You’ve got your animals settled in, you have a productive garden, next season’s improvement is all you can think of. Before you go far ahead of yourself, don’t forget you need to maintain what you already have and keep them in top shape.
To maintain your farm property, you just need to pay attention and ensure that your farm infrastructure is very much maintained.
Here Are A Few Tips To Put You In The Right Path.
You obviously need to plant a cover crop
One of the ways to ensure that unused grasslands are in top shape is to plant a cover crop. A cover crop is a type of crop planted with the aim of managing soil erosion, soil quality, water, soil fertility, pests, weeds, biodiversity, diseases, and wildlife within an agroecosystem.
Cover crops are also called green manure, it helps to build fertile soil, subdue weeds, and assist in controlling plant diseases and pests. To leverage on cover crops, ensure to plant them a month before the first frost.
However, winter rye is different; you can plant it close to a frost. Do not forget to trim the cover before they produce seeds. Make sure the leftover leaves and stems dry out for a day or two before turning them under with your hand or a tiller. Next, wait about three weeks before you can plant vegetables.
Maintaining your fences
A perfect fence is very vital in making sure that your animals are safe and secure and that your neighbors are happy with you. Try to find time to check out the fence, check for any damages and get it repaired as soon as possible. Change rotten posts and tighten loose ones. Just make sure the gates closed properly.
If you make use of an electric fence on your property, go round the fence, use a voltmeter to test the fence for any voltage drops. Make sure the insulators are not broken, missing or worn out, if they are, replace them. Furthermore, adjust the tension if necessary and take a look at the round rods and make sure they are working properly.
Farm Building Maintenance
Similar to fencing, your coops, animal shelters, barns etc. will require some form of attention to check for worn out parts and get them fixed. Meanwhile, it is easier to maintain buildings compared to fencing because buildings are categorized under lower maintenance.
Whenever you’re out to inspect your fencing, you have to check out your animal quarters. Making repairs as things deteriorate happens to be the smartest way to keep tabs on building maintenance. However, most times, we appear to be very busy to fix something as soon as it unfolds, so here is the trick; on your next maintenance round, get a pen and paper so you can jot down the areas that need fixing, then create a time to fix them all at once.
As an exception, if whatever needs to be repaired is a safety concern; let’s say there is a hole in the wall which a fox can pass through to get your chickens, obviously you need to plug the gap as soon as possible.
