[Vickyb]

HI
I have just acquired a small tractor with topper and have topped about an acre of my field. it hasn't been cut all year, as we didn't have any equipment, so as you can probably imagine there is lots of grass to be collected and it is all quite long.

How do you all collect up these grass cuttings? Is it OK to leave them where they are over winter?

I've manually raked up about an 8th of the field and put the cuttings into the compost pile. Is there a more efficient and quicker way of doing this using my tractor?

thanks in advance for your help

[Fleecewife]

If you have a rake for your tractor, you can use that to scrape the cut grass to one side, then into a pile and let it compost down.  If you have a tedder you could turn the grass every dry day until it dries and shrinks then let it rot.  You could just let it all rot down where it is and the new season grass will grow through. Because it was topped and not mown, the bits of grass will be small not the full length as when growing.
Someone else will be along to tell you which is best for your meadow (we have done all in the past, with no obvious long term difference in outcome)
With a bit more equipment you could mow the field and make your own hay (Mower or scythe, tedder, baler or an army of friends with pitchforks and string to make stooks)

[sandspider]

You can get balers and grass collectors, but I think both are quite pricey. I've gathered mine with a rake before, but aim to try chain harrows this year - not quite sure how well that will work as I'm not sure whether the harrows will let go of the grass again once they've collected it!
Leaving the grass to rot won't hurt (paddock may get a bit tussocky and thatchy in time), unless you're trying to encourage wild flowers - these prefer lower fertility so it's better to remove the cuttings.

[Fleecewife]

[member=145259]sandspider[/member] chain harrows will work at a pinch as long as you have a 3 point to lift them to shake off the grass. We have done that before we had a spring tine rake. I would imagine it would work better with topped grass than mown.

[Vickyb]

Thank you.
I'm going to have to hand rake it but our friendly farmer has offered to pick it up with his baler.
Going to look to get a belt rake for next year. Anyone used one? Are they any good.

[Backinwellies]

You wont need to pick it up next year ..... just top regularly like mowing a lawn ..... small amounts of grass will happily rot down .......  or get a few sheep!

[Penninehillbilly]

Why not advertise it for summer grazing for next year? In fact there would probably be people glad of it now.