Pasture

We were a bit different from most farmers in that we were not growing grass for meat or milk production primarily because we needed to stand quite a few horses because that is Sally's business, buying, schooling, selling and teaching people the finer points of dressage.


We first had to get rid of twitch, an unproductive grass that grows by rhizome (underground) but which is drought tolerant and very competitive but unproductive. We thought about spray but it was very expensive for 8 hectares, so our very helpful neighbour Norman Calder suggested we do what they used to do years ago and that is grub the land every three weeks over summer - so I borrowed a tractor and away we went.

This process would bring up the rhizomes to the surface so they would dry out and so kill the plant. In addition it would keep the moisture levels closer to the surface (remember my hoeing around the trees). I then used a Drummond harrow that has long spikes which collected up all the dry rhizomes which were then heaped  up and burnt. It worked very well indeed.

We then drilled the seed in March and I was very impressed to see how close the moisture level was to the surface. The grasses we chose were aimed for permanent pasture and to be hardy. So the mix was Ryegrass, Cocksfoot, White clover and Red clover. There were some people who were surprised we chose Cocksfoot because although it is hardy it is not as palatable or as nutritious as the other grasses and needs to be well managed because it can clump.

The Ryegrass and Cocksfoot hung out very well, there is still a bit of white clover there but the red clover is very scarce. We did have to watch the cocksfoot and keep it grazed well in the spring otherwise it would take off and form the clumps we were told of. But it is worth its weight in gold when the conditions are very dry because it hangs on for so long.

Ask you local seed supplier or farm advisor about what to plant. A lot has happened in over a quarter of a century of seed development!  For example, I believe they now have a finer leaved cocksfoot that looks more like ryegrass.

In late spring we had a wonderful, green 8 hectares, the strike was excellent and the grass grew well. To increase the tillering (number of leaves) we got the neighbours sheep in for a week to give it a quick hair cut.

One thing we decided to do was not use the grass for hay, but buy our hay in. The reason for this was to minimise any stress to the grass and allow the grasses to develop and establish well. Hopefully this would allow the roots to develop to the maximum and so support the plant well. One other reason was that during the cultivation some stones came to the surface which ain't to good when you cut the hay! We could have got a contractor in with a heavy roller to roll the stones in, but then we figured that would alter the soil structure to the extent that the top portion of the soil would dry out more quickly, and the pasture plant roots may have a more difficult job growing through compacted soil. One thing that interests me is that after all that regular cultivation over summer the amount of sub clover that germinated, along with what we drilled, was phenominal  There must be a heck of a lot of seeds lying in the ground. Horses love the sub clover - a pity it isn't more productive.

Look I don't know if there is any logic to how we did things, it just seemed to us good sense and the pasture has lasted 28 years (OK parts of the place are looking pretty tired and need resowing) but that is not a bad testimonial. All we have done re fertiliser is put lime on to maintain pH because we harrow the horsesh..... (poos) on a regular basis and horsesh is acidic.