Best equipment for spraying 5 acres?

[outinthefens88]

The rest of my reply which went AWOL was:

If you want to see if you have a compaction issue (common in horse fields) look up "Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure" (VESS). Simple how to guide with photos and YouTube tutorials.

There is loads of grazing management advice out there aimed at sheep & cattle farmers but perfectly relevant to managing horse grazing. And consultants who could come out and advise.

Long term, it will be far cheaper and better for the environment, to improve your grazing management than keep spraying annually.

If you do end up spraying please think about proximity to water courses and ditches, when it's next forecast to rain, and be as targeted as you can to minimise the unintended environmental impact.

spike/ slot aeration and mole draining is ALWAYS beneficial, especially if a field 'poaches' - you will likely find you have 3-10" of slop and a solid pan underneath.

Again, as always the issue is what clients want to pay.

Agreed anyone that sprays professionally show know about LERAPS and buffer zones - worst culprits is usually the home owner or amateur sprayer that puts extra chemical in 'to make it work better'........ there is a massive shift against regular routine spraying due to chemical resistance in some species of weed.

 

[SEL]

We're backpack spraying on the worst of the buttercups and mares tail. It's done in conjunction with other forms of soil improvement.
To use the hefty chemicals you need to go on a course.

 

[Marigold4]

The rest of my reply which went AWOL was:

If you want to see if you have a compaction issue (common in horse fields) look up "Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure" (VESS). Simple how to guide with photos and YouTube tutorials.

There is loads of grazing management advice out there aimed at sheep & cattle farmers but perfectly relevant to managing horse grazing. And consultants who could come out and advise.

Long term, it will be far cheaper and better for the environment, to improve your grazing management than keep spraying annually.

If you do end up spraying please think about proximity to water courses and ditches, when it's next forecast to rain, and be as targeted as you can to minimise the unintended environmental impact.

Any thoughts on how manage land to limit buttercup and bindweed most welcome. My land is on chalk, never poaches. The soil is crumbly - if that's a thing! On a slight hill. Used to be cattle grazing so rye grass but not fertilised for at least 10 years. Used to be full of cow parsley, now increasingly full of buttercups and bindweed. I mow the flowers off the wretched bindweed and collect and dispose.

 

[Burnttoast]

Which buttercup do you have? They need different approaches. Bindweed is almost impossible to get rid of with sprays so I would just keep mowing it.

 

[Marigold4]

Which buttercup do you have? They need different approaches. Bindweed is almost impossible to get rid of with sprays so I would just keep mowing it.

I think it's creeping buttercup. If you have any tips on what to do with it, I'd be grateful.

 

[TheMule]

Any thoughts on how manage land to limit buttercup and bindweed most welcome. My land is on chalk, never poaches. The soil is crumbly - if that's a thing! On a slight hill. Used to be cattle grazing so rye grass but not fertilised for at least 10 years. Used to be full of cow parsley, now increasingly full of buttercups and bindweed. I mow the flowers off the wretched bindweed and collect and dispose.

I have the same problem weeds- buttercup and bindweed are doing my head in as next door do nothing about it so every year it I tackle mine but it just seeds again. Buttercup is improving slightly with annual battering from weed killer but the bindweed just has to be mown. I cant let the grass get too long or the bindweed has a party so I graze the fields quite close in the Summer and cut the haylage field before the blooming stuff flowers

 

[Marigold4]

I have the same problem weeds- buttercup and bindweed are doing my head in as next door do nothing about it so every year it I tackle mine but it just seeds again. Buttercup is improving slightly with annual battering from weed killer but the bindweed just has to be mown. I cant let the grass get too long or the bindweed has a party so I graze the fields quite close in the Summer and cut the haylage field before the blooming stuff flowers

I blooming well hate the bindweed! It is just unstoppable! I read somewhere: "tip for getting rid of bindweed - move house". Horses won't touch it thankfully - I think it's not great for them if they do.

 

[TheMule]

I blooming well hate the bindweed! It is just unstoppable! I read somewhere: "tip for getting rid of bindweed - move house". Horses won't touch it thankfully - I think it's not great for them if they do.

My agronomist recommended killing everything, ploughing and re-seeding from scratch might help keep the bindweed away for a year

 

[Burnttoast]

I think it's creeping buttercup. If you have any tips on what to do with it, I'd be grateful.

It may well be bulbous buttercup, which likes dry soils and is common on chalk. It looks quite like creeping buttercup but if you dig up a bit and find a swollen part at the base of the stem it's bulbous buttercup (in summer the sepals underneath the flower are reflexed (turned back on themselves)). The best way of dealing with it to be honest is to take hay for 2 or 3 years. This can pretty much eliminate it. It doesn't like competition from taller plants and only reproduces by seed so the trick is to take a cut before it seeds. If it is that species no amount of harrowing, liming etc will make any difference. Spraying early in the season (timing is important as it often dies back in later summer) would do it but you'd have to do it several years in a row and there is the environmental aspect to consider.

 

[outinthefens88]

My agronomist recommended killing everything, ploughing and re-seeding from scratch might help keep the bindweed away for a year

In a decade of working in the industry I have NEVER heard an agronomist recommend that for horse grazing - reason being the soil structure will become too unstable and you will have a poached mess in the first winter - same reason any newly sown paddock is recommended to be sheep grazed or mown for the first season or preferably two.

