Quality of paddock - advice please

[zeuscleoharmony]

After a summer resting my paddock I have returned to it and to my eye it looks full of weeds, clover and not much grass. Is there anywhere I can find out what exactly the variety of pasture I have?

I am a bit fed up cos the surrounding paddocks seem to have a lot more grass in them. I don't want to be seen as a moaner but want to tactfully say to LO the problem but then again don't want to look an idiot if he says the pasture is ok.

If you were approaching a LO, a lovely LO at that, what would you say without sounding like you are moaning?

Many thanks

What do you have growing in your paddocks and what would you class as good pasture?

I try to look on it positively and think Archie may have a three course dinner every day with the variety but I am worried that clover for instance isn't good for horses to eat.

 

[JenHunt]

Firstly... clover isn't always bad for horses to eat. it's just that it has more protein than most grasses and quite a lot of sugars. so if ponio is prone to lami it's never going to help.

secondly... when you say weeds - do you know what plants they are, or if ponio eats them?

Our fields are established pasture, sown originally (120yrs ago!!!) for dairy pasture. They contain a lot of ryegrass, timothy, fescues and a bit of clover. they also contain yarrow (smells a bit like vicks when you squash it), some plantains, some 'fat hen' and then a few true weeds like docks, buttercup and nettles.

 

[DuckToller]

I rested half of my field, only to find the weeds thriving and the grass struggling, damn it. A selection of herbaceous plants is good in some respects, but not if the horses don't like those ones, and inedible ones take up valuable grass space!

I would suggest asking LO's advice, and getting it topped perhaps, which will encourage the grass to grow and stop the weeds seeding (if they haven't already).

You could take out a plant identification book and work out just what you do have growing, or put pics on here and we can all take a guess. I have lots of ground covering rosette type weeds, and have just had them sprayed. It's not the best time to spray but at the rate I am going, I will have all weeds and no grass soon. Hopefully if we spray in the spring again, I will start to win and have more grass.

You might need some lime to counteract the soil acidity if the paddock has been grazed by horses for years, but you'd need someone knowledgeable for that!

 

[zeuscleoharmony]

I am a bit stupid for not mentioning this but I keep Archie on a working cattle farm although his paddock has been used for a good number of years for horses. About 3 years ago the field was ploughed and, I guess, re-seeded. The first year grass grew, second year grass and a few weeds and this year its a blinkin mess. I suppose there isn't going to be anything majorly bad cos livestock have always grazed there and still are surrounding.

Thanks for your advice to those who have/will reply.

xxx