Flooded field

[crystal]

Can anyone help. Our field has been flooded for about 2 weeks with all the recent rain and now the water is starting to drain away all we have left is a field of black foul smelling yuck!! Most of the grass seems to have died and gone black and its all covered in a layer of silt.

We are worried about whether the grass will recover in time or if we are now going to be short of grazing for the rest of the year.

Has anyone had this happen to them, is there anything we can do to help the grass or do we just leave it to nature and hope for the best.
All the others on the yard are now looking at moving but I would rather wait to see what happens when it dries out....

Any suggestions welcome!

 

[pottamus]

I would think the grass will eventually come through but if you want to be sure...could you get some meadow seed and sprinkle that down?
When we dug out our ditches we had to spread the fill on top of the grass to create a bit of a bank...it was very deep and the grass has come back through that no problem.

 

[henryhorn]

It would be better if you could leave it for a few weeks without putting horses on at all, then assess the damage.
The grass will still be there but need sun to get going again. You could try harrowing a strip and see if it reveals new grass growing under the silt, if so harrow all and try sprinkling some grass seed on etc.
Nature has a way of rebalancing any damage like this but really it needs time and no animals to do that.
I would treat it as winter grazing and go gently to start with. (or I suppose turn lots of horses on it and pound the stuff into the soil then leave it..)