Grass seeding advice?

[Horseperson432]

Looking for some advice in terms of paddock seeding. I appreciate it may be a little late but paddocks have only just dried enough to get a quad etc in to harrow.

The main paddock needing some TLC is full of weeds, around 40% is completely bare and the rest of the paddock has got grass starting to grow though it is patchy and incredibly rough ground as was used for winter turn out. Would an area like this need to be reseeded as if I’m starting from scratch or should I buy an over seeding/ repair mix and just sew on bare patches?
I will harrow the ground (only have a small harrow but seems to do the job!) prior to seeding in order to try and smooth the ground out but don’t have a roller to use after. Should I just harrow it after I’ve planted the seeds? Or does anyone have any recommendations for a DIY roller?
After reading about the thousands of types of grass seed I’ve been scared of buying anything with ryegrass in. Whilst my horses are (touch wood!!!) not Cushings etc one is an older pony who i obviously want to keep safe. Is staying clear of ryegrass therefore wise? Or if I reduce the amount of the grass they have access to would it be okay? Obviously ryegrass seed seems to be a little cheaper and easier to get hold of. I’ve never had to reseed this paddock before so the grass there is just natural grass which i presume is ryegrass anyway and the pony has grazed on it for years.

Sorry for all the questions, been online to learn it’s not quite as simple as throwing some grass seed on the floor!!
Thanks in advance

 

[Abacus]

Before reseeding areas this year I went over and over with the quad and harrow, which did a surprisingly good job of taking out most of the ruts. That was when the ground was ok to drive the quad over but still softish. Then I put down paddock repair seed from Boston seeds (it arrives in about 2 days). It has grown really well - but I did seed in late March. Hope for rain!

 

[PurBee]

Yes, harrow field to even-out the worst lumpy bumpy bits before re-seeding will help.
I’ve thrown grass seed down this year on very patchy mud places are winter trashing, and theres some areas i didnt manage to roll due to being too narrow for the tractor, and even those areas have germinated very well. The rain will push the seed into the soil. Providing you’re in an area with moderate rainfall and we dont have a drought! The rain will even-out lumpy soil throughout the season, if horses are kept off it.

Ryegrass only seed i would avoid for horses. But i wouldnt discount some ryegrass in the mix completely up to 30%. It has fast germination growth and good root structure so good for soils that are softer, to firm them up. Some people are completely against ryegrass, but indigenous perennial ryegrass is a different plant nutritionally compared to diploid/triploid super-high nutrition GM varieties of ryegrass.

There’s many places offering ryegrass-free mixes now, so its easier to eliminate it completely, if you’d prefer. Eliminate ryegrass for horses with liver issues as the photosensitisation compounds in ryegrass mean during sunny weather grazing a heavy ryegrass field will bring about secondary symptoms in a liver compromised horse. This is why i prefer to limit the ryegrass content to max @30%. Many generic paddock grazing seed mixes are designed for cows and are at least, but usually more than 50% ryegrass. Best avoided for horses.

Looking online will make you feel like reseeding is a huge job - but it actually does still work well and is effective to ‘just throw it on the floor’! Its called over-seeding and works well on patchy fields. Providing there’s rain after re-seeding, the rain will push the seed onto the wet soil to make contact.
Re-seed just before a few days of rain are forecast. If there;s cloudy wet weather forecast for 2 weeks, get it spread and it’ll grow.

If you are able to spread any muck heap onto the field after seeding it’ll boost growth too and give more cover of the seeds.

My roller i bought as a job lot with my tractor - its actually like 2 gas bottles welded together (but something far heavier and thicker than gas bottles), that can be filled with water to make it heavier. If you’re handy with welding thats a good homemade roller. Other ideas are thick plastic barrels filled with sand or concrete. With a pull handle fitted either end to a tow hitch.

Rolling is preferred but not essential. Rain does a good job of forcing seeds into bare soil. We do get a lot of rain here though, so a low rain fall area would be best to roll after spreading. You might be able to hire a roller from hire companies. Or pay a contractor to roll after youve spread the seed. It doesnt take long to roll and would be a cheap outlay.

 

[Nbuuifx]

Apologies for jumping on this but we are in a similar position and I didn't think it warranted a new discussion.

We have a 3.5 acre paddock and the edge was used as a track system over winter. It was left pretty bare around the edge, but now the horses are back on the centre the edges are turning green but it is all weeds (mainly dock) - so I'm planning on spraying them and then planting seeds.

I was looking at getting a harrow, but only al have a 4x4 to pull it round. Do you use chain harrows or spike harrows?

Do you use the harrows over the grassy areas too to improve the surface?

Any DIY options for this? I was considering drilling some holes through an old metal gate and putting some bolts through to make spikes. Is this likely to work? I have dragged this old gate round before to spread out muck, knock down mole hills and smooth out trodden areas but obviously without the bolts.

 

[Polos Mum]

It's really too dry in most UK areas to seed, unless you can get a sprinkler on it - you risk wasting you £'s

You also need bird protection as they love seed/ seedlings
And weed killer as the weeds will outgrow any grass seedlings on bare ground

For me the bigger question would be what is your long term aim? If you seed now and can work hard to water / protect seedlings you could well get some good shoot coverage
But if you then pop horses back on in 5-6 months time and the areas are used in the same way that caused the damage in the first place - you will be back to square 1 by Christmas

To really get established strong root system enough to withstand the damage horses do then you'd need to keep them off for 18 months or so and regularly top / graze with something gentle (sheep) to encourage the root growth.

If you can't do the above then you may as well shred a few £20 notes and sprinkle them on the bare ground - it'd look the same in January as if you did seed.

