Paddock maintenance- they're a disgrace..

Q

QueenDee_

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So over the winter I've been disgracefully bad at cleaning my fields:o so just wondering what you'd advise to get them in better condition coming spring time,

I have 2 large ones and one smaller, the smaller has been empty all winter as its a rather 'delicate' one so doesn't fare well if it gets all muddy and churned up so whilst its pretty clean my plan is to harrow it and would you advise to fertilise it?

As for the other two I haven't cleaned them for pretty much the whole winter(no hate, I know how bad it is of me:() so would you advise to harrow and fertilise them as well? I know ideally they could do with a resting period after doing so but how long would you advise the resting period on each field after harrowing/fertilising needs be?

Any advice appreciated:o
 
Harrowing will improve the grass and get rid of any sick patches full of dung BUT will certainly spread any worm eggs all over the pasture and except in high summer they aint going to be killed off by hot temperatures any time soon (in fact it rarely gets hot wnough for long enough in UK for that to be terribly effective),

If the field needs to be used soon then really you need to roll up sleeves and get poo picking and not harrow. Or hire/borrow a poo vac or some helpers.

If you can leave it for 3 months plus before the horses go in then harrowing might be the best option.

Do not whatever you do, fertilise them with the nitrogen type artificial fertilisers, thats only suitable for crop fields and cattle and will give your horses laminitis quicker than you can say boo. If the grass needs improving, then generally an application of lime is the best option, altho you will want to check ph first if you think the soil might be alkaline already (chalky/limestone).
 
I too find it impossible to poo pick winter fields. I harrow, roll, fertilise with whatever left over from farmer next door, then I leave it til summer, make hay and put the boys back on after six months or so. It works for mine, and I don't have trouble with the grass being too rich that long after fertiliser.
Rest is the best thing if you can't poo pick
 
On this note (I'm in the same boat and still can't get a barrow out of the field so plan is to harrow and leave until Autumn), how and where do you find people to harrow? I don't have anything to pull one to be able to hire on and the only local farmer I know doesn't do it for others (have asked).
 
Depends what grass you have. If you have rye grass then you need to poo pick as much as possible. Chain harrowing will make rye grass richer and this is the mistake many make.
 
I've not lifted a pile all winter either and with two bigs and two minis on six acres it's like a ploughed field. On a mission to get them off it and get someone on to harrow roll and eventually reseed.

We will all be having to spend more time and money on our fields now to repair the damage of last year, but when i drive to school and see some parts of the levels still underwater after months of flooding, I think most of us are quite lucky.

I put seaweed on my field, calcified stuff. Will be having a soil analysis done this year too though.
 
Think a plan may be to split one of the larger fields into two so that I have one thats free to rest (the current smaller one is more a summer time paddock) then i'll gradually harrow, fertilise and rotate,

About poo-picking once i've got them to a decent standard, what do you do when you're really lacking time? I'm at college from 8:30 until 6 so really have no time in the week and during the weekend in-between work, sport commitments and actual riding I find it hard to keep on top of them all :o Would you recommend to carry on rotating/harrowing throughout the year or another option would be to pay someone to come poo-pick for me but I have a feeling it could get rather expensive?:(

I normally harass my farmer friend to come harrow them for me, however it can take about a months worth of harassing to get them done:D was thinking of perhaps buying a set of chain harrows to attach to the quad we have?
 
Op you plans sounds fine. In a perfect world you would poo pick - but life isn't perfect so harrowing is a good option. (I have just been out harrowing with quad and chain harrow this morning, last year taught me to grab any dry opportunities even if not the perfect time of year!). However, I do worm counts to check that we are OK and it seems to work.

Other things you might consider are 'spiking' the ground. This opens up the soil and makes it less acidic (normally a good thing). And if you are going to spend money on fertilizers a soil analysis would ensure you are spending it on the right fertilizer. A local agronomist will do this for you (but they probably understand cows better)..... Or if you want the 'rolls Royce' option that is specially for horses then www.forageplus.com can do that and I don't think they are much more expensive.

Regarding the harrowing/poo picking debate. I think that my horses have a home for life and aren't on the meat lorry to Romania, so if the field management isn't 100pc perfect, then that is a compromise they would probably vote for!!!
 
Elena - we bought a small chain harrow for our quad and has been a fab investment!

They are not expensive, think ours was under £200 new and so useful, and means not having to rely on contractors.

We also bought a small roller, but as we have good draining soil, have found the harrow does as good a job of levelling gateways as a roller, but without adding to soil compaction.
 
Sidney said:
Elena - we bought a small chain harrow for our quad and has been a fab investment!

They are not expensive, think ours was under £200 new and so useful, and means not having to rely on contractors.

We also bought a small roller, but as we have good draining soil, have found the harrow does as good a job of levelling gateways without adding to compaction.
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just wondering where you bought yours from/what size it is? I'm Telford area so obvious place would be TFM but they'er about £380 for the smallest:o have also done a quick Google search for 2nd hand ones but can't seem to find many about the area for sale
 
Buying equipment I find the local agricultural auctions great (for non mechanical things like troughs and harrows) or e-bay or preloved or even a farm dispersal auction. Harrows never 'wear out' so second hand ones work perfectly well.
We bought a small set for the school on e-bay for under £100 and they are small enough to fit in the truck to collect.
 
