Field Management

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cassiejane

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I'm new to land ownership and wondered if you guys could give me some advice.
My current situation is I have 4/5 acres of very long grass - it must be 3 foot long in some places and going to seed and some bits are dead on top.

I want to put two horses on it in September and wondered what would be the best way to deal with it for now, It is mainly good grass but unfortunately does have some patches of thistles which have come up in the last couple of weeks and so wont make good hay for horses.

I have had conflicting opinions about what to do with it, it is best to just top it - if I do this I am worried about leaving so much grass ontop as wont it kill off the grass underneath?
Should I bale it as silage and try to sell it - this means outlaying £300 - 350 now and perhaps having to store it until I sell it.
Could I graze it as it is, either with horses or some other animals.

Can anyone suggest anything please, or give advice I am so lost I just dont know what to do.
 
Phone up local farmer, and get him to spray and top it for you. Then offer him a couple months free grazing for sheep / cows. Realistically you could do with having it grazed for longer than a month and a half.

Once it's ready, split it up with fencing and rotate what parts you're using. perhaps get a couple of sheep (borrow from farmer) and let them graze what you're not using.
 
Thanks for the advice, was just a bit worried that topping it would be no good for the grass as there is so much length on it there would be tons of it left lying dead on top, would this not damage the grass underneath?
 
It might make it go sour for a bit, hence why I said to leave it a little longer before grazing it. You could always have it topped and collected. But TBH cows would eat anything, and then it'd be fine for horses.
 
Having managed my own paddocks for 4 years now and learn't the hard way a few times...I would not top this as it will lie very heavily on the ground (the cut grass) so you need to either rake it up before putting horses on it or risk leaving it...but it will go manky if it rains and prevent the grass coming through very well underneath...I did this once and regretted it. The thistles are not a major problem for horse hay but it is too late to spray now as they will be to mature a plant...you need to do this in spring when they are young and growing rapidly.
I would contact some farmers to see if they would cut is and bale for you...given the potential for fodder shortage this year I am sure they would jump at the chance. If you keep the bales you will have to pay for the work but most farmers won't charge if they are keeping the bales afterwards.
 
ours has just been topped and rained on heavily and we havent had a problem. I suppose it really depends how dense and long it is.
 
It is really dense and long, in fact I have trouble walking through it myself. So I guess I would be a bit worried about topping it especially in this rubbish weather.
 
if you do go down the topping route, get someone that has a "flail topper" this will mulch the grass & wont leave great chunks of grass hanging around, the flail can go really short too.
but as the others have said, i would probably get it bagged as haylage...if the weather ever stays decent for more than a day.
 
it depends on the quality of it, and what horses you want to put on it. Personally, I wouldnt put a horse on anything that dense and long.

Speak to your local farmer, they might just come up with a deal with you.
 
Your horses will find it tough going but not impossible. I'd strip graze so they don't trample it and then you get the dead grass problem.

Get a farmer to take it away as haylage if poss. Arrange for sheep to graze it, hand pull next year's thistles and don't put nitrogen fertiliser on it - use calcified seaweed. Fence into small paddocks you can rotate, cross-graze with the sheep and poo-pick obsessionally.

Note - Newly mowed grass stubble is very high in fructans so let it get going before turning out any laminitics!

Good luck and lucky you!!!
 
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