Field Management - please share your routine!

tobiano1984

tobiano1984

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I'd be interested to hear some advice or routines from people who own or manage grazing - I've got 15 acres of paddocks, and they're not in the best state so I'm looking at options to improve them.
This is a business (livery yard) so whilst I want to maximise grazing, it doesn't make financial sense to spend tons on it as I will then not have any profit left!

For the last few years it hasn't has anything done to it apart from grazing. 8 or so acres are predominantly ryegrass, and have been established for a while. they grow well in the Spring, but are full of moss and quite a bit of ragwort even though we spent all last summer pulling it out! 5 acres were seeded with pasture mix about 2 years ago, and have grown pretty sparsely. The grass grows well in the spring heightwise but doesn't really thicken up and gets overgrazed very quickly.

Bizarrely, the 2 acres which are a bit feral - were grubbed up orchards/raspberry plants - are actually the healthiest with the least weeds and the most grass.

The farmer we rent from suggests masses of fertiliser at great expense, although he deals with cows and doesn't understand that fat cobs don't need lush ryegrass.

So anyone in a similar position, please tell me what you do to look after your fields! Bearing in mind that most actions such as fertilising, seeding etc would involve us having to get someone in to do it which would cost more than just the product.

We have a chain harrow (a hefty one with quite long spikes) - would this help to get the moss out and aerate the ground?
And a small tractor that pulls the harrow, and could prob pull a small hopper for seeding/fertliser.


Any recommendations would be welcome - just to help get a bit more out of the grazing and improve the thickness of the grass so that it lasts a bit longer and helps block out weeds/moss.
 
Mowing for hay really helps - failing that, topping, to get rid of any coarse grass.
I harrow mine with a little harrow behind the car to spread droppings at the end of winter. Then I roll it (car again!) - it's not really a heavy enough roller but it does level a bit and it bruises the grass so it divides and spreads. And I spray the weeds. I either use a knapsack sprayer to spot weed, and I do have 13 acres so it is do-able if you target bad areas and keep at it through the growing period, or borrow a friends quad with a spray pack, takes HOURS but saves £100's.
I set up tracks in summer so the horses graze around the edge of the hay crop, and of course, poo pick during the summer to stop that horrible rank long grass taking over. It works for me, I do think the important bit is mowing though (and that means not overstocking of course)
HTH
 
Thanks JillA - we do have a little topper, when do you usually mow/top?

And what weedkiller do you use? Last year I used what the farmer gave me, but it was aggressive that even though I spot-sprayed in no wind, it killed about a metre square around each ragwort plant!!
 
We have 12 acres split into 5 paddocks, when we bought the house the field was a barley crop so we have reseded from scratch and the soil is heavy clay (and having been a crop field little nutrients left in the field).
After lots of experimentation cutting for hay seems to work best to thicken the grass up and rest to prevent damage (although that might not be practical for you)
I've found digging ragwort no good at all, unless you get every last tiny piece of root out it just grows back, we now spray and while this will cost you money the time it will save in the long run will be massive.
I reseed patches by throwing it by hand out of the back of our tractor - I'm sure not totally efficient but cheaper than a spreader!

I also find leaving poo on the fields just before they are rested (having harrowed it in) a very effective and cheap fertiliser, I just stop poo picking 3/4 weeks before I move fields. Grazing and poo picking takes a lot out of the ground and something has to put that nutrients back if you want the grass to continue to be healthy. There are lots of horse friendly fertilisers that focus on root growth/ sward improvement rather than just growing tall luminous grass (seaweed etc.) but none of these will be cheap.
 
I crop for haylage, so when the dry weather comes (or if!) after mid June. The later the better because I don't really want high octane haylage.
I have used MCPA for spraying for years, it kills lots of the broadleaved weeds in grassland, but this year I have had one with Mecaprop in it too, to kill buttercups which are very resistant. If you have an agricultural merchant nearby ask them, but don't be fobbed off with small quantites of stuff, it is mega expensive. You should be able to get 5 litres of one containing MCPA for around £40 (it has been a couple of years since I bought some) and that kills docks, nettles, thistles, ragwort et al.
Fire away if you have any other questions - I have been managing my land by trial and error and picking peoples' brains for around 20 years, and on a tight budget. When it was on the market about 3 years ago the few people who did come to view commented on how tidy it looked.
 
I found this book very informative - quite scientific but good to dip into with specific queries and lots of detail helping you understand what type of land you have to start with
Managing Grass for Horses: The Responsible Owner's Guide by Elizabeth O'Beirne Ranelagh

For weedkiller we use a mixture of Agritox and Depetox (not 100% on the spelling of those) - excellent for ragwort etc. (after trying lots of other recommended products) and doesn't harm the grass at all.
 
Polos Mum said:
We have 12 acres split into 5 paddocks, when we bought the house the field was a barley crop so we have reseded from scratch and the soil is heavy clay (and having been a crop field little nutrients left in the field).
After lots of experimentation cutting for hay seems to work best to thicken the grass up and rest to prevent damage (although that might not be practical for you)
I've found digging ragwort no good at all, unless you get every last tiny piece of root out it just grows back, we now spray and while this will cost you money the time it will save in the long run will be massive.
I reseed patches by throwing it by hand out of the back of our tractor - I'm sure not totally efficient but cheaper than a spreader!

I also find leaving poo on the fields just before they are rested (having harrowed it in) a very effective and cheap fertiliser, I just stop poo picking 3/4 weeks before I move fields. Grazing and poo picking takes a lot out of the ground and something has to put that nutrients back if you want the grass to continue to be healthy. There are lots of horse friendly fertilisers that focus on root growth/ sward improvement rather than just growing tall luminous grass (seaweed etc.) but none of these will be cheap.
Click to expand...

