We have a steep, weedy patch just behind the house. When we moved here it had a small mowed path through the middle, but the rest was dense overgrown sumac and wild grape tangled under a poplar canopy. After running the pigs through and then following up with untold hours of chainsawing, we managed to open the understory and get a pretty good stand of orchardgrass and clover to grow there. There are still some patches of heavy burdock in places where we’ve fed pigs, but that’s a decent forage in its own right so we don’t mind too much.
Today we ran the cattle through the back yard. They did a great job of mowing things down. As I’ve said before, I hate cutting the grass and I’d much rather employ an eager herd of cattle to do that job for me.
4 thoughts on “Cows in the Yard”
Nice! A couple of goats would take care of the thistle too.
Yes, you are right. If they were easier to fence, I’d probably have a few goats on the place for cleanup jobs just like that.
Nice-looking rustic shed. I grazed my yard one summer and fall. Great minds think alike?
Rustic as in dilapidated… It used to be the farm’s smokehouse, now it is the catch all for pails and brooder equipment. On the downhill side there is a door for tending the smoke. Inside, the beams are blackened from a hundred years of smoked hams.