Big question I know, but....

• Successful Small Scale Farming

If it were mine, I'd wait until late April or May, disc it and drill it to Crested Wheat grass or a good pasture mix that fits your area.

Allan

You want to 'blade' the land, I'm not familiar with that term?

Here where it rains a lot & the soil is 120+ feet deep of mostly clay, I graze 20+ head on mostly 11 acres all summer, & get enough hay from some road ditches & field roads & 12 acres of alfalfa.

Don't know what to say about 20/20 acres of sandy ground in the west, way out of my element. :)

--->Paul

Link

How many aces?

Your location, type of soil, & rainfall determines they types of forage to plant. You didn't supply any info.

Really, for 4 head of cattle anything will work, as suggested to you. :)

Soil test, add lime first if needed, then P&K, grasses will need constant N added; you can add a legume to the mix (alfalfa, clover) which will supply some N for you. Add P & K & lime every few years as needed.

If you can rotational graze (but probably need a bigger herd for that) your pastures will be much, much better. Critters tend to eat the tender stuff, & let the mature grasses or not so good stuff grow ripe. Over time this kills off the gooder grasses, & you end up with only the poorer stuff growing. Making 2-3 paddocks of your pasture & rotating every 30 days or so, would help. Takes a bit of planning to lay out the padocks to access water, shelter, from the different padocks.

Again, with 4 critters won't mean much, but if you plan to expand to 15 or more, plan ahead. :)

Ask more questions, read the supplied web link.

--->Paul