Dealing with old uneaten hay in winter field

[Oscar]

I've just moved my horses onto their summer field in light of the drier weather we've been experiencing as I wanted to rest the winter field as soon as possible as it was rather trashed. I'd been feeding piles of hay and as happens with horses a lot gets wasted and trodden on. My question is what do I do with it? Do I leave it? Will it rot down? Or do I fork it up and take it away, I have forked some up and it weighs a ton and is smelly and sludgy. I have chain harrowed the field but there is still big piles of hay left. I'm worried the grass will just die underneath it.

What do you do or recommend?

 

[Auslander]

I leave it - it sorts itself out eventually. if it's a big lump, I might spread it a bit, but life's too short to fork up smelly, heavy old hay

 

[xgemmax]

We usually fork the majority of it up if theres any left (not often lol!) as the grass won't grow under it

 

[cobgoblin]

We rake it up at intervals all through the winter.

 

[LD&S]

I'd try and get it up if possible if not then spread very thinly so the grass can grow.

 

[tallyho!]

We've always left it and it's never been a problem when next winter comes, it just disappears.

 

[Shay]

Interesting mix of responses. I wonder if it depends on your soil type? We're on heavy clay. The odd bit scattered around is no particuaolr issue - but where the big bales have been we do have to remove the trampled sludgy mess or the grass will not grow under it.

 

[Tiddlypom]

I used to fork it into a wheelbarrow and bung it on the muck heap. It's an unpleasant and heavy job, but otherwise you get a smelly, slippery rank area which doesn't grow back (we're on loam).

The field gets much less cut up now I can hay up in the field shelters (rubber mats over concrete), and there's a lot less wastage.

 

[irishdraft]

I have just been doing this very job i rake it up and managed to burn it all as it's been so dry no not a great job but the grass will not grow underneath but nettles & thistles always manage to get thru !

 

[The Bouncing Bog Trotter]

Rake into small piles, pop a couple of seed potatoes into each pile, water when dry, harvest when ready and then spread the hay when rotted in autumn. My allotment is no-dig and this is how I am growing my spuds this year. They don't grow on the ground, they grow in the hay. Might as well make the hay work while it rots.

 

[Cecile]

I have just been doing this very job i rake it up and managed to burn it all as it's been so dry no not a great job but the grass will not grow underneath but nettles & thistles always manage to get thru !

Ditto I done this yesterday ^^^
Lovely dry day, plus I cleared out under the pallets in the barn and got rid of all that too

 

[millikins]

I have just been advised by the farmer who delivers my round bales to put a match to it, he says the dry stuf will burn and the rest can smoulder for days. I have barrowed loads to the muck heap over the winter but there is still lots more and last winter's "mats" still haven't recovered (first year with ring feeder and didn't realise what was going on).

 

[Oscar]

I can't burn it as its wet & slimey, I've taken all the dry hay off, just left with the slurry sludge that they've stood on.

I won't be so generous next year so maybe they will eat more than they waste......maybe!!

 

[SEL]

Last year the slurry sludge left in the winter field disappeared once the harrow and roller had been through. Mashed into the mud I think.

 

[now_loves_mares]

Do you use a ring feeder? I have a mesh cover (like a big flat haynet) that has massively reduced the wasteage; or you get whole bale nets. My ring feeder goes on the hard-standing but even so I forked the waste up all the time as a full winters worth of waste would have been horrific.