New Lay - idiots guide please

[Sven]

Last year we had no choice but to plough and re-seed our main field - we didn't do it till October as the ground was too hard and impacted for the plough!

Then it rained and rained and snowed (in channel islands rarely snows here) and come April there was little sign of life - so we fertilized - nothing - so we re-seeded again.

Finally there is some grass growing, still a little sparse in areas, but its getting there. So the questions are:

1. If I grow it on for hay will this weaken the grass?
2. Should we be topping it to help it get denser?
3. What is the minimum time I before I can put the horse and pony on it? (pony will be wearing a grazing muzzle!)

The reason for question 1. is when we first moved here, the grass had got a little long so we left it for hay - then because of the weather we had to leave it quite late. The grass never seemed to recover from it and because the land has a lot of clay with the wet then dry it just baked hard and never got going again which is why we resorted to ploughing it up.

As you can tell, we are quite new to land management having been in livery most of our lives!

Any advice most welcome.

 

[JenTaz]

at the yard i am at they leave the re seeded feilds for a year untill they put horses on it, but will use it for hay/haylage the same year if they have to if not it just gets left to grow and the cows get put on it after the winter. not so sure about topping it :S as i always thought topping it was basically like cutting your grass in your garden so not sure how it would make it denser.

 

[ofcourseyoucan]

to get the best from a new lay yes you would take hay off it this year and nest year and put the horses back on it after that ie late summer 2011! if you put horses on before this you will just wreck the sub structure of the roots and will never get a good thick grass field! i would also get a full soil analysis to check if soil is lacking in nutrients

 

[appylass]

to get the best from a new lay yes you would take hay off it this year and nest year and put the horses back on it after that ie late summer 2011! if you put horses on before this you will just wreck the sub structure of the roots and will never get a good thick grass field! i would also get a full soil analysis to check if soil is lacking in nutrients

Completely agree with this, and if you can, I would get lots of well rotted muck spread on it before winter as this will improve the soil quality. This is what my slightly obsessional, farmer/brother would do with a new lay. He won't let horses near it for at least 18 months!

 

[martlin]

I have 15 acres of new lay, drilled in September last year is just about ready now to take a cut off for haylage, we are going to take the crop, let it recover and take a late silage crop again and then turn sheep on it to improve the root structure and fertilise. As I'm a bit short of winter turn out for horses, I will probably sacrifice couple of acres for that purpose and reseed next spring or overseed maybe, depending how much damage there will be.