Grazing help- please!

[Evie91]

Hi all,

Have a piece of land that I am trying to turn into suitable grazing land for next spring. I Have had grass and soil analysed - all ok.

The problem is land is covered with a lot of woodland flowers - purple trumpets, butter cups, little white flower ( not sure of its name), forget me nots and lesser celeandine, bit of moss.

Question is; how do I get rid of flowers and replace with grass?!

I'm really stuck, so any help/advice appreciated.
thank you

 

[Polos Mum]

Spray with weedkiller and reseed. Bit late in the year to spray - should have been done in May but not much choice in your situation.

Or borrow some sheep?

 

[Evie91]

Now I'd considered sheep - how do they work??? In that how do they manage to get rid of flowers but not grass??! Sorry I know I sound really thick!
Also had considered weed killer back in May but decided against as they are flowers so not sure it would work!
Thanks for your response

 

[WelshD]

there may be something that will selectively kill the buttercups. If you can get rid of them the grass should rally and recover making it harder for weeds from there in but you could reseed any bare patches if you are worried

 

[Rose Folly]

Just do a bit of research. Find out what the flowers are. they will probably be fine. Buttercups are not brilliant but TBH most fields have some. They will ignore forget-me-nots, the white flower could be creeping bindweed - won't hurt.

If you think about it, horses in their natural state don't have someone running after them with a weedkill rucksack! As to the plants, you can research them on the internet, or find a local botanist (or group) who for a cream tea might be delighted to come and tell you what's what.

Failing that - sheep. they are very thorough little grazers, can eat ragwort(1) - that IS a no-no - and once they have eaten it down it tends not to come back.

My land has been permanent pasture probably since Roman days, or before. It has a multitude of wild flowers - and herbs - which the horses doctor themselves with. I wouldn't be without this varied pasture for the world.

 

[Evie91]

Thanks so much for replies.
I've googled the flowers - lesser celeandine is poisionous to horses, so might have a grow at spraying that. Think I'm so used to my horse grazing in dairy pasture (just grass and clover) I worry about everything else!
No ragwort fortunately. My friend did mention about ponies surviving on dartmoor but perhaps some do die from wild flower poisoning we just don't know about it! Ha ha.
I only have two acres so wanted to make the most of the grazing rather than waste bits with flowers they won't eat. Do get the point about varied pasture - not trying to eradicate everything

 

[lamlyn2012]

It's difficult to assess without actually seeing. Have you asked a local farmer for advice?
When we bought ours 30 years ago we had it ploughed and reseeded with a seed mix recommended for horse grazing. We still have perfect grazing so I believe it was money well spent.

 

[FfionWinnie]

You would need to graze very heavily with sheep or they will just eat the grass. That won't be easy if the fencing isn't good.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

I would spot spray the celandine and anything else poisonous and leave the rest. If you want you could gently harrow and overseed with grass seed to get the proportion up but I wouldn't plough and reseed, horses benefit much more from natural mix of plants and flowers than they do monoculture of grass seed. Sheep would be an excellent idea, they like to eat a mixture of plants so may well have a taste for some of the odd ones! They will gently fertilise too, traditionally if you harrowed and over seeded with grass seed and rolled you would then put the sheep on for a few days to fertilise the ground and tread in the seed for you nice and firmly.

 

[Auslander]

Im another one who thinks its really sad to try and turn proper old wildflower meadow into a cricket pitch. Natural diversity is good, and all those different plants will be dong their bit to improve the ground, they'll attract insects and birds, and provide your horse with different things to nibble on. Get rid of anything poisonous by all means, but don't wreck something that has taken hundreds of years to establish itself!

 

[showqa]

Yes, I agree with Auslander. My grazing has all manner of flowers and herbs in it. The only ones I go after are rag (don't have much), hogweed (had a bad year for that this year) and himalayan balsam because it's prolific and out competes everything else. If you looked at my grazing there are bees and butterflies galore - sign of healthy pasture if you ask me. I still have far too much grazing and have to watch my horses weight and I'm on clay.

 

[lamlyn2012]

The natural herbage will re-establish very quickly. I looked out my bedroom window this afternoon and wss amazed at the amount of butterflies on my pasture, never seen so many. Actually did a video , it looked like little fairies floating around. Awesome.

