reclaiming poached ground.

Tipp farm hand

I am a part time farmer with a small suckler heard which i inherited from my dad on his passing. like many others i am keeping the place going to keep the family happy, and being honest I do have a love for it. My problem at the moment is I have a field that got very badly damaged over the winter months by both cattle and tractors. A neighbour has offered to use a land leveler at a cost of €350 and he is trying to convince me it will sort out the problem, as the field is so badly damaged I dont think it will work. If anyone has any suggestions or have had this problem in the past I would welcome some advice.


Thanks.

pakalasa

The ground is probably too dry at the moment, so better to wait till you get a bit of rain (but not too much) then drag a bid bush around after the tractor. It worked for me.:D

A grass- harrow would be better though, to be honest.

gerico

I had a very similar situation this year with a field after several years as a winterage for sucklers, in the end I got the field powered harrowed, reseeded with seed from Crecora Mills. rolled & then spread fertiliser on top. This field is finally showing signs of a decent yield after a few bare years.
I tried the land leveller and chain harrow but neither did a decent job however saying that the field was butchered from cattle and tractors over a few years.

Tipp farm hand

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll be telling my neighbour that I'll be ok.

adne

Tipp farm hand wrote: »

A neighbour has offered to use a land leveler at a cost of €350 and he is trying to convince me it will sort out the problem

Thanks.

How big is the field, sounds like he is taking a hand at that price

Casinoking

The only sure way to sort out a field like that would be to plough and reseed, providing the land is suitable for ploughing of course. The next best thing would be a couple of runs of a power harrow or disc harrow. The land leveller will more than likely still leave you with ruts and holes when the field settles. And it would want to be a big field for a price of €350

Min

Casinoking wrote: »

The only sure way to sort out a field like that would be to plough and reseed, providing the land is suitable for ploughing of course. The next best thing would be a couple of runs of a power harrow or disc harrow. The land leveller will more than likely still leave you with ruts and holes when the field settles. And it would want to be a big field for a price of €350

Agrees.

kerryman12

Have to agree with casionking, anything less will not be a good job

Tipp Man

We reseeeded 23 acres on Friday, some of which was badly poached by cattle last year

A run of the power harrow and then a powerharrow/seed drill combi for a second run and planting. Then a run of a cambridge roller (a heavy one) for consolidation

It looks to have done a very good job although there are a lot of sods but the field is an old bane and hadn't been touched in a very long time. Time will tell if its a good job or not

Reseeding is a very costly business by the time you have paid for roundup, lime, fertiliser, seed, and then what ever way you decided to plough/harrow it

vanderbadger

Tipp Man wrote: »

We reseeeded 23 acres on Friday, some of which was badly poached by cattle last year

A run of the power harrow and then a powerharrow/seed drill combi for a second run and planting. Then a run of a cambridge roller (a heavy one) for consolidation

It looks to have done a very good job although there are a lot of sods but the field is an old bane and hadn't been touched in a very long time. Time will tell if its a good job or not

Reseeding is a very costly business by the time you have paid for roundup, lime, fertiliser, seed, and then what ever way you decided to plough/harrow it

how much an acre roughly do you reckon it worked out at?

Tipp Man

vanderbadger wrote: »

how much an acre roughly do you reckon it worked out at?

We are thinking well over 200 an acre but we don't know how much exactly the cultivation is going to cost yet, Initially thought we could direct seed it but had to give it an extra run of the power harrow

Will be very lucky if the 23 acres is done for 5k, probably 5.5k so anything from 220-250 an acre (we didn't do any of the work ourselves so includes the lot including spraying and spreading fert)

Casinoking

I think the last couple of reseeding jobs I did worked out between €130 and €150/acre for spraying, ploughing, tilling, stone raking and sowing. The farmer supplied the seed themselves, spread the fertiliser and rolled.

Tora Bora

I say, repair the tractor track damage by filling in and rolling. Forget about expensive reseeding. Get a good flock of sheep. Fence them well. Let them eat till they are pulling the roots. Fertilize. Sheep back in over late autumn, early winter when it gets nice and damp again. They do a mighty job of levelling off ruts and so on caused by cattle. Could use a fleet of hand weanling as well.
No grass comes as well and as thick as grass well eaten by sheep!