You've found your place in the country. The peaceful setting and country atmosphere will provide years of enjoyment for your equestrian family. You envision the land providing high quality pasture for your family's horses.

Perhaps you enjoy spinning and weaving natural fibers and wish to improve pasture to raise a few sheep, alpaca or llama for their wool.

Or, then again, you might like to develop quality pasture to keep a flock of free range chickens or raise organic beef for your family on your own farmstead in the country.

Pasture planting begins with your animal's needs.

Successful pasture landscape design and seed or plant selection begins with an evaluation of your animal's needs in various life cycle stages, a consideration of planting techniques and management styles, as well as soil and climate analysis.

Since most country property owners are aware that their animals require different nutrients for their animal type or species and specific life cycle, it's helpful to begin planning a pasture planting project by evaluating your animal's nutrition needs throughout the entire range of their life cycle. Pasture plant selection takes into account plants that will provide the very best protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals for your animal throughout the seasons.

Successful pasture plantings use plants and seeds that are adapted to your soil and climate conditions.

Just as importantly, a good pasture planting design selects plants and seeds for your pasture with survival attributes compatible with the soil and climate unique to your own rural property. As animals need particular nutrients and conditions to thrive, plants too have particular characteristics that help them flourish under distinct soil, water and climate conditions.

Because it is known that native plant communities or plants indigenous to an area are adapted to thrive in the particular climate and soil conditions of that region, pasture planners at Three Ravens Ranch look to the plant communities of native ecoregions for pasture planning for rural property. Creating sustainable balanced relationships between the soil, climate, water, plant, animal members of the ecoregion community will enhance the vitality and value of your country pasture.

Good pasture planning combines your animal's nutritional needs, soil testing with climate analysis and ecoregion habitat evaluation. Seeds and plants for your pasture plantings must be targeted to your animal's needs but also must be compatible with the soil and climate conditions of your rural landscape.

To help you achieve your pasture planning goals, the planners at Three Ravens Ranch have developed the Natural Plant Selector Kit for Grazing. This basic kit arrives with a question and answer survey sheet to help you determine your animal's nutritional needs and your ecoregion habitat location along with a simple soil test kit you send to us for laboratory analysis. Our planners evaluate your soil test results and pasture needs and provide you with a detailed report of recommended seeds and plants as well as planting and cultivation tips for your pasture planting. The Natural Plant Selector Kit from Three Ravens Ranch is designed to help you get started by determining your objectives and site characterisitics, letting you organize and streamline the pasture planning process so you can relax and enjoy your new or improved pasture.