Land maintenance schedule, can anyone enlighten me please?

Achinghips

Achinghips

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Seeding, fertilising, topping, spraying with weed killer, maintaining machinery and post and rail and automated water troughs .... What else needs to be done?

When do all these things need to be done in the year?

Just weighing up pros and cons of purchasing a four acre plot (as a piece of suitable land has come up behind my house) vs horse at livery.

Land is in brilliant condition now and used for gazing.

Thanks
 
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Having rented my own place and being at livery to me it's a no brainer I'd go for the field. I chai harrow in the spring the section of 2/3 of my 3acre field strip graze 1acre for most of the spring and summer as I have fatties then top the field in June time. If anything needs to be over seeded then I do it in the spring. Then it's rested until October/November time as over the winter I tend to let my guys have the whole field.
 
We have a 7 acre paddock and do very little with it. I poo pick it in summer and section it off for my fatty and it gets fertilised in summer but otherwise we have sheep that do all the work for us. Maybe a different option for you?
 
Buy - apart from any enjoyment and use it will give you there is always a marrying value ie house value x plus land value y together will be worth x + y + maybe 10% or more .

Timetable of work;

Fence now so you can use it preferbaly in two halves so you wll damage only half through the winter.
Springtime. Roll, harrow and possibly fertilise the half you have used and rest. See what grows and maybe weedkill i May/June.
Next winter use other half and in spring repeat process. Thus over two year period each half gets attended.
Good luck you will neer regret it!
 
If anything, you've probably over estimated (which is not a bad thing!).

If the land is already good, you shouldn't need to factor in reseeding. We harrow and roll our winter fields in Spring, them leave them to rest all summer. The summer fields have sheep on, but we sometimes roll and harrow again if we feel they need it (quite often they don't, and just get rested over the winter and early spring. We have a lot of land, so don't really poo pick that often, especially in winter when the land is too boggy anyway. Other things to think of perhaps is keeping drainage ditches clear.

Four acres may take a bit more managing because it may get worn down quickly and you would have to plan the resting schedule well. Machinery wise, a small tractor with bucket, a roller and harrow would be a great investment.
 
As BWa says above, if you can borrow some sheep you probably wont need too top or fertilize!
have a good look at the hedges, if you can cut them right back you may gain a bit of extra land!
 
Buy - you won't look back! Your best investment will be a bottle of something nice for your nice nextdoor neighbour farmer who'll come over with the right kit at the right time when he's doing his if you get on his right side.
Timing depends on weather and what you need depends on what you've got and how hard you work it - 2 ponies on 4 acres will need very different maintenance to 6 horses on 4 acres.
 
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