[undergruntled]

Well, we have bought a new place, it has three and a half acres of unloved paddocks.  There are shoulder high thistles and other weeds, its is a bit horse sick as other people have been using it for ponies and not looking after it.  We don't have any equipment (bar a strimmer!) so once we have moved it,  we would get contractors in, but what I want to ask is if they top the field, how low does it get cut?  Do the weeds just get left or does it pick up what's cut down? I don't want to rake up three acres of nettles..  We will be putting our sheep on part of it, so we can't spray it all but what would be a sensible order of things to ask someone to do?  Top, harrow, spray?  Only got half an acre here so not too sure. 

[Young Ed]

topping will literally knock everything in it's path down and will cut through heavy brambles if faced with it, so in short topping is ruthless. the topper will be 3 point linkage mounted so basically it can be set to any height the 3 point will go to.

if you want to put sheep on it then select the area with least weeds and best grazing grass, then get contractor in to cut it down to about double the height you want to put the sheep on wait 2 or 3 weks and get contractor in to top again down to sheep grazing level. this way you don't have so much on top sheep can't get to proper grass and won't graze it.
at least this is what i would do for the sheep grazing part of it

when spraying it what are you hoping to achieve? kill off all weeds but not grass? kill off everything and then harrow and seed with god grass seed?

your best place to ask would be the contractors them selves, find a good reputable company who are dealing with it day in day out and they are most likely to be more than happy to give advice on a job they are doing
Cheers Ed