Serious lack of growth

canon5571

Hi all!
I am looking for land advice and going on previous posts I think i'm in the right spot!!
I have approx 10-12 acres that I only graze horses on. This ground I suppose would be marginal (with a nice crop of rushes). I have had horses since about 2000 and only ever kept 7/8 at a time. Ive never had any growth problems until about 2yrs ago. Since then growth has nearly been non existent. I never applied much land husbandry, I just let them in and graze it and move them on and in 3 or 4 weeks there would be a nice bit of picking in it. But in the last 2 years I started to be a bit tidier ie, topping it when they came off it, shaking a bit of fertiliser if it was ate really tight but its backwards the growth has gone.
I have some pictures so ye can see exactly what its like.











In contrast my neighbours field just across the ditch (not great either but a lot greener and more signs of growth) This ground doesnt get any attention at all really only a topping


And then my neighbour on the other side which tells its own story (in fairness this field was reseeded 10+ years ago


I was looking for any views and solutions (low cost) that ye may have.
Thanks in advance!

pakalasa

What kind of fertiliser did you spread?

moy83

You could get a soil sample taken just to make sure you are putting out the right type of fertilizer , looks like a bit of lime wouldnt go amiss . Reseeding a piece every year and it would improve it mighty

stanflt

look like its serious deficient in lime

p + k could also be an issue as well as sulphur

soil sample will sort you out and work from there-no point putting out nitrogen if the soil cant convert it-just my pennies worth

wiggy123

u need it grazed by shep/cattle.. horses will destroy lad..if grazed a lone.. i know!!!
gd go of slurry/dung..or lime on it! lacking p's + k's

scub

Looks similiar to my few acres that had horses on it for 10 odd years.

Grecco

I`d say the frost we got this winter played havoc with it as well, especially if the ground was let go poor and horses tend to graze right down to the soil, it wouldn't be able to recover as quick

canon5571

Thanks for all the replys folks!!
Im not up to well on all the farming terminology, but what do ye mean by p + k?
I only ever gave it a shot of nitrogen.
Would the gran lime do it or would i need to get the contractor in with the powder lime?
Ya I was thinking about reseeding a bit at a time, it would be the right job for it but income from the mares this weather is virtually nil so any work i put into will mostly out of my pocket, so I was hoping to get a cheaper solution, for the time being anyway.

Thanks for all the suggestions anyway, some good ideas being thrown up.

GERMAN ROCKS

gran lime would do grand. mayby do it in october/ november. its just a dearer way of putting out lime. put out 4 bags of 10.10.20 to the acre and see what happens. post back pics in two-three weeks.

moy83

Bagged lime would be fine . I rented four acres to a neighbour for mares over the winter . They had it as good as ploughed up for me .All i had to do was pull the rotaspike over it throw out the seed and lightly rotaspike it again . You could do the same wit a chain harrow fairly cheaply .

what happen

canon5571 wrote: »

Thanks for all the replys folks!!
Im not up to well on all the farming terminology, but what do ye mean by p + k?
I only ever gave it a shot of nitrogen.
Would the gran lime do it or would i need to get the contractor in with the powder lime?
Ya I was thinking about reseeding a bit at a time, it would be the right job for it but income from the mares this weather is virtually nil so any work i put into will mostly out of my pocket, so I was hoping to get a cheaper solution, for the time being anyway.

Thanks for all the suggestions anyway, some good ideas being thrown up.

is ground that got nitrogen bagstuff not bad for horses and is thats why horse people buy old meadow small bales of hay.

keep going

you got to do a major revamp job,prob fix drains,spray off, lime, fertilize,till and reseed and if you want good grass get rid of the horses:p

scub

It looks like there is moss in it as well. Is there anything that does a job on that?

I have read on other threads here that firtilizing with rushes in the field isn't the best idea.

canon5571

moy83 wrote: »

Bagged lime would be fine . I rented four acres to a neighbour for mares over the winter . They had it as good as ploughed up for me .All i had to do was pull the rotaspike over it throw out the seed and lightly rotaspike it again . You could do the same wit a chain harrow fairly cheaply .

Theres probaly not enough clay showing to do that job. The thing is gone that bad I could probaly winter them on it next winter and let them plough it for me.

what happen wrote: »

is ground that got nitrogen bagstuff not bad for horses and is thats why horse people buy old meadow small bales of hay.

The nitrogen was out 6-7 weeks before anything was let graze it, thats how long it took for a nice cover of grass anyway. I've never had any problems with them grazing the nitrogen ground anyway.

scub wrote: »

It looks like there is moss in it as well. Is there anything that does a job on that?
Unfortunately a 6 furrow reversible is probaly the best solution:(

I have read on other threads here that firtilizing with rushes in the field isn't the best idea.

This ground, 7-8 years ago was like the 1st picture of my neighbours field, more grass than rushes.