Re-seeding ...by hand???

[janette carter]

Well the question is in the title really. Has anyone ever tried this and is it at all successfull or will I be wasting my money?

A year on I have looked after my one acre DIY paddock the best I can daily or twice daily poo picking, resting one half, strip grazing etc. but it is starting to look pretty horse sick despite pony only being out on it for approx. 5 hours daily during the winter. There are bare patches, loads of moss, weeds (including a smothering expanse of yarrow) and of course ragwort. I don't want to get paranoid about it, I don't need masses of lush grass for a haflinger after all, but without some sort of action surely the pasture which is on mainly very sandy soil will just get wrecked eventually.

So far I have dug up and Barrier H'd the ragwort. I've fertilised one half of it by hand with a non nitrogen organic fertiliser(Simple Systems) and now am wondering about the feasibility of spreading grass seed by hand to improve the pasture quality but will it just get eaten by the birds or just blow away in the wind.

There is a possibility someone may be coming in to harrow the paddocks which will help with the moss etc. and would open up the soil a bit for the grass seed to get a hold maybe but would this be enough? And is harrowing going to mess up what little grass growth I have at the moment? I've already spent £55.00 on the Barrier H, £40.00 on fertiliser and it will probably be something in the region of £50/60 for the grass seed. I'm not too happy about spending anymore on land that isn't mine in the end (I'm not sure if we are going to have to pay for the harrowing yet...) and on something that just may not work if not applied properly.

Any ideas/advice/ thoughts peoples??

[Wally]

Have you thought about liming. Lime would get rid of the moss and make it a better grass environment.

I would get a soil sample anylised by the local agricultrural college. You'll need to get the contractors in for liming, we have to put on about 3 tonned per acre, more if we can.

If the soil is in bad condition the grass seedwon't take. add lime and you may not even have to re seed yourself.

[Lucyad]

Well, I did seed my 1/2 acre back lawn by hand - it took ages and a lot of seed! I paced up and down scattering it. it worked fine. I used far more seed that the recommended ammount though, and it was a bit patchy at the edges where I hadnt put as much down.

[KarinUS]

I live in a different region of the world so my advice may not be applicable to your situation but here it is:
* when you do rotational grazing, how long do you let the unused portion rest? I would give it at least 4 weeks. We divided our field into 4 sections. One is a sacrifice area that's always open and the other 3 get switched around for 2 weeks each, giving each of the 3 sections 4 weeks off before being used again.
* winter/drought/etc.: during times of drought or when no new growth happens it may be necessary to confine to the sacrifice area
* 1 acre is very small. I don't think I could do a rotational program on a 1 acre piece. It would be much too small. But perhaps you have lots mroe rain where you are and grass grows really quickly?
* yes, you can seed the grass by hand. But afterwards you will need to keep your horse off for quite a while to let the roots establish etc. For us that means a minimum of 8 weeks off for 'improved' grasses and a whole growing season (spring through fall) for the native grasses.

To be honest if all I had was 1 acre I would probably have to face it (where we are) that it will be more of an exercise paddock rather than true grazing area because it would be overgrazed way too quickly. Even with new grass seeds, if you overgraze again the weeds will get the upper hand again.

[eventerbabe]

yes, i seeded our 1 acre paddock by hand when that was all the grazing we had. I roughed up the areas i wanted to seed, spread the seed then applied Bod Ayre seaweed fertiliser (super stuff! can highly recomend it). i did then tramp back over the seed, mainly to stop the chickens from messing all my hard work up.......... i used to weed it by hand too. We were infested with pineapple weed but by airating the soil (digging/raking) and lots of seaweed fertiliser we got rid of it.

1 acre is very small. I don't think I could do a rotational program on a 1 acre piece. It would be much too small.
You can, but you have to be very diligent. No, it's not ideal but we were stuck with an acre for about a year and managed well. Field was split in 2, both neds in one piece, grazed that down, moved other ned to rested section and kept our muzzled laminitic in the grazed portion. One big ned had eaten down the rested patch, we'd move the laminitic in with him, then fertilise the grazed portion. Within about 4/5 weeks the grazed patch would be lush and green again. Takes some management but it is possible. There is an excellent book i was recomended when i first joined NR and was asking about grazing management. I'll see if i can find the title/author for you :)

[Jessey]

Yes it is worth doing, buying a spreader (a little trolly you drag along which spits it out) you will find it will be much more even and you will use less. Using seaweed fertilisers is also a gret idea, once applied it can keep working for years :D
Horse Keeping on a Small Acreage (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Horsekeeping-Small-Acreage-Facilities-Management/dp/0882665960/ref=sr_1_7/026-9026237-1722022?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175523403&sr=1-7) is a great book for figureing out the best way to manage small spaces :D
A 31 day rotation (in spring/summer/autum) is about the best for grass to grow and ensuring you keep the land weed free is also important to encourage the grass to grow. Harrowing will definatly help with the moss and should help let your seed get into the soil more, I would seed a few days after harrowing and just before rain is due if you can :p
We used to keep 3 on about 1.5 acres (sandy and very gravely ground, almost no soil) and always had grass, we did however have a sacrifice area as Karin does so that in winter they just had a muddy pen with lots of hay put in it, otherwise the whole lot ended up trashed and it was much harder to get it going again come spring.
Re the moss, if the harrowing guy doesn't make it you cn buy bags of 'lawn sand' from most garden centres pretty cheaply, spread that and it kills off weeds and moss and encourages grass growth :D

[eventerbabe]

that's the book, i'd a feeling it was you who'd recomended it :p

[janette carter]

Thank you all for replies. Feeling a bit more positive now with some more ideas to explore. Farmer/YO thinks I am slightly bonkers even to have applied a couple of bags of fertiliser Wally. The thought of telling him and imagining the look on his face that I'm considering putting three tonne of lime down is going to keep me sniggering all week. It's made me smile if nothing else. :) Definately going to get soil analysis done.

One girl last summer did try the rotational approach split paddock into four but she had two horses on it and it has really wrecked it. I'm resting one half for six weeks and then I was going to strip graze it down for a couple of months while I did the tlc bit to the other half. There won't be much point in strip grazing it though if there isn't any grass so maybe I need to start thinking about rotating it in quarters.

Am ordering book today from Amazon! It's all very interesting really as I have very little knowledge in pasture management and I guess you don't really get a chance in most livery yards to get this much control.

[becs]

We used to "broadcast" seed by hand - used leccy fence posts to mark the lines / rows as we went up & down. How well it took seemed to depend on weather & soil quality though.

[janette carter]

Can you graze horses on land immediately after liming Wally? And ditto lawn sand Jessey.....is it poisonous or anything.....sand colic maybe? Thinking about this logically as it is such a small area I could probably find quite a lot to help me in the lawn section of a garden centre.

[Jessey]

JC normally its about 2 weeks you keep them off it OR until it has rained heavily enough to water it in thoroughly. I don't think sand colic will be a worry you spread it in such a thin layer they would have a job eating it!