Pasture management is something I have been passionate about since we moved to Lovell in the spring of 2022. I didn't know much about it, but I was convinced that we should do our best to be good stewards of this piece of land we were blessed to own.
We haven't used any pesticides/herbicides on our property since we've lived here. We aren't against chemicals or traditional agriculture, we just wanted to try something new and see what the results would be. (If you're curious about our feelings on the pesticide debate, check out our blog post on that subject.) Let's take a deeper look into our failures and successes over the past two years as we work to improve our dryland pasture naturally.
Our Pasture Improvement Journey
When we purchased our property in March of 2022, we had no real idea what was lying dormant in our pasture. For one, winter is a difficult time to tell what's growing on a piece of land. But more importantly, we knew next to nothing about plants—especially which ones were common in northern Wyoming and which ones we currently had growing on our place.
The First Summer: Observation and Adaptation
Once spring finally sprung in the Bighorn Basin, we expectantly waited for the dry, brown matter in the 10-ish acres of pasture land to turn into lush, tall, green grasses. Throughout May and June, we were a little surprised at how few things had popped up out of the soil; with the exception of a few cool-season weeds that had made use of an early spring, the pasture still looked almost entirely dormant.
In mid-July of 2022, we went to North Carolina for a week for a family reunion. When we returned, we crested the hill that shields the pasture from view from the top of the property. What we saw absolutely blew my mind! What had just been a field of dormant grasses a week or two before had blossomed into a thriving weed farm seemingly overnight. A few grasses had grown, too, but they were entirely overshadowed by the knee-high (at least!) weeds.
Here's a look at a small part of the pasture in July of 2022 (and definitely not at the peak of the weed explosion—unfortunately I didn't do the best job documenting this time!)
It's important to note that we did not own any kind of lawnmower when we moved to Wyoming. We knew mowing would be an important part of our routine, since we'd just purchased 19 acres of land, but we way underestimated the type of mowing we'd be doing and the speed with which we would need to acquire the correct equipment.
So... we started out with a push mower that we bought from an older couple for $25. It wasn't even self propelled; that thing was entirely human powered. Here is a picture of my first time using it, when I was still hopeful that it could get the job done...
What I didn't know when I took that picture was just how dense and sticky most of the weeds in the pasture would be. I would also quickly learn that some of the grasses (which I am still learning to identify!) grew in such large clumps that it was absolutely impossible to get the push mower up and over them.
I'm not even sure if I got 20 feet mowed that first day... and then the mower quit working. Of course! So, we drove up to Montana to pick up a 16-year-old riding lawnmower for a steal of a deal. It needed a new battery, they said, but it'd been meticulously cared for and had just recently been used.
The riding mower did run, but I still underestimated the difficulty I would face trying to get the pasture mowed that first time. Between replacing the mower deck belt at least three times; having to be in the infuriatingly slow first gear and still make several passes to cut down the thick, sticky wild licorice; and countless bruises on my shins from the mower coming to a dead stop after running into clumps of grass, it was a real doozy of a job.
I spent at least 20 hours that first time mowing down in the pasture, at least that many running back and forth to Cody to pick up parts, and Ford spent incalculable amounts of time fixing it every time it broke (I have the absolute best husband in the world). I was so exasperated when I imagined having to do that several times a season, every single year!
Thankfully, I didn't have to mow much more that first season; summer is short here in northern Wyoming, and I think most of the plants were so shocked that they struggled to recover the rest of that summer.
The Second Summer: Determination and Progress
After the first year of mowing, I made a promise to myself that I would never, ever let the pasture get that bad ever again. I was committed to doing whatever it took to get the pasture mowed earlier in the season so that we didn't face the same hurdles as we had the previous year.
And we were successful in reaching that goal. There were still more weeds than grasses, but the ratio was beginning to change. We started noticing grasses coming up in spots where the year before only weeds had grown. By cutting down the weeds, we allowed sunlight to reach the soil, which meant that grass seeds stored in the soil's seed bank had the chance to thrive.
Of course, we still had plenty of challenges. Even though we had grown significantly in our knowledge and abilities after struggling so much our first year, we experienced plenty of roadblocks. We'd been loaned a friend's tractor and brush hog, which we hoped would mow much more quickly, but the blades still got bogged down by the thickness of the wild licorice stems, which meant that it took about the same amount of time to mow with the tractor as it did with the riding lawnmower.
