DIY Pasture maintenance

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HappyHooves

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We have the pull-along fertiliser spreader to deal with our fields, but when it comes to weed control we need to get in a professional sprayer or a local farmer to do the job. This means problems as the sprayer booms are so long that they miss the corners and fail to get close to the hedges. Does anyone do their own spraying from a small tow-along sprayer? Do you need a licence to do this since the weed control stuff can be pretty toxic in bulk or will your local farm supply the weed killer for you to spray on? I wonder why there is no granular weed killer on the market so that small paddock owners could use that along with the fertiliser; the bags sold for a lawn are so small it would cost a fortune to do an acre with those products!

BTW for those who appreciate real old mixed flora pasture: I do too but on nearly pure sand soil there is a tendency for perennial root-running plants like yarrow, and creeping dandelion to take over and for the grasses and other nicer things to be suffocated. Thank goodness for our natural hedges.
 
Funny you should bring this up today. I was talking to my OH yesterday asking if he could offer this small spray service for paddocks etc (although we were talking about ragwort). For ragwort he seems to think spot spraying would be best as the chemicals could damage the good grass on a full spraying with tractor type machine. You do need a licence even for this and you can not turn your horses back on for a few weeks. The farm I used to keep mine on sprayed our fields and then kept all animals off for minimum 3 weeks (he then put his cows on first to get rid of long grass then the horses were allowed back on so it total they were off that field for about 6 - 8 weeks just to be safe.:)
 
Thanks Haha. farm will do it but booms are too big. Seems silly that you can use granular stuff on a lawn but not on fields. I do spot weed ragwort - best way IMO. Back to the usual sprayer I guess though his last attempt was very patchy and expensive!
 
If you are born after 31Dec 1964 you need your PA1 (PA - pesticide application) and PA6 for applying proffessional pesticides (ie the ones that work) with a handlance and PA2 for applying with a boom.

If you have grandfather rights you still need to have adequate training by law.

I have just been doing the training for these certificates so I can use a quad sprayer. The sprayer is very good and you get trailed versions (Northstar Boominator).

I wouldn't use a knapsack myself as unless you are strong and have shoulders of steel it is very hard going. I was doing training on knapsack sprayer on Wednesday and my shoulders are killing me!

You need a day of training for each certificate so about 80 per day X at least two plus the cost of the test is 60 X two.

I would suggest getting a professional in with a quad or sit in ATV to do it for you as PA1,2&6 are mind numbingly dull!!
 
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