Re-seeding pasture?

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angel1

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Hi, Im looking to buy a property with 4 acres. I've been told by the estate agent that the owner has just sprayed the whole lot with weedkiller and will not bother to reseed it!

Can anyone give me advice on how much it would cost to reseed/how long before I can use it for grazing horses again and how I actually go about reseeding?

Thanks
 
Does it actually need reseeding? Often killing the weeds and fertilising the grass is all it needs. I reseeded some of our pasture because lots of areas had become bare and some had lots of moss growing. I did this at the beginning of March. Ideally, you should harrow first, but I didn't and the seed took very well. I fertilized it 3 weeks later once the new grass was coming through. It cost around £500 to reseed and fertilize five acres and it looks fab, the rest of the land didn't need anything doing this year, but it's too darn wet to get the horses out on it now!
 
Sadly yes he has sprayed everything with a weedkiller already and I know it is one that kills the grass as well. I would have done as you suggested as there were a few mossy patches but it had been grazed previously with sheep and mowed so was pretty decent.
Im just now thinking of reducing my offer to include the cost of having to do the work and presumably will have to keep the horses at the livery a bit longer until the grass is ready which I didn't want to do anymore....
 
What an idiot, and how annoying for you! If you were needing to reseed the whole lot then it would not be suitable for grazing with horses for around 6 months and even then, only under optimum conditions to cause minimal disturbance to the young grass.
 
You also need to find out what weedkiller he used. If he used one of the ones which stay in the ground for a year or so then nothing will grow until it has gone.

I think you will also need to plough to get rid of the dead grass and give the seed somewhere to grow.

I have just been talking to someone else about this, she thought horses would be able to graze this summer. As its been ploughed the best she can hope for is a cut of hay. I doubt it will stand up to anything grazing it until next year.

Get a contractor out for an opinion and a quote. Dont think it will be cheap and either way your horses wont be using it for a long time.

Would definately be reducing the offer, by a considerable amount I think.
 
wonkey_donkey said:
Out of interest Wagtail, did you just spread your seed or have it drilled ?? I was thinking of spreading some seed to improve my paddocks but I'm worried the birds will just eat it all !!??
Click to expand...

You need to harrow, seed and then roll and use some bird scarers, like the kites on poles or spinning holograms, which work well :)
 
wonkey_donkey said:
Out of interest Wagtail, did you just spread your seed or have it drilled ?? I was thinking of spreading some seed to improve my paddocks but I'm worried the birds will just eat it all !!??
Click to expand...

No, I just spread it. I made sure that rain was forecast shortly afterwards and that washed it down to the roots of the old grass, but even the bare patches have come up really well despite having 3 weeks of dry sunny weather shortly after the rain. To be honest, I think that this recent wet spell that followed the drought just recued it in time.
 
Before you reseed you need to look into what type of soil you have and decide what seed you are going to use. You don't want the grazing to be too lush, rye grass seed is not good for horses so have a good look I to what you use.
 
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