I too am in this situation plus also have patches of haylage the horses have left scattered about. My plan that I have started is split the field with electric fencing into one smaller area at a time and put the horses in that section (about a acre). I'm then poo picking that bit every day with a poop scoop thing and as picking up the poos raking the area and any other area I see look dead and haylage patches with the scoop tool or a rake if its a larger area. Cant think what it's called! I'm dedicating 1 hour to 30 mins every day and sometimes I have to use a head torch as the light is fading. As now the section they are on is pretty much on top of and just daily amounts I have now started doing the same to the section they will be moving onto so spending maybe 30mins each side. Yes it will take a lot of time and hard work but then hopefully by the beginning of March I will have a nice field ready to be rested to grow for a cut of haylage and then the horses to go back onto in October. I don't have a 4x4 or a quad or a friendly farmer so this seems the best way and just hope it works.
 
I definitely wouldn't fertilise... as someone else said, you're just asking for laminitis.

I would put all the horses on as small a patch of land as possible for now (without the risk of them churning it up too much) Then harrow the remainder and leave it for a month or two - we are still getting some really hard frosts so this should kill any worms and eggs, before you turn out on them and then harrow the one that they are on now and rest it til Autumn... I think you are best to try and rest and rotate and poo pick as best you can when you have time and then harrow and rest after each field has been grazed... in Winter you may need to graze two fields rather than just one but then you'll still have your little one to put them on come spring in order to give the bigger ones a rest.. hope that makes sense.

An alternative to harrowing is to ask neighbouring farmer to graze his sheep on your fields after your horses have grazed them... they will trample any divots down, eat any sour patches of grass and generally even things up a bit.

p.s. look on ebay for some chain harrows - as cheap as £120 for a 4ft set ;) - ideal for a quad :)
 
We bought ours from the same merchant we got our quad from, but that was a few years ago now and they have since closed.

There is a 4ft chain harrow on Amazon for £179.99 - sold by a company called Bentley DIY, if that is of any help.
 
I would get a contractor in with a vacuum collect and get all the poos picked up and removed.

Then harrow.

If the grass looks bad then I would drill some mixed grass seed in

and then roll.

Don't fertilise as it could cause Laminitis.

I would also consider getting a contractor to put drainage in to your field so that it stands up better in future Winters.
 
Just wondering what sort cost it would be to get someone to 'hoover' the fields for me? (cost per acre?) and also do they work? I heard that they only work on fresh poo and as mine haven't been done for ages its all quite scattered?:o
 
Elena said:
Just wondering what sort cost it would be to get someone to 'hoover' the fields for me? (cost per acre?) and also do they work? I heard that they only work on fresh poo and as mine haven't been done for ages its all quite scattered?:o
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First find someone in your area, that would be the hard bit!
 
another option would be to pay someone to be my poo-picking slave, however I think once they arrived and saw the state of the field they might run away:D
 
Elena said:
just wondering where you bought yours from/what size it is? I'm Telford area so obvious place would be TFM but they'er about £380 for the smallest:o have also done a quick Google search for 2nd hand ones but can't seem to find many about the area for sale
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A bit further away but do try Charlies (Coed-Dinas) at Welshpool. They have a very good agricultural (and equestrian) department and tend to be much cheaper than anyone else around, even our local farmers go to them for things like cattle crushes, trailers etc.
 
There are poo picking machines that sweep rather than hoover and are pretty good at most forms of droppings - piles or scattered!

Look up agricultural conbtractors... I'm sure someone will pop up :)
 
This week, we have spent hours clearing the fields of the horse muck that we had to left due to the weather. Happens every year, and soooo glad we've gotten on top of it again. Poo-picking resumes daily again from tomorrow! we don't go anywhere feb half-term, as this is the week to get caught up!

When weather turns better, it's harrowing, rolling and spraying (mainly to get rid of the bleedin' buttercups! :D)
 
Elena said:
Just wondering what sort cost it would be to get someone to 'hoover' the fields for me? (cost per acre?) and also do they work? I heard that they only work on fresh poo and as mine haven't been done for ages its all quite scattered?:o
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Shame you are so far away. We have a terra-vac (hardly used, prefer to use barrow and scraper set) and have done a couple of friends paddocks. When OH retires, he is going to be offering paddock maintenance services, such as this, along with hedge-cutting anf grass cutting etc etc...
 
If your fencing is up to it, sheep are really good for cleaning up and patting down divots. Ours is a like a cricket pitch from the sheep.
If it is really bad and you are going to take a hay crop then fertiliser might help. My boy is a good doer but hasn't suffered any ill effects from being in a paddock which is fertilised at lease twice in spring. He is often in the field when it's done as I don't get any warning!
 
Big Ben said:
What a good idea, he may have a busy retirement:D
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We have tractors and a big hedge cutter, and also a big grass cutter for any verges etc and a post knocker that attaches to the tractor for fencing.

When he gets his lump sum (pension) he's going to buy a big trailer and a small tractor like a Kubotu (dunno the proper name!) so that he can tow that and the terra vac about. Hedge cutting etc will be within ten miles or so of where we live for obvious reasons relating to the speed of the tractor! :D

He will also offer odd-job stuff, like mending stables, chicken sheds etc.

Will start getting it on facebook and the like when he retires, as it will be just before Christmas, to drum up some trade ready for the spring.

We already supply local allotments with manure, have a list of people wanting some again when it dries up a bit! He takes down about 2 tonne at a time on one of the trailers we have, just charges for fuel and time.

He sprays our paddocks with the quad, and is on about finding out getting the right licences/qualifications at the local agricultural college so that he can offer that for small fields as well, alot of horsey friends ask him if he can do it yet as local farmers aren't interested in just doing about 3 acres...
 
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