I know of someone that took the 'plough and reseed' advice - they ended up with their horses on livery for two years after as the ground just turned into a quagmire as the structure was gone totally....

As for doing it to a paddock with bindweed in it... hmmmm - that stuff can reproduce a new plant from 0.5cm of viable root and its very difficult to get enough root killed to says its all gone. Chop it up by ploughing and harrowing and you will have bindweed everywhere trust me - seen it done on many allotments by well meaning individuals.

Buttercup can be much reduced by spraying but its quite difficult to eradicate totally.

 

[TheMule]

In a decade of working in the industry I have NEVER heard an agronomist recommend that for horse grazing - reason being the soil structure will become too unstable and you will have a poached mess in the first winter - same reason any newly sown paddock is recommended to be sheep grazed or mown for the first season or preferably two.

I know of someone that took the 'plough and reseed' advice - they ended up with their horses on livery for two years after as the ground just turned into a quagmire as the structure was gone totally....

As for doing it to a paddock with bindweed in it... hmmmm - that stuff can reproduce a new plant from 0.5cm of viable root and its very difficult to get enough root killed to says its all gone. Chop it up by ploughing and harrowing and you will have bindweed everywhere trust me - seen it done on many allotments by well meaning individuals.

Buttercup can be much reduced by spraying but its quite difficult to eradicate totally.

I think it was a joke

 

[YourValentine]

Any thoughts on how manage land to limit buttercup and bindweed most welcome. My land is on chalk, never poaches. The soil is crumbly - if that's a thing! On a slight hill. Used to be cattle grazing so rye grass but not fertilised for at least 10 years. Used to be full of cow parsley, now increasingly full of buttercups and bindweed. I mow the flowers off the wretched bindweed and collect and dispose.

Modern commercial rye grass mixes are bred to only be really productive for 5-7years before needing re sowing. So you grass will be a bit 'knackered' now and not growing as well as bit could, all other management aside.
I would looking into re-seeding with a grass and herb mix. Look at the Cotswold Seeds website horse mixes for ideas.
You can re-seed with out ploughing. Direct drill, scatter and roll/trample in.

As other have said buttercups don't like competitors, so letting the grass grow long and not be constantly grazed short will help. Over time the bind weed will get out competed as well.
Letting the grass grow long will also deepen root structure, helping break up compaction, removing conditions that favour bindweed over grass/more desirable plants.

In an ideal world you would have at least 4 fields, all your horses could graze together and you'd rotate them so each field had at least a 4 week break. And you'd graze with the aim of "eating 1/3, trampling 1/3, leaving 1/3".
You won't see instant results but by the 2nd year you should start to see some change and by year 5 definite change.

Some judicious spraying of the worst patches I'm the first few years may help.

 

[Marigold4]

Modern commercial rye grass mixes are bred to only be really productive for 5-7years before needing re sowing. So you grass will be a bit 'knackered' now and not growing as well as bit could, all other management aside.
I would looking into re-seeding with a grass and herb mix. Look at the Cotswold Seeds website horse mixes for ideas.
You can re-seed with out ploughing. Direct drill, scatter and roll/trample in.

As other have said buttercups don't like competitors, so letting the grass grow long and not be constantly grazed short will help. Over time the bind weed will get out competed as well.
Letting the grass grow long will also deepen root structure, helping break up compaction, removing conditions that favour bindweed over grass/more desirable plants.

In an ideal world you would have at least 4 fields, all your horses could graze together and you'd rotate them so each field had at least a 4 week break. And you'd graze with the aim of "eating 1/3, trampling 1/3, leaving 1/3".
You won't see instant results but by the 2nd year you should start to see some change and by year 5 definite change.

Some judicious spraying of the worst patches I'm the first few years may help.

Thanks very much for that post. Knowing that rye grass has a life span explains a lot! The rye grass being less productive, means the weeds have space to grow.

In fact I have already done just as you say and divided it into 4 fields. I have 3 x 15hh horses and they live in a herd together so other 3 paddocks get rested in rotation. I reseeded 1 field last year with a meadow grass mix, so I'll be interested to see how it does this year. Bearing in mind what you say about rye grass, I think re-seeding is going to be key so I'll get on and do that when the time is right.

Thanks for your advice - very helpful.

 

[Burnttoast]

Thanks very much for that post. Knowing that rye grass has a life span explains a lot! The rye grass being less productive, means the weeds have space to grow.

In fact I have already done just as you say and divided it into 4 fields. I have 3 x 15hh horses and they live in a herd together so other 3 paddocks get rested in rotation. I reseeded 1 field last year with a meadow grass mix, so I'll be interested to see how it does this year. Bearing in mind what you say about rye grass, I think re-seeding is going to be key so I'll get on and do that when the time is right.

Thanks for your advice - very helpful.

Check your species first. The advice that applies to creeping buttercup is not the same as for bulbous, which does better on rotated/rested land and does not like compaction.

 

[Marigold4]

Check your species first. The advice that applies to creeping buttercup is not the same as for bulbous, which does better on rotated/rested land and does not like compaction.

Thanks. Planning to dig some up tomorrow and will post photos!