Field maintainence - How much?

[Pally]

I've been looking at land with a view to purchase for quite some time. Browsing the internet there are 18 acres of rough grazing for sale near me in the South East of England. I have had a look at it and it is in a terrible state, it needs to be completely ploughed, harrowed, re-seeded etc.

I have no idea how much this would cost, does anyone have an idea how much it might cost for a farmer to come and sort out the land?

 

[mrdarcy]

Why would you want to plough up rough grazing? Sounds perfect as it is and if you ploughed, harrowed and reseeded you wouldn't be able to use it for at least 12 months.

 

[PeterNatt]

I would suggest that you use a contractor that deals with grassland rather than a farmer. Under no circumstances plough it up as it will simply bring buried seeds to the surface that will then germinate at a later stage.
Get the soil tested to determine if it is difficient in anything so that it can be treated appropriately.
You could use a total kill on the present grass/weeds to kill it all off. Wait for a further eight weeks and then use total kill again. That way you should kill most of it off.
If you need to put in any drainage of water pipes then do it at this stage.
Then cultivate the surface and drill with appropriate specialist equine grass seed either in September or March. There are a number of specialist equine grass seed suppliers.
Allow the grass to grow and then cut it to get it to thicken up. Do this about 2 -3 times in the growing season to get a good dense grass. Do not put horses on the grass for 2 -3 years as otherwise you will not give it sufficient time to establish itself.
The grass seed will cost about £120 per acre to get a dense covering.
Drilling the grass will cost about £15 per acre.
Cultvating the ground will cost about £60 per acre.
Harrowing about £10 per acre.
Rolling about £12 per acre.
Then there is also fencing, hedge cutting, new hedges and water drinking troughs (use plastic ones as horses have been known to break a leg kicking at metal ones)

 

[Pally]

Thanks for the advice everyone.
I would need to plough it, it hasn't been grazed or maintained for a very long time and looks like some moles have had a field day, it's so uneven any horse could break a leg.
I'll try to get a quote from a local.