We had a south pasture that has always been a bit problematic.  After the drought of 2011 & 2012 most of the good grasses died and it turned into an 8 acre field of goat weed.  We didn’t necessarily want to go back with grass so we began exploring other options.  We had biologists and foresters from the state visit the property in the spring of 2016.  We ended up with a very detailed wildlife and soil analysis.  Interestingly, that same soil that was great for growing goat weed was nearly perfect for growing pine trees!  Next we got with the NRCS and USDA folks and set up a plan to plant our small pine forest.  We planted about 12 acres in total in February 2017.  At 726 trees per acre, that is almost 9,000 baby trees.  We planted the 8 acre goat weed field plus several other areas along the fence lines.  We had good rain last year and most of the crop did very well.  This spring we bought another 400 trees to selectively replace some of the saplings that died.  So far, they seem to be doing pretty well too.