Texastopia

Texastopia is located outside of Blanco, TX along the Blanco River. It is the property of Pete Van Dyke and his wife Elenor Goode. Pete owns Van Dyke Earthworks & Design, a permaculture consulting business. They started managing a 10 acre Bermuda grass pasture on the homestead in 2017. Prior to their arrival it had been used to propagate coastal hay for 30 plus years. The soil was very hard and compacted. It is their intention to regenerate this pasture using various permaculture strategies to decrease compaction, improve soil health, and increase above and below ground biodiversity. Additionally, they plan to incorporate silvopasture practices that includes livestock grazing.

In the fall of 2017 they used the subsoil ripper to help relieve the compaction, without disturbing too much of the ground cover. A subsoil ripper creates thin rips in the ground at various depth on contour to relieve compaction and allow moisture to penetrate the soil. The first time using the ripper they were only able to get down about 6 inches due to the heavy compaction from the disturbance caused by years of hay farming. They then broadcast cover crop seeds into the slightly disturbed soil. Their first year of cool season cover crops in 2017 did not do that well. The Bermuda grass was still thick so a lot of the cover crop seeds did not germinate. Also the deer pressure was high which further reduced germination. Two transects have been created in the field as described below.

River Pasture: This 10-acre pasture lays in the Blanco River floodplain. It will be treated with a variety of permaculture practices along with periodic grazing and monitored for changes occurring with the vegetation and soil microbes. For example, in the fall of 2019 a cool season cover crop of oats, rye, and sweet clover was planted. At the end of March 2020, eight Longhorns were moved into this field to strip graze. They were removed around the end of April.

River Pasture Control: This smaller pasture will not receive any of the treatments applied to the River Pasture and will serve as a comparison especially for monitoring changes in the microbe community.

They repeated ripping and cover cropping again in the fall of 2018. This second time they were able to rip 12 -14 inches deep. In spring of 2019 they successfully germinated a cover crop of Sweet clover and oats. Then they used the subsoil ripper again in areas where they would like to plant trees to create silvopasture. This time they were able to rip 20 inches deep. Their soil is softening. Because they let the cover crop get so tall, a lot of the Bermuda got knocked back but you can see here some lived. They had their best cover crop yet, this year. Pete was able to use single wire electric fencing to keep deer out of the field. The oats and rye were able to grow because of this. 

Before they started planting the cool season cover crops, their field would be dormant for half the year with no green leaves. Now they have green leaves and living roots for maybe all but two or three months. A variety of wildflowers, various legumes, and several different types of grass are starting to grow in the field. As they keep adding diversity and manage for green cover, they will eventually shrink that non green time down to zero months. Their cover crop mixes consist of the following plants in various mixtures for the season: sweet clover, black medic clover, vetch, winter peas, oats, rye, wheat.

In spring of 2020 they grazed the pasture with eight of their neighbor’s Longhorn cattle. In exchange their neighbors gave them 1000 feet of 2 inch pipe. Now they have a long main water line in the field. On the right is the ungrazed cover crop and to the left you see where the cattle have grazed. However, they didn't get anywhere close to finishing the forage before it dried out in the summer because they were cool season species. Pete used a shredder to take down all the tall dried standing matter. The sweet clover had gotten 4-5 feet high. The bees really loved it.

They could have easily fed more cows but they ran out of cool days and lacked shade. So the cows were removed before it was all eaten. That’s why they want to plant trees for future silvopasture grazing. The field is too hot and the wind sweeps moisture away. They have added trees for shade and wind break to help conserve moisture and add root diversity. The pasture is getting better, but they know these changes take time and are glad to see the positive changes so far.