Our pastures used to produce two products--dust and mud. I knew as much about pasture management as the average owner of a few acres--soil test, lime the soil, apply 10-10-10 fertilizer and hope it rains.
That is not a formula for success.
Wendell was the first person that I knew that had knowledge of organic fertilizer. I was skeptical. It certainly never occurred to me that we could drill an artesian well and get sprinklers on our pastures.
We raised the money for the well and Wendell made and purchased sprinklers. Before the virus we were rather religious in making sure that the sprinklers were moved so that we produced optimum forage, regardless of the rainfall.
The end result is that in one of our pastures in particular, which is only a bit over an acres we can maintain up to five horses with minimal hay expenditures throughout the summer. Our soil is so biologically active, especially with earthworms and dung beetles, the manure disappears into the soil very quickly. Instead of mud and runoff, we have nutritious grass for the horses.
Now that we are climbing out of the virus we need to get back into using the sprinklers to maintain as much healthy forage as our land can produce.
Happy Birthday Wendell.
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