Horse sick land

corco2000

I've had horse only on land for years. Horses now gone. Field mostly consists of creeping butter cup docks and the like. Not much grass. Eventually I be putting sheep or a horse back on it.
But how I restore fIeld to grassland. Spray reseed plough? And when.
thanks

Reggie.

corco2000 wrote: »

I've had horse only on land for years. Horses now gone. Field mostly consists of creeping butter cup docks and the like. Not much grass. Eventually I be putting sheep or a horse back on it.
But how I restore fIeld to grassland. Spray reseed plough? And when.
thanks

Reseed would be your best bet

wrangler

Reggie. wrote: »

Reseed would be your best bet

Costly waste of seed until the fertility is sorted, if I know horses they've destroyed half of it by dunging in the one place all the time and the remaining area is poverty stricken.
Sheep actually like to graze those areas and if left to it would even out the fertility
Horses destroy land and are notorious bad grazers

Say my name

If you had access to slurry it would do a world of good to that land.
When we had the horses here you just had to constantly keep em rotating on the paddocks with the cows. But slurry would do a power of good to that bare ground and you'd be surprised what would grow back.
If you had a pig farmer nearby even better. They might be looking for ground to spread.

_Brian

Spray off the weeds with a selective spray.
Have some soil tests done in the spring but I expect it needs lime and feeding.

If you feed the ground, eliminate the weeds then the grass will recover.

If OP is only throwing out a few sheep or horses again I wouldn’t bother with expensive reseeding.

Reggie.

wrangler wrote: »

Costly waste of seed until the fertility is sorted, if I know horses they've destroyed half of it by dunging in the one place all the time and the remaining area is poverty stricken.
Sheep actually like to graze those areas and if left to it would even out the fertility
Horses destroy land and are notorious bad grazers

If your going to reseed you have to get the soil index right. It's the first step in it wrangler

blue5000

Reggie. wrote: »

If your going to reseed you have to get the soil index right. It's the first step in it wrangler

You'd have to only sample the areas away from the dung patches. Otherwise it could average out index 3.

Reggie.

blue5000 wrote: »

You'd have to only sample the areas away from the dung patches. Otherwise it could average out index 3.

If the land was to be restored I'd plough it and then test it. Start with fresh soil. Add what was necessary then.

Keepgrowing

STOP, please

1 soil sample
2 roundup
3 sub soil

There’s no other animal besides perhaps elephants to compact ground like a horse.

Do not reseed till you subsoil

Say my name

Reggie. wrote: »

If the land was to be restored I'd plough it and then test it. Start with fresh soil. Add what was necessary then.

Usually the horses already have the land ploughed!
Or are just about to... and not with a plough.

_Brian

Lads, this is a bit of ground OP might just turn horses straight back out onto as per the first post.
Are people seriously recommending spending north of €4-500/acre to get a contractor in to subsoil, plough and reseed.
It sounds like we’re planning a grazing platform for dairy cows where op would get the investment back.

I says

_Brian wrote: »

Lads, this is a bit of ground OP might just turn horses straight back out onto as per the first post.
Are people seriously recommending spending north of €4-500/acre to get a contractor in to subsoil, plough and reseed.
It sounds like we’re planning a grazing platform for dairy cows where op would get the investment back.

Great advice for every farmer on here that aren’t dairy farmers

ganmo

_Brian wrote: »

Lads, this is a bit of ground OP might just turn horses straight back out onto as per the first post.
Are people seriously recommending spending north of €4-500/acre to get a contractor in to subsoil, plough and reseed.
It sounds like we’re planning a grazing platform for dairy cows where op would get the investment back.

I know of a spot that horses had ruined so they ploughed and reseeded it. turned horses back onto it and its worse than ever

Op get a sheep farmer to graze it for a while

patsy_mccabe

What is it about the horses that destroy it? Is it the dunging in the one spot?
Their dung seems to be a very poor fertiliser, so do they take more out of the grazed grass (P & K etc) than cattle or sheep do?

_Brian

I says wrote: »

Great advice for every farmer on here that aren’t dairy farmers

I’d love the place ploughed and reseeded, but returns on beef farming and small scale don’t justify the spend.

wrangler

ganmo wrote: »

I know of a spot that horses had ruined so they ploughed and reseeded it. turned horses back onto it and its worse than ever

Op get a sheep farmer to graze it for a while

Yea, I mentioned sheep too, I wouldn't mind meeting some one local with a couple of overgrown acres for my weaned ewes, I can assure you I'd leave it cleaned up...this year especially

TheFarrier

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

What is it about the horses that destroy it? Is it the dunging in the one spot?
Their dung seems to be a very poor fertiliser, so do they take more out of the grazed grass (P & K etc) than cattle or sheep do?

They dig up ground too, I’ve never seen cattle to gallop and buck and sliding stops like horses do. As well as that most other animals are managed better, a lot of the time horses are only moved off of land when they have total sh!t made of it

Hard Knocks

wrangler wrote: »

Yea, I mentioned sheep too, I wouldn't mind meeting some one local with a couple of overgrown acres for my weaned ewes, I can assure you I'd leave it cleaned up...this year especially

How many would to put to an acre?

wrangler

Hard Knocks wrote: »

How many would to put to an acre?

In a normal year about 30/acre would be good enough to maintain them, this year has broke all the guidelines, there's 70 here on half an acre at the moment getting .7kg meal. hoping they're getting enough fibre from the ditches

Reggie.

Keepgrowing wrote: »

STOP, please

1 soil sample
2 roundup
3 sub soil

There’s no other animal besides perhaps elephants to compact ground like a horse.

Do not reseed till you subsoil

Most land this year is subsoiling itself id say