Global Ovine: Where New Zealand’s sheep industry is heading

[JohnGalway]

You're not on your own Dave, below is some of the crap we have to put up with. Blanket bog is the one I'd have most dealing with:

http://www.npws.ie/farmerslandowners/notifiableactions/notifiableactionsforlistedhabitatsandspecies/

Like you we are paid nothing on this, despite the EU recognising the land in question is worth €150 H/A, and everyone else from tourism interests, to ramblers, to artists, to environmentalists get to make a wage of it, everyone except the owner the farmer.

 

[JD-Kid]

@exmoor dave
http://www.canterburybirdandbush.co.nz/hinewai.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/christchurch-life/9407224/Hinewai-Reserve-recovers
http://www.regangentry.com/featured/of-gorse-of-course/

now you may think he is a hard core sandal wearer and he is dose not own a car rides a push bike everywere
he will look at areas and see whats there plants animals etc etc etc he's not strung on "this is what it was like " none of us ever seen that and the land scape is always changeing be it buildings wind mills forestry etc etc
the lands there to be used for the best use and best long term use
grassland tussocks some areas will be rock so pointless working up most of the grasslands will not revert to trees seed banks not there
land reverting to scrub and gorse would hint something to me .. this is the dumb thing with us controling gorse on the hills it slips alot of our hills are not suited to grassland but yet people don't like forestry dammed if yer do dammed if yer don't

there are places near GO that are dry heather cover hillsides to be fair people are wasteing there time trying to improve them only thing would be fenceing and mangerment

some of our ground is the same deal maybe toss out clovers and cocksfoots platains etc with each lot of fert with the plane best improvement in that area would be from opening and closeing gates box of matchs would help too

same deal with swamp land it's a swamp for a reson any point draining it ummmm to be fair not realy

 

[exmoor dave]

@JD-Kid the 3rd link down is a great read......i had to copy and paste this bit!

Gorse escaped to hillsides and other land not being used for crops or grazing. This land, while marginal, could be returned to grazing quality if gorse was eradicated. Advisors warned farmers not to burn gorse stands, as fire only promotes more vigorous sprouting. Instead, they should fell the stand in late spring, let it lie until autumn, and then fire the debris against the wind for a thorough burn, then sow over with a competitive grass. Pre-Second World War era chemical technologies were trialled but proved to be of little use. Some farmers even experimented with flame-throwers.

 

[exmoor dave]

i may have missed it, but one gorse control once it's cleared would be liming surely? as gorse prefers acidic soil?

very interesting about burning it, maybe leading to even worse gorse, i think the "type" of burn helps, some i've burnt has come back very thick where as other's, in particular a couple of acre of very tall standing gorse, thats very hard to burn, but i got to go, seems to have been killed off.

 

[JohnGalway]

i may have missed it, but one gorse control once it's cleared would be liming surely? as gorse prefers acidic soil?

very interesting about burning it, maybe leading to even worse gorse, i think the "type" of burn helps, some i've burnt has come back very thick where as other's, in particular a couple of acre of very tall standing gorse, thats very hard to burn, but i got to go, seems to have been killed off.

Some of the advice I have read on creeping gorse before stated spray first, then burn after they've turned brown, then spray again after germination. The idea was to both remove the existing plants, but also to reduce the seedbank in the soil for future germination.

 

[exmoor dave]

Some of the advice I have read on creeping gorse before stated spray first, then burn after they've turned brown, then spray again after germination. The idea was to both remove the existing plants, but also to reduce the seedbank in the soil for future germination.

most of ours is 6-8ft tall, so spraying isn't really a option but i did think about stem injection, but i thought if i'm going to crawl thro acres of gorse i just as well do it with a chainsaw instead and be done with it then paint the stumps.

 

[JD-Kid]

gorse i love the stiff great if you have a tax prob as it will suck money away from better things

intresting plant and it's a case of knowing how and why it grows acid loveing fixes it's own N so soil low in N seed lasts up to 40 + years in the ground and seeds in it's 2 year of growth with out wind etc spreads
cattle can pug the ground in gorse areas so never have cattle on gorse areas fire will break the wax coating and strike it

6-8 foot tall gorse a bit of a pain if on flatter ground mulch it once mulch dry burn the fire is realy hot at ground level cooks a large % of seeds in to the ash spread an acid loveing deep rooted grass toss in clover if yer want but gorse sprays will take it out , graze hard with sheep to eat alot of the new shoots and spot spray others .. keep a high cover on paddocks gorse hates shadeing

if spraying aim for a product that will dry the gorse out to lift burn temp most cases 18-24 months before a burn that higher gorse you would have to use a chopper and maybe 15-20 lt's per Ha roundup with 2-3 lt'sa per Ha of penertrate flowen on 1/2 over lap 400 lt's water per Ha
or products like paraquate reglone etc work good too for short term dry down

http://www.ukeconet.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/FWAG_Gorse_2007.pdf

reading that how many people do you need to watch yer take a pi55 in the UK i'd be locked up with in 48 hours of landing

looking at that they want to be all airy fairy so fast cool burn frist year let it regen for a year so a high number of new shoots alow the grass to grow up don't graze grass so you lift the amount of fuel in gorse low to the ground let grass die off then burn a few things happen the cool fire strikes a lot of seed which can't handle heat the grass makes the fire hotter so cooks alot of seed with growth only a year old no seed set
then seed the hell out of it lime etc ummmmm to be fair work with what yer got alot of plants can handle and grow in those types of areas

we have gorse here costs about 15 000 dollars + a year
best bangs for buck good products that work i find grazon a bit weak so use tordon ring spray big blocks and put in a holding pattern mop up all small blocks stand alone bushes etc etc then take on the block gorse

if yer sheep don't eat it ummmm think hard about foresty

 

[JohnGalway]

most of ours is 6-8ft tall, so spraying isn't really a option but i did think about stem injection, but i thought if i'm going to crawl thro acres of gorse i just as well do it with a chainsaw instead and be done with it then paint the stumps.

I've had some 15 foot tall, some stumps more like trees than furze. Chopped it up standing into firewood and trash. Burn both, just one indoors and one outdoors. Spray or paint stumps.