Yes I think I've given up on pulling ragwort, especially after days of work and then to see it all spring up again!

I'm thinking of renting/buying a small broadcast spreader to overseed some of the fields, looks like you can rent one to pull behind a quad or push by hand for £20 for the weekend. Harder work but will save £100s on hiring someone to do it.

Very interesting re. your leaving poo on the fields method...all our fields get rested for 1-3 months at a time so I might give this a go. The liveries would be delighted to have a break from poo picking!
 
JillA said:
I crop for haylage, so when the dry weather comes (or if!) after mid June. The later the better because I don't really want high octane haylage.
I have used MCPA for spraying for years, it kills lots of the broadleaved weeds in grassland, but this year I have had one with Mecaprop in it too, to kill buttercups which are very resistant. If you have an agricultural merchant nearby ask them, but don't be fobbed off with small quantites of stuff, it is mega expensive. You should be able to get 5 litres of one containing MCPA for around £40 (it has been a couple of years since I bought some) and that kills docks, nettles, thistles, ragwort et al.
Fire away if you have any other questions - I have been managing my land by trial and error and picking peoples' brains for around 20 years, and on a tight budget. When it was on the market about 3 years ago the few people who did come to view commented on how tidy it looked.
Click to expand...

Thank you - our farmer has a shed full of weedkillers so I will see if there is any MCPA in there!
 
Harrow and roll and top it it to start with. (you can use a 4x4/quad or even a driving horse for this - you don't need a tractor)

Then you need to use a horse friendly weed killer to get rid of the ragwort/weeds.

If you have room, you can make good fertilizer with your muck heap. Needs to be turned regularly and kept damp - no problem in this weather! Usually takes 3-4 months to be ready to spread. Not too rich either for horse grazing :) Or you could just not poo pick, and harrow the muck around and let nature take it's course!

Best thing to thicken up the grass is to keep it regularly topped and spray it with animal friendly weedkiller.

Good luck!
 
I have 60 acres of grassland and this is how we do it:
We use a specialist grassland contractor who has specialised equipment to maintain grassland. (Far cheaper and cost/time effective then having equipment that is not used)

The fields are harrowed with a Ryco harrow (splines on springs).
We drill a mixed meadow grass seed in to the grass sward if required and then roll.
To remove Ragwort we use Barrier H which is just sprayed on to the individual the plants. This is repeated after one week. Only once dead do we remove it and burn it.
We also cut and collect the grass in the fields which are just used for excercising the horses.
Hay fields are dealt with in the normal way.
In Autumn we cut one side of the hedges.
We never ever use fertilizer on the fields grazed by the horses due to the dangers of causing Laminitis.
 
We have six acres and four horses/ponies - moved into it April/May last year. We paddocked them in 1/4 acre (ish) paddocks, moving them every few weeks (when they'd eaten that bit down) during summer. We started with a muddy paddock in winter with the intention of haying but gave up on that (lots of work, muddy, and hungry ponies!), fenced off half the field and left them to it with a big round bale for their enjoyment. Field seems to be holding up. When the spring grass comes through we will fence them into a little paddock and ask our farmer/landlord to harrow the whole thing. This helped enourmously when we had it done last year - scruffs it about a bit, aerates and encourages stronger new growth - and helps any poo break down & rot in faster. When we arrived last year it was a muddy mess and yet by the end of summer we had knee-length grass despite it being topped earlier in the year! I wouldn't bother fertilising unless it's free poopy straw that you can leave to rot/harrow in for a few months.
 
We have about 80 acres.
Last year we switched to this fertiliser Replenish: http://www.gouldings.ie/our-products/fertiliser/replenish-fertiliser/

Although it does help with growth it also restores trace elements to the grass.

Otherwise: harrow, re-seed and roll. We spray for weeds and top when neccessary.
Mixed grazing with cows or on rotation. Wish I had sheep but too much hassle.

Actually taking hay of the same field over and over does strip the land. Better to rotate hay/haylage meadows if at all possible.

The silage fields/cattle fields are treated entirely different with slurry and nitrogen which is too rich for horses. However the after grass or winter grazing is fine.
 
we usually get our local farmer to fertilise our fields with cattle manure - it has really improved the grass quality. the grass used to be quite sparse but now is much better established. He doesnt charge much as he needs to get rid of the stuff anyway so its cheaper than ordinary fertiliser and its much more liquid and less "lumpy" than horse manure so washes into the ground much better.
 
We use the larger machinery and harrow the 30/60 and 120 acre fields...we leave the rough pastures (500 acres)

The smaller paddocks of 10 are hand cleaned.

Since we farm our paddocks are knocked down/rotated and reseeded as needed.

We are on one of Canadas largest underground water system so even in drought...a majority of our fields are green....wehave little flooding as it is routed by tiles

Fences are checked/fixed as needed as well
 
nieghham said:
We are on one of Canadas largest underground water system so even in drought...a majority of our fields are green....wehave little flooding as it is routed by tiles
Click to expand...

Where are you in ON?

In Norfolk County the water system is currently above ground after the rains of the last couple of days :mad:
 
I haven't read all the replies so someone else might have said this already.

IME the best thing ever for horse-grazing is SHEEP. Ours have made huge difference to the state of the grass and when we had a gap without them, we noticed the deterioration quite soon. They get rid of moss and weeds and help to thicken up the growth of the grass. Our fields have not been fertilised in 20 yrs, to my knowledge and probably not for years before that. It is old established permanent pasture of mixed grasses with some clover. I wouldn't personlly be happy about 4 acres of rye grass, as it can lead to laminitis in susceptible equines, although it can be quite useful in gateways as it is hard-wearing.
 
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