One of the best improvements, though, was that we no longer had to worry about running the riding lawnmower into a clump of grass that threatened to send us head over heels over the front of the mower. Having a tractor with plenty of ground clearance and a brush hog meant for the job allowed us to not only mow the grass, but also mow down some of the more undesirable bushes and trees in the pasture.
Finally, we were making real strides towards a healthy pasture!
The Third Summer: Continued Adaptation and Visible Results
So far, the summer of 2024 has shown, by far, the most incredible successes of all. Armed with our own tractor and an even bigger brush hog, we are ready for big cutting jobs!
Because of the groundwork we laid over the last two summers, we actually don't have nearly as much work ahead of us as I imagined we would. Grasses are popping up all over the place where they were never seen before. Areas that had little clumps of grass here and there are now densely packed with a soft, green, grassy carpet.
And the best part... the weeds are disappearing as fast as they show up! I have been particularly worried about the wild licorice because it is a perennial and not great forage for animals, so I was concerned we'd be battling a million plants for the rest of our lives... but not very many have come up this year in the main part of the pasture, and they've actually almost all dried up and withered away. I'm not sure if it's because the grasses are doing better or what... but I'll take it!
These photos bring me so much joy. The far left and middle photos were taken in approximately the same location during the first mow of the season. While I'm on a riding lawnmower in one photo and a tractor in the other, the differences between the two pictures are unmistakable.
Even though you can see a little bit of grass on the righthand side of the leftmost photo, you can tell that it isn't healthy; it's brown and sparse. It is almost impossible to identify any grasses on the left side of that photograph, because the weeds had already used all of the resources the soil could provide.
The fact that the middle photo was taken around the same time of year and also during the first mow of the season brings me an incredible amount of joy. It's almost the exact opposite of the photo before it: there are almost no visible weeds. Instead, you see multiple species of healthy grasses flourishing.
And the right picture is so peaceful to me... these thriving grasses make for great horseback riding, picnics, and walks with the dogs. The fact that it looks so great because of our hard work makes it all the more special.
This photo, which I took last night, is a great example of how much more "clean" and useable the pasture is now than it was two years ago. Compare it to this photo, which was taken in roughly the same spot, and you'll see just how much nicer the pasture looks.
Our Main Takeaways
Of course, even though we've started to experience successes in our pasture management journey, we are nowhere near done learning and growing. Here are the main things we've learned so far and the things we'd like to adjust in the future.
It's More About the Timing Than the Frequency
We're all about working smarter, not harder. If you own even a few acres of land, you know how much work it is to maintain it. That means it's very important to reduce your workload whenever possible.
We have never mowed our pasture more than twice in a season. In fact, we typically only mow it once. Rest periods are a very important part of pasture management, especially if grasses are being mowed or grazed to a short height. Giving pastures at least 30 days to rest in between mowing/grazing sessions allows for healthy growth that leads to greater resiliency.
If you're only going to mow your pasture once per season, it's important to pick the right time to do so. Mowing after grasses are at least 4" tall, but before weeds go to seed, has been the best recipe for success in our experience. Letting the grass grow to this length ensures it can withstand the stress of being mowed, while cutting weeds before they go to seed stops their reproduction cycle, resulting in fewer weeds the next year.
Implement Multi-Species Grazing Wherever Possible
Admittedly, this is an area we're still working to perfect in our routine. Multi-species grazing is an integral part of regenerative agriculture practices (hopefully we'll touch on this in a blog post before too long!), so we're trying to implement it more and more in our pasture management.
If you follow us on Facebook, you've probably seen that we've started experimenting with rotationally grazing our horse, Tavi, on some of the areas in our pasture. The next ideal step would be to have the ducks on the same piece of land; they add fertilizer to the soil, eat the bugs, and help to eliminate any parasites in Tavi's waste.
While it may seem faster to mow the land (and sometimes it really is!), it's important to me to begin adding animals into the rotation. There is just no subtitute for the important role animals play in increasing biodiversity and improving soil health. Plus, grazing them in the pasture increases their quality of life and lowers our feed bill.
Today's Hard Work Leads to Tomorrow's Success
We are so proud of the work we've put in over the past two years to improve our dryland pasture without any pesticides, herbicides, tillage, or seeding. We still have so much further to go, but it's amazing to see the incredible difference natural management techniques have made in two short years. We look forward to seeing what our property looks like five years from now!
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