If gateways / outside shelters etc. are the issues then look at alternatives - mud mats, stone, something more longer term than trying to grow new grass in an area that gets trashed each winter.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Sheep have made a huge difference to our grass. We don't spray with either weedkiller or fertiliser but looking back at photos from when we first moved in, 30 yrs ago, the grass is massively improved. It's a longer term solution but well worth the wait.

 

[Nbuuifx]

It's really too dry in most UK areas to seed, unless you can get a sprinkler on it - you risk wasting you £'s

You also need bird protection as they love seed/ seedlings
And weed killer as the weeds will outgrow any grass seedlings on bare ground

For me the bigger question would be what is your long term aim? If you seed now and can work hard to water / protect seedlings you could well get some good shoot coverage
But if you then pop horses back on in 5-6 months time and the areas are used in the same way that caused the damage in the first place - you will be back to square 1 by Christmas

To really get established strong root system enough to withstand the damage horses do then you'd need to keep them off for 18 months or so and regularly top / graze with something gentle (sheep) to encourage the root growth.

If you can't do the above then you may as well shred a few £20 notes and sprinkle them on the bare ground - it'd look the same in January as if you did seed.

If gateways / outside shelters etc. are the issues then look at alternatives - mud mats, stone, something more longer term than trying to grow new grass in an area that gets trashed each winter.

Thanks,

We don't really have the option to keep them off the land, so need to work out a plan which will work in the best way.

I'm not sure that we will do the same again next year.

We have had the paddock for just over a year. We made haylage from the majority of the grass before moving the horses on. It made 24 big bales. We then strip grazed the field for the rest of the year, including through winter, whilst also feeding the haylage. We moved to a track system in early spring, but it was colder and wetter than usual and the middle didn't grow as well as hoped. We got 7 bales this year.

We could leave the track as more of a track, but we have a central track which was accidentally made when they were strip grazing, which definitely does need repairing, this part didn't really regrow and now has lots of mini docks growing, so I will spray this. I realise it isn't the best time of year, but want to get the docks sorted before they get too big. We've had a fair bit of rain around here, I've struggled to find 3 dry days to spray the docks, but it looks like we should have 3 this week.

 

[tda]

It's too dry atm to seed. I'm having problems, I know I have to rest it, but going thru hay/haylage at a rate of knots when I have grass is making my head hurt !
I want to put the perimeter track up but that won't help long term. I don't have sheep, so am just going to keep topping it (this also makes no sense/but it does make sense)
I think it's also too late to spray docks, but I have just cut them down by hand before at this late stage

 

[Polos Mum]

I would save your seed money and invest it in something else. Maybe a soil test to work out what you need or paying local farmer to spread muck for you.
You need to somehow work out why the bare patches arose and address that - trying to fill them in each summer and then trashing it again each winter won't work in the long run

If you strim the docks they'll take a knock and the left over strimmings will feed the soil. Then if it's a strip allow the grass either side to grow into it - you know that grass will do well in your soil.
Use old hay to cover the bare areas and sweepings from your hay barn / haylage wrappers to self seed.

Spray in May stay away - Spay in June - be back soon. It's really too late to spray too (an personally I have avoided chemicals of all types for 5+ years now and our fields look better than ever).

 

[Nbuuifx]

We cut all the big docks with a battery powered hedge trimmer to remove them before making haylage and to prevent them going to seed. The ones that have reappeared on the bare patch are currently tiny but there are loads of them, hence why I thought of spraying them now to stop them growing large.

I have some grazeon pro.

 

[KC31]

I pull up docks religiously and have noticed a huge difference this year, We have hardly any. The chap that does our field maintenance used a different seed this year as said last years seemed to create more weeds than grass. When he came to take our muck heap away he was amazed at how much grass we had now and what good quality it was. He left us with two more bags of seeds for us to use at the end of the summer(if it ever arrives!!) to put down on our summer paddocks. Like everything with field maintenance timing is key. We wanted ours rolling but its just too late now so that will have to wait until September.

 

[teapot]

I’d ask an agronomist personally - they’d be able to advise on both soil quality and what will grow best, but will also understand different grass types.

 

[YourValentine]

It's really too dry in most UK areas to seed, unless you can get a sprinkler on it - you risk wasting you £'s

You also need bird protection as they love seed/ seedlings
And weed killer as the weeds will outgrow any grass seedlings on bare ground

For me the bigger question would be what is your long term aim? If you seed now and can work hard to water / protect seedlings you could well get some good shoot coverage
But if you then pop horses back on in 5-6 months time and the areas are used in the same way that caused the damage in the first place - you will be back to square 1 by Christmas

To really get established strong root system enough to withstand the damage horses do then you'd need to keep them off for 18 months or so and regularly top / graze with something gentle (sheep) to encourage the root growth.

If you can't do the above then you may as well shred a few £20 notes and sprinkle them on the bare ground - it'd look the same in January as if you did seed.

If gateways / outside shelters etc. are the issues then look at alternatives - mud mats, stone, something more longer term than trying to grow new grass in an area that gets trashed each winter.

This. Seeding now may get you some growth but it won't stand up grazing pressure for long as it won't have time to develop the root structure.

Docks are thriving because your soil is compacted from use as a track over winter. They will out compete grass etc as they have a strong taproot that will break through the compaction. I would top them so they don't go to seed but right now they are, remediation your soil so let them grow.

I wouldn't spend loads of money on seed now, I would get something cheap and vigorous, which might be a Rye grass, though speak to a seed seller for the best option at this time not year, and scatter that for now. I recognition that it probably won't survive till spring.

Cope as best you can this winter, but start making plans for how you want to use the land long term. Do you need to put in a hard track of some sorts? Or how can you rotate and rest the grazing to give it all a good time to recover? And work on the assumption that winters are going to be wet.

Good land management is a long term game, and if you make a plan you may not see results for 3-5years.