The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: northern crofter on January 03, 2014, 10:03:33 pm
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Advice required please!
I am getting a contractor to plough and prepare a 4 acre section of field to sow grass for horses (to graze only)
I am in the Highlands, near Inverness and am looking for best advice on best timing for sowing as well as the toughest wearing, nutritious grass to use.
I have had soil samples taken so I know that lime & general fertiliser are also required.
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Avoid perennial ryegrass and get a meadow seed mix specifically for horses with herbs etc Ryegrass is too rich for horses and can cause laminitis.
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Horse paddocks are best with limited or no ryegrass as stated. Get lots of fescue (hard wearing and comes back when eaten), Timothy (safe for lami and loved by horses) and some clover. Ideally of course they are better in non seeded pasture with all the variety that brings but that's not always poss.
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Most of the seed companies do mixes for horses. We've used Barenbrug mixes with success in teh past.
http://www.barenbrug.co.uk/horse-paddock-and-pasture-grass-seed.asp (http://www.barenbrug.co.uk/horse-paddock-and-pasture-grass-seed.asp)
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what type of horses do you have? alot of laminitis could be avoided by changing the type of grass in a field.
try contacting a few companies on-line - they usually have good advice for free.
www.cotswoldseeds.com (http://www.cotswoldseeds.com)
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Time wise the best time would be in spring- March. To get it in before winter it needs to go in end of October latest. Have you got any sheep that can graze it before the horses go in? Or can you take a cut of haylage off? Horses will trash it quickly, it needs to get a good footing before you allow horses to graze it.
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Time wise the best time would be in spring- March. To get it in before winter it needs to go in end of October latest. Have you got any sheep that can graze it before the horses go in? Or can you take a cut of haylage off? Horses will trash it quickly, it needs to get a good footing before you allow horses to graze it.
Yes we do have some sheep that we were planning to let on 1st to graze it down. We were not planning to allow the horses near it until the following summer at the earliest to allow the grass root system time to establish.
In the meantime they will be confined to the other half of the field on very limited grazing, so it will be a year of feeding hay / haylage to supplement.
Thanks for all the feedback so far, let's just hope for a dry(ish) February/ March to get the ground ready for attack mode!!
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Do you really have to plough? The reason I live near what was set a side, the last time it was harvested for barley it was left, not sprayed or ploughed. Over a season it sowed its self with native grasses which until three years ago it was just left and then with the hay shortage its been sprayed in spring and then cut for hay and they have really good yields.
I would just harrow it and get someone to over sow with grass mix, this will give you a good mix of grasses some of which will be naturally suited to your land. It means if you do this in spring that you can put livestock on it May or June. Unless you want rye grass for cattle this will be far better grazing and better for wildlife. I have done this and been very pleased with the results my ponies had grass until December and it was still growing when I brought them in because of the wet. Grass seed is not .cheap.