I can’t remember exactly what my Dad and I were so deep into conversation about…perhaps the Budweiser in our hand had something to do with that. Actually, I believe we were debating whether native Texas “Blue Stem” was superior to “Coastal Bermuda” for growing hay in pastures. The seriously thick “Blue Stem” in this picture is the result of a couple years of proper maintenance and fertilizer and the results were pretty amazing. I believe we bailed about 110 large round bales out of 15 acres. Not bad and makes for a great debate with your Dad.
While I am not a full time farmer or rancher I do own a small piece of land and enjoy getting out of the city and working with my hands and listening to nature. My goal is do be able to do this full time once I “retire” from Corporate America and we are planning on downsizing and leaving the big city behind in the next few years.
I am fascinated by regenerative agriculture and the ability to improve land and get it back to the state it was before America became so populated and we fenced in just about every square mile of this beautiful country. It is pretty tough to do without chemicals because of a couple things that are missing; wildfires that would frequently burn large swathes of the land from Texas all the way north to Minnesota and secondly huge herds of bison and other predatory animals that would eat, use their hooves to aeriate the soil, and then move on.
Since I don’t have access to either I had to resort to using hard work, regular mowing, and the occasional use of a petroleum based fertilizer. I know, that’s kind of cheating but, wow, isn’t that grass amazing?