Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: 10 acres of grass to cut!  (Read 6249 times)

bumpkins

  • Joined Apr 2013
  • North Petherton, Somerset
  • Don't wait for your ship to come in-swim out to it
10 acres of grass to cut!
« on: June 01, 2013, 09:40:26 pm »
Hello everyone :wave:
We are just about to move to Caithness in Scotland and will have 10 acres to deal with.  At the moment, it is mostly grass and the ground is very hilly and rocky.  In time, we have decided to keep Alpacas. The grass is about 2ft long and really clumpy as it hasn't been properly looked after for a long time; what would be the best thing to cut it with? I don't think that a quad bike with a grass cutting attachment will be quite man enough for the job.  What would be the next best thing?
If anyone has any ideas, please give me a clue!!  thank you very much.
Catherine

lachlanandmarcus

  • Joined Aug 2010
  • Aberdeenshire
Re: 10 acres of grass to cut!
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2013, 10:20:58 pm »
Cattle to eat the long stuff down, and then sheep from then on to keep it in check, I reckon...

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: 10 acres of grass to cut!
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2013, 01:52:53 pm »
Local farmer with a tractor and heavy duty topper could take down that length and the thick basal tussocks: the very thing done on two sections of my land last year. It's taken all the lumps out of those two field areas and left it mowable for hay this year.
One was a steepish slope - some 10 acres that had been left to itself for several years and the tussocks were so thick i expected it'd take heavier stuff that that to do it but it worked well. the other section was a mixture of tussocks and hundreds of 2-3 year old weed trees - again a heavy duty topper shredded the lot.

spandit

  • Moderator
  • Joined Mar 2013
  • East Sussex
    • Sussex Forest Garden
Re: 10 acres of grass to cut!
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2013, 02:08:53 pm »
I wonder what the going rate for topping a 5 acre paddock is?
sussexforestgarden.blogspot.co.uk

suziequeue

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Llanidloes; Powys
Re: 10 acres of grass to cut!
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2013, 02:31:23 pm »
Our land in Wales was a bit like that. The grass hadn't been touched for years.


Very steep hill - couldn't get a topper on it. Sheep have transformed it and now it is meadow-like (ish)
We do the best we can with the information we have

When we know better we do better

bumpkins

  • Joined Apr 2013
  • North Petherton, Somerset
  • Don't wait for your ship to come in-swim out to it
Re: 10 acres of grass to cut!
« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2013, 12:32:26 pm »
Thank you all very much for taking the trouble to share your ideas!

Dan

  • The Accidental Smallholder
  • Administrator
  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Carnoustie, Angus
    • The Accidental Smallholder
    • Facebook
Re: 10 acres of grass to cut!
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2013, 12:38:35 pm »
Agree with lachlanandmarcus - a couple of Shetland cattle followed by sheep.  :)

JEP

  • Joined Oct 2011
Re: 10 acres of grass to cut!
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2013, 09:00:20 pm »
another suggestion would be to cut it for silage as it might be long enough and then you will also have some forage for winter time

HenLivingstone

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: 10 acres of grass to cut!
« Reply #8 on: June 06, 2013, 01:49:13 pm »
I wonder what the going rate for topping a 5 acre paddock is?

We're in Hampshire and have just paid £25/hour for harrowing and topping.  The guy spent under three hours on site and time off site swapping the attachments and charged us £75. That was for around 4 acres so I guess a bit more for steep/remote/really unkempt land.

Still playing with tractors

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Cumbernauld
  • You can never have enough HP
Re: 10 acres of grass to cut!
« Reply #9 on: June 12, 2013, 01:13:10 pm »
Sounds no good for silage, but sheep and goats do a good job, a flail would be best if its not too rough or steep.

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS