How Long Will It Take To Restore Grazing Land Without Reseeding?

[Frank-the-Wool]

We have taken on 10 acres of National Trust Land that had been abandoned by them for two years.
It was all thistles and rough grass. Initially I put 5 Angus cross heifers on it from late January and gave them some feed blocks. They actually did a great job reducing the thatch of grass by grazing and treading it in.
The thistles were so bad that I sprayed it with Thistlex in late May. (Not officially allowed as SSSI!!) There was no Clover so it was no concern about any other side effects, the thistles have died well and the cattle were taken out before spraying.
When I weaned some ewes I put them in the field a couple of weeks ago and they reluctantly ate some of the rough grass. I took pity on them and let them into the next well grazed field but left the gate open, expecting them to go back once they had eaten the properly managed field bare. They never went back in and I realised they would rather starve than eat the grass in this field.

My point is that once Permanent Pasture has been destroyed by lack of grazing and management it takes a long time to get this grass productive again.
It will probably help by grazing it this winter with ewes and some feed blocks but I reckon it will take 5 years to get it productive again!!!

 

[andybk]

Wants some lime Frank i expect , sweeten the grass help the plants Nt are tying to encourage ,hammer it again with cattle it will come right ,

 

[som farmer]

is this when we see the folly of rewilding ? In reality, you end up with a bloody good mess.

a mess that is completely useless for anything, including the wildlife its meant to enhance,

keep grazing, and get it well trodden in, lime a good idea, as is glyphosate, perhaps not possible what you tread in, will make topsoil. Cattle hoof's are better than sheep.

 

[Skintagain]

Abuse it with cattle for short period and then let recover a few times

or flail it down to the bone

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Wants some lime Frank i expect , sweeten the grass help the plants Nt are tying to encourage ,hammer it again with cattle it will come right ,

Has good Ph, will be 6.5 or better as this is Marsh land which has lots of sea shells in it.

Not supposed to supplementary feed on the SSSI but possibly what the eye doesn't see!!

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Abuse it with cattle for short period and then let recover a few times

or flail it down to the bone

Flailing it will just bring back more thistles!
Prefer to keep a cover on the grass.

 

[Cotlandfarmer]

Let a cover build for a month or two then rotational, mob graze and supplement with hay.

Move the mobs daily.

The little I know of regen ag, graze a third, tread in a third and leave a third of growth.

 

[livestock 1]

TSP is the best medicine for pasture that has been in such a scheme. A bit of lime a bit of mcpa and 24-D if it’s full of rubbish.
Are you thinking about what sfi is going to do and how much it’s going to cost to put right again?
I am

 

[Skintagain]

Flailing it will just bring back more thistles!
Prefer to keep a cover on the grass.

Yes it would but you will likely end up spraying again anyway

 

[milkloss]

I’d consider flailing it short and let it dry. Let the cattle keep kicking the cuttings about to allow fresh regrowth. Don’t want the thatch to hang around.

 

[box]

The good stuff has probably died out, and after 5 years any seed that was in the ground is probably no longer viable.

Without broadcasting a quality ryegrass/clover mix over it at, I dunno, 10kg/ha, and scratching it in with some chain harrows, it's hardly going to be "productive" IMO.

"Set stocking" type grazing won't help, you'll need to break feed your way across it with adult/yearling cattle, a portable trough to make sure they sh*t and p*ss all over the paddock. Throwing some fert and/or lime at it will help but will only take you so far.

It really depends on what you want to achieve. If well kempt rubbish grass and weeds is your goal, then carry on doing what you're doing + add fert.

 

[Aspiring Peasants]

Cut it and clear it is best. When it has grown back, spray with Forefront, lime it and get as much muck onto it as possible. Then just farm it properly, don’t overgraze, undergraze it etc, use fertiliser when taking bales off. Graze it with cattle,not just sheep and use an electric fence to make them eat any bits they don’t like. It’s surprising how it will alter but it will take a few years

 

[toquark]

Similar here when started, here was the process we carried out;

Flail/Top all the rubbish off
Spray regrowth with MCPA & 2-4D
Lime (doesn’t sound like you’ll need this)
Graze hard with sheep
Rest through winter
Flail again in spring/early summer
Lime again
Spray again
Graze normally (we’re set stocking)
Spot spray any weeds in May/June
Lime again
Continue to graze

Worth noting our ph was through the floor; every field was below 5 and drainage was an issue which we sorted before putting any stock on. The place has been transformed and apart from the drainage it wasn’t expensive to do. Took about 3-4 seasons to come back around but improvements were evident from day 1 really.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Old permanent pasture is what it is , if you top it or cut it for hay it will revert to what it is if it don't contain any ryegrass , it takes more than two years for it to turn into semi jungle , it has to go through stages, around here the final stage is brambles and willow wood , although there could be a later stage when the willow rots and let's in a few decent trees

 

[steveR]

I’d consider flailing it short and let it dry. Let the cattle keep kicking the cuttings about to allow fresh regrowth. Don’t want the thatch to hang around.

Yes, in batches. So cut a block and then another a few days later. The stock will move it around better bthan a larger area.

 

[som farmer]

we have some 'free' ground, which we cut, no spray's, fert or livestock, allowed, we only bother with it because both bits are very close.

its been quite interesting to follow what happens during the 25 yrs we have had them. Both were pretty shagged out, and all we had was 1 light weedy cut for silage, move on 20 yrs, we were taking 2 cuts of weed free grass, 1, we take 3 light cuts now.

this is just naturally what has happened, quite the opposite to what we thought would happen. Nature will sort itself out, in time. I think the 'key' is removing the thatch, or whatever you wish to call it. We have a narrow strip here, we have left to go wild, part of a shoot, and its a bloody good mess, 9 yrs in, a few trees have grown, rest is brambles or weeds, exactly what one would expect.

farmers think that it will take years to get land back into production, after the fiasco called SFI. l look at it as a positive, convinced it won't last, events and food inflation will see to that. But what an easy way, to give your ground a good decent rest, a lot of light ground is desperate for a chance to 'reset' itself, letting the soil fauna and microbiology recover.

but it will return to production quite quickly, whether the livestock are still present to help that improvement, is a different matter.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

If you reseed it takes a few months

 

[Henarar]

Neighbour took some on that had been left for three years, just cut it and made it to hay then went on as normal.
About 5 years ago we took on some that hadn't been done anything with apart from flail topped once a year for about 20 years, it was a fair old mess we put sheep in there and let them eat what they would then topped it quite high with a rotary topper and it didn't come back to bad and improved with just sheep grazing and topping over the years, new owner sprayed it for thistle last year which seems to have done a good job

 

[Anymulewilldo]

I’d consider flailing it short and let it dry. Let the cattle keep kicking the cuttings about to allow fresh regrowth. Don’t want the thatch to hang around.

That would be my method graze what they will eat, flail the living hell out of what’s left and then address issues as they arise

 

[Whitepeak]

Rotational grazing, a cut of haylage to clear out the bottom and slurry have improved several of my fields that had gone very ropey and tussocky from years of being ranched. Still a way to go, and hopefully better grazing infrastructure will help even more.