Grass - when does it .....

happyhacker101

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Mar 19, 2007
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:eek: Start to recover after winter?. We've always kept our ponies at livery but were lucky enough to buy some land and now keep them at home. This will be their first winter here and the field is a mess - the soil is clay and is just a huge mud bath in places. I'm trying my best to keep them off the muddy bits - no mud fever but it's always at the back of my mind. I can rent a field off the farmer if i need to for extra grazing but i just wondered what sort of recovery time I'm looking at?. Thanks
 
All fields are different. Because this is your first year you arent really gonna know. My grass is starting to grow already. The horses are leaving their hay left out in the day and at night. :)
 
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I swear my grass started growing in the "rested" section of my paddock a few weeks ago - I reckon its all the mild wet weather we've had and it thinks its spring already.
 
Grass grows at temperatures above 6 degrees, so I s'pose that means its growing most of the time, just not very much at the moment! Really depends on where you are but I don't reckon you'll see it coming back properly til we're into March at least.
 
My fields are on good old Essex clay. It does get very wet and sticky and deep in places in the winter, and bakes bone hard in the summer.

I have enough land to spread the poaching, but the grass does disappear in certain places this time of the year.

We wait until it dries out a bit more towards Spring, then my husband harrows it to knock the rough ridges flat. We only ever roll the very worst bits, because if you continually roll the ground, then it compacts down even more and this makes the drainage even worse, so you shouldn't do this on clay type soil.

I sweep my hay seeds up when the horses have finished their hay in the shelters, and also from my hay shed, then I spread these seeds out on the bare bits - don't know if it does any good, but certainly doesn't hurt the field.

If your field is very bad, you may have to fence some off and re-seed. The problem is, although the grass does grow back, so do the weeds with a vengeance, especially if there isn't a good thick grass (sward) to help keep the weeds away. You may notice that grass continues to grow all through winter, depending on the temperature. I think grass stops growing when the temperature is below 7 degrees???

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks - I'd heard something about grass growing when it gets to 6 degrees - its just that it looks such a mess at the moment its hard to imagine it ever growing back again!. Of course when it does start to grow - the panic will start with Robbie having had lami with previous owners - oh the fun never stops does it!.
 
Clay soil can be a nightmare can't it? It needs more management that 'good soil' and should be rolled in the sping to level it. Your friendly local farmer will probably do that for you. If its not rolled, all of the lumps and bumps in the clay dry hard and it can become dangerious for the horses (not to mention very difficult for the humans!).

I can't remember how quickly the grass comes back in to be honest, so can't help there.


Edited to say: I bow to doris's more expert knowledge regarding which bits need harrowing and which bits need rolling - I haven't had my own place, just been on a livery yard with it!
 
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My grass is starting to come up (chalk ground) ... You can see it very clearly in the rested paddocks, but even the used paddocks are suddenly looking greener!
 
Thanks - the lumps and bumps aren't too bad - its more the pools of water that are the problem!, I asked one of the guys how much it would cost to sort out the drainage and he said that 5k would cover a cheap fix! I'd hate a quote for an expensive fix!!!
 
I don't know about my expert knowledge, but I have tripped and ricked my ankle a few times before we got into the harrowing thing. Harrowing will generally by OK for most rough bits, but if there are very deep holes, you may need to roll a little bit.

I did do a certain amount of land use learning whilst studying at Writtle college and I think the rolling clay soil flattens the 'platelets' or something and sort of damages the soil, although some of this went over my head as it got a bit scientific - but I am glad of the knowledge now.
 
Does anyone else have mole hills to contend with? They seem to avoid the paddock being grazed but appear everywhere on the rested paddocks - blinking moles. This spring will be the first time I've had to harrow/ roll them myself - will this help sort out the mole hills too?
 
Harrowing should help. Ive got mole hills too and giant rabbit warrens - am mioving to a place which has been left alone for 30 years.....am having to use tractor to move soil to fill in the rabbit warrens :eek: and dont want to cos its a grass sickness higher risk area so would prefer not to disturb the soil too much, but the blinkin moles are digging it up all over!!!!
:mad:
 
I'm on a very clay clay soil and my grass is growing but then the weather has been unseasonably mild this winter.

The trouble is that it isn't growing fast enough so when you move the horses onto a new bit it doesn't take long for them to munch it down and leave it bare which is just awful when it rains.

I have 5 acres and took the decision not to have more than 3 horses on it. I'm glad I did although could ideally do with only 2 on there! :rolleyes:

I can't wait for the growth to really pick up speed again to make my winter paddock look less like a mud bath :)
 
Blinkin moles - what makes me cross is they have a perfectly good lawn in the garden which OH has preened to use parts to practice golf (!!) to go and ruin and they choose my paddock instead !!
 
we've got moles too - the houses that back onto my field employed a mole man to remove them from their nice gardens and where have they ended up!! - they're a pain but so cute too!. As long as they keep to one bit of the field - I shall leave them in peace - am I deluding myself.:D
 
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