Clearing the Land!!! Makeing more pasture and wildlife habitat one cursed thorn tree at a time

One job that seems never ending here on the farm is clearing brush. About 2 years after we purchased the main farm, 51 acres right next to us was repossessed by the bank. We were able to get an amazing deal from the bank for the land. One of the main reasons it was so cheap was because the individual who had owned the land had done nothing with it for over 8 years. This left the land overgrown with weeds and small trees. I have spent the last 3 years trying to get the pastures on the 51 acres back to full production.

This has involved getting our goat herd to devour all the weeds and small trees. However the predominate tree that grows here in our part of Kentucky, when the land is left to itself, is the hedge apple. This is a very thorny tree that produces huge apple like fruit. The problem with this type of tree is that it spreads like crazy and is so thick that it will not allow any grass to grow under or around it. And the “fruit” is not edible.

The picture above shows what we are trying to clear. The goats do an amazing job of cleaning up all the small trees and brush but these bigger trees need to be cut down. We do not clear cut the pastures. We leave all the good trees to grow up. We have a lot of young walnuts and hickory trees coming up. We love these trees and clear around them to give them the best chance of making it.

One of our goals here on the homestead/farm is to increase the wildlife habitat, when we cut down all the hedge apple trees we make large brush piles.

We have these brush piles all over our property. When we purchased the farm we had very few rabbits or quail. We have found that these brush piles have made great habitat for rabbits and quail. It gives them a place to hide from predators and have their young. We love seeing wildlife on our homestead and anything we can do to increase their numbers we try and do.

It is hard to tell from the picture above but what we have been trying to do is clear the hillsides and leave the lower valleys go with brush for cover for the wildlife. This gives the deer a place to bed down and food for the wildlife.

It has been a lot of work but we are trying to slowly increase the production of our farm and at the same time increase the natural habitat for wildlife. We are firm believers that you can do both. It just takes some time and effort.