The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: nakbrooks on June 22, 2014, 07:13:34 pm
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I'm trying to rejuvenate a 3 acre meadow I bought last year - just for amenity use, no immediate intention to graze.
When I bought it the whole area was covered in brambles up to 6ft high (the land had been abandoned for at least 10 years). The former owner had a local farmer cut it back with a flail prior to sale to me. The brambles have started to come back but mostly it is now just long poor quality grass with various weeds.
I went over it again with a Wessex AF-120 flail, behind my Quad. I am left with a lot of semi-mulched dry cuttings and the underlying ground is pretty lumpy.
I was thinking of getting a harrow that I can tow behind my ATV (a Yamaha Grizzly 550, about 35HP). I am hoping regular use of this will gradually get the land back into shape.
I am confused as to the range of harrows available (spring tine, weeder, chain, etc). Examples are here: http://www.atvattachments.uk.com/spring-tine-harrows-94-c.asp (http://www.atvattachments.uk.com/spring-tine-harrows-94-c.asp)
What should I be looking for?
Ploughing and re-seeding isn't an option - there is very limited access and the land is on a fairly steep slopre (which was why it was abandoned and why I got it cheaply).
Thanks
Nigel
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Chain harrow is what you want. But it will only really be effective when there is little grass on. They have little effect in long grass and if there is mulch from flaiail mowing they will just clog up and drag it into big lumps. Sheep are one of the best things for tidying rough areas. Have you considered fencing it and getting someone to put some sheep in for a while.
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It's all arable near me so don't think I'll be able to get any sheep on the land. I can get the grass quite short with the flail mower but will need to find a way of collecting the cuttings before using a chain harrow. I was hoping a tine harrow could serve double duty, firstly raking up the cuttings then harrowing, but sounds like I need separate pieces of kit.
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you could just cut the field fairly short now and then just continue mowing pretty short regularly, this way the material on top mulches down and rots away so you get a nice short field without much on top ready for a good chain harrowing. at my school they run the 6ft topper on the back of the MF135 over the main sports field pretty short every week or so and the result is a nice field with hardly anything on top.
this does of course take longer before you can get the harrow on it but it is cheaper and simpler
Cheers Ed