Help with field topping

katie_southwest

katie_southwest

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I currently have my field divided in half. I arrived at the field a few days ago to discover the owners have had one half topped, the ponies are in the other half.
The grass has dried out now in the sun but is just laying in the field , and I'm getting mixed views on what to do.
Some people are saying I mustnt let the ponies on it at all unless the cut grass is collected, some are saying it's fine once it's dried out.
Field owners say the farmer just topped it , he's not collecting it so I'm not sure what to do now.
I was planning to open both halves of the field up in about a month or so and they will have the run of it for winter.
Will the grass grow up with the dry stuff lying there? Will it be safe to let them on in a month or so?

Sorry for all the questions :)
 
I'm not sure whether they can go out on the topped field as it stands but I had half of my field topped in late July, immediately afterwards there was a thick coating of grass on the surface, after 3 weeks most of the loose grass had blown away and now it looks like it was never topped

I think in a month's time your field will be just fine
 
Yes that's what I'm thinking, is there any point going round raking it up now, when I don't want them on the whole field until at least October...maybe it will of blown away etc by then? Hmmm
 
We had ours topped in July and like you had a good covering of cut grass. I was told that it would be safe to put them back on, but didn't want to risk it as have heard off horses getting colic after gorging on newly cut grass.

The grass grew back fine, but did go and 'kick' around any large clumps to disperse.

I rested it for a mnth and all the grass cut rotted down/blew away, but the only problem was that after a mnths rest I had too much regrowth!!! Hopefully you won't have this problem as the grass growth is slowing down now.

As above poster said, if you don't need to put them back on it for a mnth, you should be fine.
 
Yes Sidney I hope it doesnt grow ridiculously but I am hoping it will grow a bit as my oldie struggles with hay so it's mostly been sectioned off for him to munch on in the winter :) I think I'll go round with some sort of rake and just scatter it , then hopefully it will blow away etc
 
Itll be fine.

I top all of our fields myself every year, if it's long, stalky and yellow I don't even take the horses out.

If it's greener and you can see clumps of cut grass on the ground I leave it a few days, the grass does indeed dry out and blow away, then what comes through is much nicer and they just eat that. So after a month will be absolutely fine! :)
 
mine was topped 6 weeks ago, I let it a month and most of it has gone but some bits are still there so i just collect bits of it while im poo picking but the horses aren't going to eat it as they have loads of lush green grass to eat and by the time they have nothing it should have been blown/rained away! but i've always had massive fields and have never raked it up when the farmers have topped it!
 
patterdale said:
Itll be fine.

I top all of our fields myself every year, if it's long, stalky and yellow I don't even take the horses out.

If it's greener and you can see clumps of cut grass on the ground I leave it a few days, the grass does indeed dry out and blow away, then what comes through is much nicer and they just eat that. So after a month will be absolutely fine! :)
Click to expand...

I did this and never had any problems - the topped grass goes a bit manky if it doesnt blow away and the horses won't eat that anyway. Inused to kick the big bits around to disperse. The long stalky yellow stuff i did notice that they would eat a bit of but I figured that it was like hay anyway. As I said I never had any problems anyway...
 
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