Heavy Land - what to do?

nqtfarmer

Hi lads,
We have about 15 acres of heavy land that has only been growing rushes the past 6 years. We have grown barley there in an exceptional year but it is mostly heavy. I am just wondering what the best thing to do with it in order to reclaim it. I suppose the options I have considered are -
1. Weed licker and kill rushes
2. Plough and reseed
3. Mole plough to help drainage.
What do people think? I don't necessarily want to mask the problem with a weed licker but would prefer to get this land productive again.

Milked out

nqtfarmer wrote: »

Hi lads,
We have about 15 acres of heavy land that has only been growing rushes the past 6 years. We have grown barley there in an exceptional year but it is mostly heavy. I am just wondering what the best thing to do with it in order to reclaim it. I suppose the options I have considered are -
1. Weed licker and kill rushes
2. Plough and reseed
3. Mole plough to help drainage.
What do people think? I don't necessarily want to mask the problem with a weed licker but would prefer to get this land productive again.

Dig a hole with digger and see what you are dealing with. If you have water coming into the hole from below that will also have to be drained with pipes and or stone. If the top layer is wet but is dry under neath the mole plough may help. What's the existing drainage? Burn off the rushes abd vegetation, drain and then reseed would be my advice. Only issue with drainage directly before reseeding is there may be a sag over the drain as the ground settles.

I said

Dig test pits no point wasting money unless you know what yer dealing with.Do you or anyone belonging to you or neighbours old enough know if there was ever drains in that field?

johndeere3350

Lime lime lime and more lime

50HX

if you've rushes you've a water issue

check and free any existing drains first off

if it previously grew barley then the basics of it should be in good nick...just some TLC

if rushes are gone to a crazy stage then you'd mulch and then weedlick, reseed

need to start with the water first though

nqtfarmer

There are drains and funnily you can identify their line precisely where the rushes are not growing. But obviously they are not serving their purpose. We don't want to spend too much in terms of drainage but as 50hx said it may just need TLC. I'd say spray off, plough, lime and reseed. Could anybody give me a break down of how much this would cost? Thanks for the advice

ABlur

nqtfarmer wrote: »

There are drains and funnily you can identify their line precisely where the rushes are not growing. But obviously they are not serving their purpose. We don't want to spend too much in terms of drainage but as 50hx said it may just need TLC. I'd say spray off, plough, lime and reseed. Could anybody give me a break down of how much this would cost? Thanks for the advice

According to Teagasc this will cost €300 per acre as per page 30 of this:

http://www.agresearch.teagasc.ie/moorepark/pastureprofitindex/ppts/pocketmanualforreseeding.pdf


However if it needs drainage you would have to do it in advance of reseeding maybe 6 months to allow ground settle. Is the ground dry now after the dry spell, could you travel it with a tractor? If not travelable after another week or two of dry weather then I would say it needs drainage. Get someone e.g. an Agri consultant to look at it. As mentioned above dig test pit to see what you have. Page 9 of this Teagasc doc is useful to decide what type of drains are needed:


http://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2012/1594/TodaysFarm_NovDec2012.pdf

blue5000

nqtfarmer wrote: »

There are drains and funnily you can identify their line precisely where the rushes are not growing. But obviously they are not serving their purpose. We don't want to spend too much in terms of drainage but as 50hx said it may just need TLC. I'd say spray off, plough, lime and reseed. Could anybody give me a break down of how much this would cost? Thanks for the advice

What sort of drains are there, and how deep are they? You might be able to run a mole plough across the existing drains to bring more water to them. It won't work with old stone drains, but could be a cheap fix every couple of years if there are pipes already there.