Restoring Ungrazed Land

Can sheep get red water? If so, be mindful of that on old pastures.

Would you follow with slurry / lime?

Done that this year .Neighbour leased a farm couple of years ago which had a 12 acre field which was left ungrazed for a number of years .He tried grazing it with cattle but didn't really clear it off plus nice bit of ragworth in it .It's rough enough ground between wet spots and rock outcrops .

I took c.400 ewes off green cover they had finished after Christmas and put them on it for 5 weeks .

Let's just say there ain't a lot of grass left on it now .He is gonna clean it up best as he can ,give it a shot of lime and slurry and see if what comes back is OK for cattle.Not really feasible to reseed it properly .

It's this sort of thing:

Think of a giant hedge cutter flail head, it shreds everything into tiny bits which decompose into the soil quite quickly.

That's mighty. Would it be overkill for a badly grazed field? The topper doesn't get down far.

Load of goats OP.

The place would be stinking though

The slower the tractor speed the better. It’s good to do same the following year too. Sadly it doesn’t take them long to get a hold and a nice while to weaken

you may rememember some time ago i was thinking of approaching a man on a landed esteste, the front lawns (70-80 acres) were never grazed for a few winters and summers. i had a chat and offered 5k and we looked at what improvments could be made , drainage , fencing etc, i wanted the security of 15 year lease though. all was going well and i thought i was on a winner, however he decided to rewild instead. this mans family got a bad doing over the years on their lands with unpaid rents, i think this is what happened with the lawn areas. anyway would have been a lovely project but i went teaching full time soon after anyway, would have been nice if not tied to a day job.

I thought my land was bad until I see that Kev. 😁😁. Jesus 20 acres will be a massive change. Is that a Major Cyclone ?

I was at the same three weeks ago and it's so satisfying.

Will you add lime / soil conditioner?

I think cattle slurry. I was warned not to spread pig slurry on hungry ground. If it’s anything like here the top soil maybe thin and it could be best to nurish rather than break the crust. The WBC was rotivated here and is very spongy compared to rest

Sure go as soon as possible providing the grass isnt long enough to be also weedwiped

One very simple and cheap way to plan an improvement on land, is simply look over the ditch at the land next door. If it's the same vein of land, then you know what you can achieve over time.

You have to have a certain % of ground as space for nature. If your planner has that ground as that % then you can't touch.

You'd know other schemes hen harrier, etc if you are in them that you couldn't touch.

K only N will benefit rushes, P is too soliable and gets washed away easy. I be using 18-6-12 next spring, little and often depending on soil test results. Just keep it topped then

IIf The PH is low I would consider granlime or growmax. That type of ground. Can be hard to get ordinary line onto

Ya if you rise the ph, P&K become.more available Growmax is a hydrated lime in granular form

Yes, just keep all the windows shut on the tractor…..