Some background for you guys -- also, please ask me anything if I do not give all the needed information -- I am SO new at this, just starting out.
I have 24 acres (In Piedmont of North Carolina) in total, but 8 is wooded, a few are road frontage and a couple have my house and outbuildings on, so I have about 12-13 acres that were used for maize (feedcorn) and soybeans by a farmer who rented the land from me.
I bought the place, built a house and want to turn it into a small hobby livestock farm (dairy, cow/calf rotation, etc and goats, chickens) for my retirement years. I am just turning 50. I have the help of the local Farm Services Agency but here in the US, we don't get as much help on the ground with advice as you might in the UK.
I want to turn the cropland into pasture, the only help I've been given is what seed mix to buy (Fescue+ Clover) and my current farmer has said he'd seed the fields for me to turn them into pasture but he is suggesting I disc it all up and flatten it out and put out some double mat over the natural water ditches and "make it all pretty and perfect" before seeding it.
But all I want to know is, do I HAVE to do what he recommends? Do I need to 'make it all pretty and perfect' for acres of grazing animals??
If you want photos, I can take some, let me know if it will help.
I have 24 acres (In Piedmont of North Carolina) in total, but 8 is wooded, a few are road frontage and a couple have my house and outbuildings on, so I have about 12-13 acres that were used for maize (feedcorn) and soybeans by a farmer who rented the land from me.
I bought the place, built a house and want to turn it into a small hobby livestock farm (dairy, cow/calf rotation, etc and goats, chickens) for my retirement years. I am just turning 50. I have the help of the local Farm Services Agency but here in the US, we don't get as much help on the ground with advice as you might in the UK.
I want to turn the cropland into pasture, the only help I've been given is what seed mix to buy (Fescue+ Clover) and my current farmer has said he'd seed the fields for me to turn them into pasture but he is suggesting I disc it all up and flatten it out and put out some double mat over the natural water ditches and "make it all pretty and perfect" before seeding it.
But all I want to know is, do I HAVE to do what he recommends? Do I need to 'make it all pretty and perfect' for acres of grazing animals??
If you want photos, I can take some, let me know if it will help.