Now summer is approaching how has your land recovered from the dreadful winter

setterlover

setterlover

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We were not affected as badly as some with no flooding or standing water but were concerned about the grass actually growing well enough for an early cut of haylege/ hay
Please to say the grass is doing really well the hay fields are growing at an amazing pace and it looks like will will make a first cut of haylege in the next couple of weeks weather permitting.
More than enough grass for the 2 horses I have left ( lost the cob at the beginning of May) .Managed to roll and harrow fairly early a few more buttercups than usual but that's down yo the wet I guess
It's marvellous how the land bounces back!.
 
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I'm surprised by how much better it now looks but whenever it rains, the wet areas fill up quickly again (we had ducks in the lake/field at the weekend). But the hay field is growing really well and so is all of the grass.
 
Grass is certainly growing, and most of my fields have recovered well . I have one which is quite bare , but it’s proving a godsend as the 3 ridden ones look the best they’ve ever done .
 
Grass growth is statistically higher this year, both compared to last year and compared to average on data tracking.

I dont have access / equipment to harrow / roll / repair which means some of my land remains lumpy.

I have done some spraying, overseeding, and fertilising and grass is really growing!
 
Abacus said:
I'm surprised by how much better it now looks but whenever it rains, the wet areas fill up quickly again (we had ducks in the lake/field at the weekend). But the hay field is growing really well and so is all of the grass.
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This is pretty much the same for us, it dries out fairly quickly but it doesn't take much for the standing water to come back. The hay fields are growing really well so hopefully it will help to replenish the stocks that we've all run down after this winter.
 
My winter field is still bald in the places where the horses really trashed it. I did over seed but it doesn't seem to have taken well for some reason.

My summer fields are 3 acres and normally I track around them. Well I'm having to inch forward strip grazing into the track because the grass is so long. At this rate I'll have the track around by December when its time to move back to the winter field! The summer fields are sodden in winter and last Wednesday's rain was awful for them. I had standing water on large areas of the track so obviously that got churned up which was annoying.

The cobs who are in a decent amount of work are doing just fine with the strip grazing but my Appy - even in a muzzle - is expanding at speed.
 
We are 3 big horses fewer in my 7-8 acre field - just 2 bigguns, 2 small ponies and 3 of them are muzzled.

It's bouncing back brilliantly, but still very sticky in areas and incredibly lumpy after winter. The gateway hasn't recovered and is bare earth. It's too soft to roll in most places so it's ankle-turning to poo pick. Like SEL, my cob who is largely unridden at the moment, is expanding fast, despite the muzzle.
 
Our grass is really growing now. Ponies are now on restricted grazing and the sheep are on the big field which only a short while ago hadn't got enough grass for them.
 
Its so/so here. Do a 3 month rotation normally, but the awful weather meant we were late moving out of the winter/summer field into the spring/autumn one (no point churning them both up and we had no grass in either of them). The spring one was late to start growing so when we did move still no grass. The summer field has actually come back really well, but also grew a lot of clover so have had to had that sprayed off for the first time in 5 years. Moving onto that next week and crossing fingers the spring one recovers ok. Its not got the buttercup problem though since we didnt churn it up and have been 'overseeding' in a fashion by putting hay slices in the barer bits so hopefully be ok.

Ive still got a pond in the lower lying bit of the spring field though. Ive got ducks and ducklings which, whilst quite cute, really shouldnt be there.
 
After our horrifically wet winter, my field had never looked worse by the end of the season. Half of it was really churned up (even with good draining soil Im lucky enough to have). Grass is back, theres the odd bare patch like under the trees where they chose to stand in the worst of the weather (rather than my big open stables...). Ive halved mine and have just finished weedkilling and fertilising (by hand) the second half. Could do with a top up of grass seed but I think its a bit pointless given it could get trashed again this winter.
 
The paddock that got the wettest has been invaded by buttercups. It was drying up nicely but a spell of wet weather the last two weeks have set it back again and it’s muddy in places.

My larger paddock had recovered well. They’ve just gone back on that today.
 
setterlover said:
We were not affected as badly as some with no flooding or standing water but were concerned about the grass actually growing well enough for an early cut of haylege/ hay
Please to say the grass is doing really well the hay fields are growing at an amazing pace and it looks like will will make a first cut of haylege in the next couple of weeks weather permitting.
More than enough grass for the 2 horses I have left ( lost the cob at the beginning of May) .Managed to roll and harrow fairly early a few more buttercups than usual but that's down yo the wet I guess
It's marvellous how the land bounces back!.
Click to expand...
Yes my fields in use are short but look good, the resting really good apart from damn ragwort
 
The grass has really taken off in the last couple of weeks. The hay fields were looking a little light but have now thickened up and look to have promising crops. After heavy rain there is water standing in the low spots but the drains are running and keeping the majority of the fields surface water free.
 
Now everyone mentions about buttercups, we have quite a lot too. Is the only option to spray? I'm not keen to use chemicals unless I absolutely have to.
 
Hayfields look great…the grass is growing in my field but there are big patches of muddy earth where weed is creeping in. The water table is still so high that all the puddles in the dips in the field fill up straight away even after a shower.
 
we are on sandy soil so other thhan being wet at the gateway which is at the bottom of the slope, we were incredibly lucky. That being said we have lots of buttercups, but actually do most years, and I have done 8hrs ragworting in the last week and a half to clear the worst out of my 2 acre field, still lots of small (2 inch high type) plants to go though - that's all thanks to the neighbouring farmer letting his seed and then just cutting the lot a few years back in the field that borders the top of mine.
 
In a word..no but I have abused my land for the last couple of years so it serves me right.
I haven't been in for a few weeks but I also have ragwort growing farming neighbour, even his horse fields are thick with it so am fully prepared for mass pulling again
 
We've got 50 acres of old pasture. Each horse (5) has their own paddock, with electric fencing separating each of them from the other. The ex-Dressage Divo has his own small paddock, separated from the others, as he is as daft as a brush and is recovering from a DDFT injury. He is not the brightest horse in the herd (that’s reserved for Old Horse, who is a cunning, devious wretch) and is given to dramatic shrieks and rears for no apparent reason. He also makes snake faces plus big teeth at anyone approaching him. If these are ignored and his neck is given a quiet scratch, he'll forget he's a snake and become quite pleasant. The stallion is another face-puller, but again is easily mollified.
 
Squeak said:
Now everyone mentions about buttercups, we have quite a lot too. Is the only option to spray? I'm not keen to use chemicals unless I absolutely have to.
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we top ours which doesn’t eliminate them completely but certainly helps.

Fields have recovered well but as others have said it doesn’t take much for standing water to reappear after some heavy downpours. Grass is growing really well and I have just started restricting mine.
 
spotty_pony2 said:
we top ours which doesn’t eliminate them completely but certainly helps.

Fields have recovered well but as others have said it doesn’t take much for standing water to reappear after some heavy downpours. Grass is growing really well and I have just started restricting mine.
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Thanks, that's useful. I'm planning on topping them anyway so hopefully that will mean we can get away without spraying.
 
I have to much grass and fat ponies.

I'm on sand so it didn't get to bad/wet through the winter, but the constant warm wet weather is causing havoc to my usual easy keepers.
 
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