasks here.

1. Barn cleaning (weekly during calving)
2. Spread manure
3. Drag (harrow) hayfields (300 acres +/-)
4. Ditching/pitching sod/building dykes
5. Finish discing oat patch
6. Drill said oatpatch
7. One heck of a rock picking project in oat patch (should be before #5)
8. Hit a lick on fencing projects as snow drifts come off of the fences
9. Cow work starts (branding, herding to summer pastures, AI work)

Most of this will take place while still feeding cattle ’til 15 May and calving duties. During calving I ride the pastures morning and night.
I like winter just for the fact that all I have to do is feed 3 or 4 ton of hay a day. One job. Me and a couple of teams. Spring gets my tongue hanging out after a while.

[jen judkins]

J-L, That sounds like alot of fun…I love Wyoming! Sign me up!

That said, it is snowing again here….so my list of things to get done will have to wait abit longer. I’ll bring this post back up to the front when the weather looks cooperative. Thanks for the input all.

[Author]

Posts