# clearing woods and thickets to create pastures



## WV Mounty02 (Jan 26, 2018)

Iast year I fenced off about a 10 acre pasture just so I could separate my calves from the cows. In the middle there is a patch of woods a brush that I am currently clearing out in the hopes of getting more grass to grow for grazing. My question is after I clear everything will I need to seed that area to get grass to grow or will nature take its coarse if I just keep it brush hogged?


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## JD3430 (Jan 1, 2012)

WV Mounty02 said:


> Iast year I fenced off about a 10 acre pasture just so I could separate my calves from the cows. In the middle there is a patch of woods a brush that I am currently clearing out in the hopes of getting more grass to grow for grazing. My question is after I clear everything will I need to seed that area to get grass to grow or will nature take its coarse if I just keep it brush hogged?


Good fields in my area are all "locked up" by hay farmers, so this is how I have been able to create new hay fields out of overgrown junk nobody wants.
In my experiences, I simply rotary mowed the brush (some of it 20' tall), then I used my loader to push the heaviest junk to woods edge. I actually used my hay rake to rake the smaller chips into windrows and then pushed the windrows of chips to woods edge as well. 
The following year, the field produced decent grade hay. 
This field was once a 15 acre field of Timothy grass. When I bush hogged it, there was just a few strands of Timothy here and there and other mixed grasses among the brush, stickers and weeds.

I think nature will take its course and soft naturally occurring grasses will take over again, IF there was grass there before. However, I don't know if that's what was there. You'll want to keep your herd off the area until you confirm what comes up this spring is good for grazing. 
It worked for me, your results may vary.


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## Fossil02818 (May 31, 2010)

We have found that keeping an area of gladed or thinned forest when we cleared new pasture was worthwhile. The wooded area provides shade in the hottest months and we restricted the livestocks access to the area the rest of the year so it could recover. Our solls here are acidic so we also had to apply woodash before seeding. You may need to lime or add woodash as we did. It is worth buying and seeding good forage grasses and legumes initially as it will be more difficult to establish them after the native plants emerge. Also, a diverse mix of high quality forage will always pay back in improved livestock performance. Isn't that what pastures are for?


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## WV Mounty02 (Jan 26, 2018)

Thanks for the responses i will try to just keep everyting cut down and see what happens.


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