[JMB]

Hello. I hope this is not a stupid question.
Our bottom field had extremely long grass. It grew when we weren't looking.
It's now too long to cut with our sit on mower.
If we ignore it, will it die back in the winter and be ok for next year? Or will we need to cut it this year?
Thank you
Joanne xxxx

[SallyintNorth]

It's best cut or eaten off.  Can you get some cattle onto it?

[sss]

or speak to a local who has a tractor mower

[Backinwellies]

Definitely needs removing so get cows in or do what we did last year .... cut and risk bailing .... you will either have some usable bedding, maybe some edible hay or just a pile of compost .... but field will benefit greatly.

We were VERY lucky baled on 1st Sept in Wales and were able to feed to cows quite happily.

[JMB]

Thank you for your replies.
I'll have a chat with a local farmer and see if his cows fancy moving in for a bit
J xxxxx

[farmvet]

ponies?

[Stereo]

Can I ask why it needs mowing? I grew up on a big farm and never really understood the obsession with keeping the grass short for the winter. Surely leaving it long over the winter would keep the soil warmer and give you a deeper root structure for drainage. An early spring mow or hard graze would allow those roots to rot back, adding lots of OM to the soil and give the grass an early boost when the sun comes out?

[devonlad]

There are lots of reasons why leaving grass too grow long is a problem. Long grass turns "stemmy" which is unpalatable and lacking in nutrition- it is the leaf of grass not the stem that is nutritious.  Long grass tends to end up falling flat unable to maintain its stem strength and this dead and dying off grass covers the surface with "thatch" whilst this dead organic matter has the potential to ultimately become humus and feed subsequent crops if there is too much it simply suffocates the ground beneath it, not only creating large bare patches beneath but also creating warm pockets where pests such as slugs for example can safely spend the winter all snug and warm. the shadier conditions at ground level which long grass provides are also conditions in which unwelcome weeds often thrive better than more welcome grasses.
grass is a crop that benefits from regular cutting/or grazing enabling it to thicken up and provide a thick sward of young nutritious leaf.
A field that has been undergrazed and left to grow long on a regular basis will become patchy and weed infested

[Stereo]

I get that and I suppose our obsession with Rye is the problem as it can't stand up on it's own. But I still think that most farmers do not give grass adequate rest periods and certainly don't let it grow long enough. The root length of a grass plant usually mirrors the height above ground. So, if you constantly graze your grass right down, the roots never get deep. This aids compaction and also reduces the drainage potential of the ground. Letting your grass grow higher lets those roots go deeper and you still have a lot of leaf on the top. OK, letting it go too far is not a good thing. Grazing hard in taller grass does 3 things. It provides nutrition for the animal from the leaf of the grass. The stems are trampled and mulched back into the soil giving you plenty of humus as you say and all of this means you end up with a shorter plant which means those long roots die back to match and provide a huge amount of composting OM deep in the soil.

I suppose we are talking about extremes and I take your points. You can't just let it go. But I am convinced that most farmers graze too soon, not hard enough and don't leave enough rest. Better to get to that sweet spot and hit the grass hard with lots of animals for a short time and then be gone.

[devonlad]

you're dead right. over grazing or cutting too tight also creates problems, ideally cow grazing is at 6-7 cms height and sheep 4cms. any lower than this and the animal cannot get a good enough mouthful with each bite, has to take more bites and walk further thus expending more energy. also the plants get damaged as you suggest, particularly the Stolons which are responsible for the grass branching out and becoming a thick dense sward. I work in grassland management and spend much of my working life trying to persuade farmers to regard a grass crop with as much attention and care as they readily lavish on more "expensive crops" such as maize, wheat etc. there is a tendency to regards grass as simply a matter of fact rather than realising that it is the single most important crop grown in this country and requires proper management at every level

[Dreich Pete]

A slightly odd question, but may be pertinent here: how tall can the grass be when cutting with a topper? My logic tells me that if the grass is 3-4' (like mine) a topper would simply flatten it and not be able to cut. Am I missing something in how it all works or is there an upper limit to what a topper can manage? Also, does it mulch the grass too? It's looking like I'll have to manual rake it into rows but if it's cut into tiny pieces then raking will be a nightmare.

I hope this adds to this thread.

[pgkevet]

I've n;y been playing with land for this third year (so hardly an expert). But my own topper is adjustable..although it'd be a right pain to lower it on it's skids, the holes are there. As sold it cuts about 2 inches or so but will hapily go through kneww high dense grass behind my 43Hp or tackle 7foot bracken. The end results depends on density of sward and initial height. On short stuff what coe sout is pretty short..on tall stuff it comes out in probbaly 6 in length but on dense stuff it tends to clear itself with chunkcs as long as it was i.e very variable. neighbour farmer rented a heavy durty topper to tckle my neglected hil slpe the first year ..that happily flattened everything from thick high tussocks to cutting of the tops of old ruts and chopped it all inot 4/5 inch bits.

If your filed is smooth enough to use a mowing machine then it'd obviosuy take it off full length and then you could use machiney to row it up instead of raking by hand - all depending on how much land you have and what you want to achieve. You can of course put finishing mowers and mulching decks on these things too.

[devonlad]

certainly wouldn't be looking to top at that height as you've deduced- although higher than perfect for grazing what I said previously was really the text book answer to optimum grass height for grazing and not set in stone= no such thing as perfect in farming i'd say.. in a well managed grazing rotation grass of that height would be a signal that its time to get something in there. our grass at home veers from being severely under grazed to the opposite. Although we have lots of grass in some fields- prob too much. we need to keep the just weaned lambs well away rom mums so they are in a fairlt bare over grazed patch being supplemented with creep and hay.
leaving cutting to mulch down is all well and good but too much of it causes problem as stated earlier. also the rate at which any given field can process organic material such as roots and dead or cut grass depends hugely on the soil structure,, compaction and ph in that field. put simply, a field with good open soil structure without compaction and of a ph of 6-7 will provide better conditions for worms and microbial life to function and organic matter will be broken down by them that jmuch quicker

[shygirl]

we had this situation last year, as we had rented out a field for 9 mths and the tenant never grazed it. we manage to put the cows in for a week which helped a bit and then it wasnt grazed til early spring. it actually coped fine, and the grass this year has been ok. i was expecting long rank flat grass but its ok.

[Stereo]

There are some expert graziers out there who recommend once in a while just locking up a field for a year. I think Greg Judy was one I heard it from. Just let it go, give it a rest and then top it hard in early spring. The thing is that grass will out-compete most things so if weeds are a problem, looking after your grass will at least mitigate your problems. We've got creeping thistle and I've noticed that where I have put up a poultry net for 6 months and let the grass grow with the chickens in there, the small thistles have all but gone. A few big ones needed culling in late June as they flower earlier down here but there is no carpet of little ones like the rest of the field. It will be interesting to let the sheep on there to graze it off and see what happens next year.