Say my name wrote: » Great news. Is this owned land or rented land?
wildlifeboy wrote: » any pictures would be good, can you create a few ponds too?
Muckit wrote: » Do you hope to turn a few pound on it?
80sDiesel wrote: » So signed on the dotted line for 26 acres . Hill farming area. It's a personal (expensive)hobby to get into a bit of nature farming. Whatever one could call it. Have 12 acres already which I started last year ( 600 trees , hay meadow, wildflowers) so know alot more now. Will update as I progress along so others thinking the same can learn . ( Possibly from my mistakes)
denismc wrote: » Great idea for a thread OP, can I ask are you currently involved in farming or are you just starting from scratch?
80sDiesel wrote: » So I am guessing for the first year to leave all alone. Plan is to walk the land every weekend to get a good understanding of the place. Found a spring that runs thru one field into the stream. Was built into one of the field walls. Local farmer had an Irish name for it. Might plant one or two oaks but having planted 600 odd on another farm I am over tree planting/pruning/mulching for the time being. Guessing I will try to sell sileage/hay come end of summer,let local farmer graze after and then sow some wildflowers. Fertility levels are going to be high so may wait a couple of years to sow. Keeping an eye on future glas grants.
Water John wrote: » Forget Teagasc make contact with one of the private consultants.http://www.aifc.ie/ Try and get references of jobs done and satisfied clients.
Any updates on this?
Blast from the past.
Finally paid off the place this year which now feels like mine!
So it's been just one cut a year to a local organic farmer and there has been no fert or animals on the land these last 3 years. Fertility is slowily reducing and I got rid by hand of the docks which just a few to tackle each year.
Have introduced yellow rattle to a trial field and this spring got a beautiful display of cuckoo flowers and plantain now is beginning to take hold.
Plan is to harvest more yellow rattle and spread it out to the other fields and then introduce other wildflowers from my other place.
Requires patience but knowing the long grass over summer is helping diversify is its reward in itself.
Have you joined the Organic farming scheme?
If you could put up photos that would be smashing. I remember your previous threads still,great photos.
I dont normally do photos in general as it never captures the moment
This is the nearest thing to what I am doing
I get what you're trying to do as in use it organically and diversify the sward, but why are you "waiting" for the fertility to drop as if that was a good thing?
Having a diverse sward and good fertility aren't mutually exclusive.
Most of my pastures are over 50 years old, (since ploughing or reseeding) I have very diverse swards, I'm organic since last year, but rather than trying to reduce fertility, I'm trying to increase it by applying lime, fym and bacteria.
If you're rewilding, then yes but you say you want to "farm" it and that you cut the fields once a year.
Why no animals?
Hi. The sileage is used by an organic farmer. I am just restoring it. It has had enough fert to last a decade so I am reducing the fertility level to knock back the coarse grass and encourage the finer grasses and wildflowers.
It's not a rewilding exercise. I have an acre set aside for that where I am letting the blacktho4n colonise. It's about restoring it to pre industrial farming purely for biodiversity.
Well you're on the right track with cutting it and putting nothing back to reduce fertility. That'll bring it right down quite quickly.
Pre industrial farming did include grazing animals and crops as you know and fym was always spread on the meadow fields in spring.
Your organic buddy if he's certified or in conversion should only buy on feed from a certified organic or in conversion farmer according to the rules, - this is just said to inform, not to nitpick.
Best of luck with your plan, it'll be interesting to see the results.
This is exactly what i experienced as a child, even the photos of the valley look almost identical to where i live.
These meadows have never been ploughed since then. Most of those grass species mentioned I still have despite bag fertiliser and slurry, but - both in moderation and no bag since 2021. The practice of cutting later and allowing the plants to head out which has been a side effect of lambing sheep in them every spring before silage cutting in late July has i think helped to preserve those species more than lack of fert.
I have a photo from last year I think and if I can find it I'll post it here.
Saw this set of pics today. Guy doing charcoal in a traditional way. Thought I'd put them here as he's another person in tune with his environment.