 

[Evie91]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond. Some really great advice here. I really don't want to decimate the local wild life just ensure there is enough food for my horse plus one other it's given me great peace of mind to know that she should be alright sharing with a few flowers! I plan on putting down some fertiliser a month before she comes home (as advised by company who analysed grass).
I was just having a panic as most horses I know are on dairy pasture and I'll only have two acres and two horses.
My soil is also clay and not very well draining - I am getting a ditch dug and some drainage put in so hoping this helps - it backs on to woodland so quiet shady in places. I'm hoping to incorporate an area of hard standing and a field shelter, but my biggest worry has been the grazing ( because I don't know anything about this aspect), so thanks again for all of your advice, much appreciated.

 

[Welsh Scot]

This isn't really a reply but asking advice - an awful lot of very short clover has taken over the pasture (in Mid-Wales) & I've only seen white flowers. Is it safe to let horses graze?

 

[YasandCrystal]

This isn't really a reply but asking advice - an awful lot of very short clover has taken over the pasture (in Mid-Wales) & I've only seen white flowers. Is it safe to let horses graze?

Clover is not good for horses. See the below:
Clover is very high in starch (complex sugars), contains phyto-estrogens which can upset hormones, contains photodynamic pigments which lead to mud-fever and sunburn and there is a very strong correlation between clover and head-flicking.
Consequently it is not on the list of good grasses for horses!
Clover is a...

Major cause of mud-fever & sun-burn
Turns mares into nymphomaniacs
Turns geldings into stallions
Major contributor to head-flicking
Major contributor to obesity & laminitis
Cyanogenic under certain conditions

 

[Welsh Scot]

Thanks for your reply. I didn't get fertilizer onto this field due to the rain then the contractors were getting hay in! About 5 years ago, this field had 20:10:10 put on, if this isn't the reason for the clover explosion then I don't know what is - especially on a hill in Wales! I'll have to kill the clover via backpack; if the clover isn't so rich in the winter, I'd leave this as a winter field - what do you think?

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I hate clover the way some hate buttercup. it takes over and if you have greedy native ponies it's the equivalent of giving them sugar coated lard to eat. At my last livery, YO did no paddock maintenance-just huge patches of clover everywhere. 2 of mine wouldn't touch it much (but it was the only place my grey ever had sunburn) and the little one was a liability there even in winter.

 

[Welsh Scot]

I've found websites which say clover is a sign of nitrogen deficiency, one said clover preferred alkaline soil and ours is acid. Now, should I kill the clover first or apply fertilizer first - samples were taken last Spring and Simple Systems fertilizer put onto another field which is OK.

 

[OrangePepper]

Firstly get planning permission for change of use from agricultural to equestrian.
Use total kill to kill everything off. Allow it to re-grow (always seeds in ground) and use total kill again.
If you plough then wait for growth and total kill again. Allow it to re-grow and use total kill again.
Install water and drainage.
Cultivate soil..
Drill seed in. (Ensure you buy appropriate seed for what you want)
Roll.
Allow grass to grow but then cut and collect about 3 times in growing season to get a thick sword of grass and good root structure.
Do not put horses on grass for at least 3 years if you want good permanent pasture.
Fence field.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

I've found websites which say clover is a sign of nitrogen deficiency, one said clover preferred alkaline soil and ours is acid. Now, should I kill the clover first or apply fertilizer first - samples were taken last Spring and Simple Systems fertilizer put onto another field which is OK.

I asked for advice on here and the upshot was (given that I had to have landowner's say so too) was to fertilise-to help the grass out compete the clover. It definitely helped alot but moved at the end of that summer so not sure what happened the next year.

 

[Welsh Scot]

OrangePepper - thank you for taking the time to type this reply, unfortunately I can't follow your advice as we have a lot of herbs and plants growing including orchids. The soil is heavy clay and has 4 ditches going across in an arc - anything else quickly becomes blocked. We don't have a good depth of soil, the fields are sloping & next to open hill. Our neighbour ploughed a field of beautiful natural grasses and plants, planted ryegrass and this year it was full of buttercups whereas his other natural field has hardly what we would call a weed (do badgers come under 'weeds!). I don't have enough ground to leave a field for 3 years - we have about 10 acres with a few handy bits of grass around - these haven't got clover, don't get fertilized and have excellent grass! More info always welcome.

 

[Welsh Scot]

M of C - I think this is the answer. Where the horse's droppings were, there's grass, where there's steep ground there's grass and where I put fertilizer down by hand last year there's less clover and more grass. It looks as though I may have a quad in about 2 weeks which will make me independent of a contractor and able to 'see to' the fields when they need attention. But tell me - why do I have a Gypsy Cob and do the work myself!!!!!