Pasture renovation maintenance notes
The following is designed to try and help you improve or renovate an existing grass pasture or paddock.
This should nearly always be the first thing to try and if successful you may only lose the field for a season rather than for a year if you sow a completely new ley.
The easiest and cheapest way to improve a pasture is just to rest it for one season. Make sure you split your grazing field into sections so that each part has at least a season to recover every 1 or 2 years.
If you need to reseed then check a few things first.
- Does the drainage need improving. If the problem is that the field keeps getting waterlogged then buying seed will not overcome this problem
- Is there enough fertility in the soil. Have you done a soil test recently or ever?
- Has the field been taken over by weeds such as docks, nettles etc. Controlling these in some way before sowing grass needs to be part of the process or you may find this problem worse rather then better.
Look to renovate the field in either the spring or autumn.
- Cut the grass back as short as possible.
- Chain harrow the ground hard to create a bit of a seed bed.,
- Sow or broadcast a horse paddock renovation seed mix
- Roll the field afterwards.
If need be apply some seedbed fertiliser to encourage new grass to grow.
Ideally you need to be able to keep the horses of this section for at least one season
If you need any more information or advice then please feel free to contact us
