[CarolineJ]

It's been empty for 2 years and had cattle on it continuously for I don't know how many years before that.  It's poached to bits and there's a BIG rush problem, plus it's the source of all the village's ragwort problems.  Only the top 5th is currently accessible with machinery and to be honest with all the lumps, bumps and large rocks lying around, I don't think anyone would be willing to take a tractor in there and mow off all the rushes.

A neighbour asked if he could borrow it for a month, so it had 30 sheep and 20 lambs on it during May, which has helped a lot (you can now see where all the lumps and bumps are and walk round it with less risk of spraining an ankle).  I have a brushcutter, a couple of horses who will eat rushes when they're young and growing, and by the end of the summer should have 20+ sheep. 

It's six acres and I would estimate that about half of it is covered in rushes.  If I hack all the old ones down with the brushcutter and keep it grazed quite closely, will that improve it over the coming years? 

Top corner - will be applying for planning permission to put an agricultural storage building up against those trees.  (I live in the white house in the background!)


Top section - rush city.


The wall is about as far as you can get with a tractor


The bottom section.  That is a steeper slope than it looks in the picture and those rushes are waist height on me (I'm 5'5").


Cocker spaniel included for scale!

[waterbuffalofarmer]

It might be worth using a topper to get rid of the rushes? Correct me am wrong please someone. How wet is it? The plcae you live looks gorgeous by the way

[hexhammeasure]

get a flame gun and burn the rush tufts down then try and get a harrow through them

[CarolineJ]

Most of it is pretty dry at the moment apart from one small section that's still squelching underfoot and has in fact grown a nice patch of bog cotton!

I can't get a harrow or a topper below that wall, so 4/5ths of the field is inaccessible to machinery.

[Buttermilk]

I would strip graze the horses if they will eat rushes.  Do not give them more than a yard full width of the field, you will have to pull the ragwort out of each new section by hand.  Once they are far enough down the field put a back fence up.

I did this for two years on my rushy fields then I strip grazed the sheep first followed by the horses for the following year.  Now it is fenced into paddocks and the sheep are set stocked by rotatation and the horses are still strip grazed due to waistline issues.

As the field is a mess now make sure each section is well grazed before moving the fence.  I would also consider using a quad bike to do any landwork instead of trying to use a tractor on the slope.

[oor wullie]

Cutting them will weaken them and make them easier to cut next time.
Rushes prefer acid soil so raising the ph should also weaken them.
Improving the drainage will also help.
None if the above will be an instant fix - look on it as a long term project to get ontop of them.

You might be surprised where a brave driver will take a tractor and flail mower!

[Marches Farmer]

Might be worth getting a subsoiler on the top 5th to improve the drainage.  You could perhaps keep it closely grazed over late Summer, whilst first spraying the ragwort with Grazon Pro or similar or hand-pulling with gloves on.  A chain harrow would get rid of the worst of the clumps - maybe do it twice ....?

[Foobar]

You need to understand where your water is coming from and going to first - if you have a drainage issue then you need to deal with that before anything else.  Also you need to dig some pits and look at your soil - is it compacted?


I have fields that look like this (and worse) - drainage ditches are being done now, then the rushes will be topped, then the land will be mole ploughed.  It's only just come dry enough to get a digger and tractor round it.   Once that's done I will start a management regime on the rushes - either cutting or weed wiping.


If your ground is compacted then beware that having horses on it will not help with that at all.

[Hellybee]

Looking to the future, plant some trees.

[Fleecewife]

Looking to the future, plant some trees.

Could you go with it to some extent?  Trees such as willow and alder will help suck up some of the moisture from the worst areas, and give you sticks and firewood, and pollen and nectar for early bees.  If you eventually get fed up with the trees they are easy to remove.
I agree about improving the drainage and raising the pH.  Another way to check if you have acid soil (in addition to the presence of rushes) is to dig some test holes and see if you have a healthy earthworm population.  Once the drainage and pH are sorted, the worms will come back and help to deal with compaction.  The cattle which were on it until recently will have ruined the normal soil structure.

We have found that the only really successful way to get rid of ragwort is to pull it by hand.  It takes a few years to get it under control, but then you'll find you just get a few a year.  The rest of the village will thank you for the hard work, plus you will be fulfilling your legal obligation to deal with the stuff.  6 acres seems a daunting area, but if you mentally divide it into smaller sections to attack per day, you will soon get on top of the problem without heavy machinery or chemicals.

[Penninehillbilly]

If you can't get machinery down there I'd suggest an 'Allen type' mower, we have cultivator with cutter bar attachment,  (sometimes called scythe bar). Good for tidying all sorts of areas.
Maybe people in the village will help you pull the ragwort? Have a ragwort party :-). (But don't barbecue the ragwort  ).
Presume you know not to leave pulled ragwort lying in the field.

[CarolineJ]

Thanks, all 

Yes, all ragwort gets incinerated - I've been pulling the results of this field going to seed out of my own for several years...

I would love to have more trees in it, but the prevailing wind goes straight down that hill and hits over 100mph in winter, the only trees that have survived on it are right down at the bottom.  Those ones in the first picture (which are a neighbour's) have taken about 15 years to get to 8 feet or so.  We're trying to grow a hedge at home and the oldest surviving plants are now about 2.5ft after three years.  I'll take some cuttings from ours this autumn and give it a go!

[SallyintNorth]

If it's exposed and windy, don't forget that reshes are great shelter for sheep and lambs

[Fleecewife]

Willows tend not to mind wind, until they have grown tall when they fall, but even on the ground they will grow extra roots and make a new thicket.
For growing a hedge, it really is worth investing in a protective length of windbreak - the green stuff.  We find, as you do, that it takes about twice as long for hedges to get established as it does in England, but once they get their feet down they seem tougher for it     We also plant hawthorn on the upwind side of the hedge, then more varied species on the inside of the double row.  Once it gets going, the hawthorn protects the more interesting stuff from the wind.

[CarolineJ]

Yes, we've got green windbreak behind the one we're growing at home