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Rushes

6891tmc

Member
We have a serious problem with rushes. Just wondering if anyone can advise on the best treatment methods before going out to spend a fortune on the wrong thing. Many thanks
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
Not much help at the moment, but I've got a bit of a trial going on. Full rate mcpa on rushes that have never been cut, rushes that were cut a year ago and rushes that were cut this year and have around 6 inches of regrowth. The youngest, softest regrowth will look best short term, but I'm fairly sure the best control will be on the rushes that have never been cut.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
I guess it depends on your paddocks and if you want to take them out entirely.

What about weed wiping them. I know it’s slower but you can use roundup on them without loosing all your pasture.

For best results they always said wipe them in both directions.
I've got a,weedwipper coming. But rushes are a result of armchair farming . What's the point of painting over cracks .
Lime Drainage Reseed . After roundup that is,
 

Cvx1170

Member
Mixed Farmer
Green regrowth is waxy and there's not a lot of leaf surface area for the spray.
Best results I got are on really old rushes with glypho.
Also wet land can be alkaline, you have to be careful with lime, rushy land is not always acidic
 

Cvx1170

Member
Mixed Farmer
If you top or mow them often, it spreads the rhizomes underground, and changes the growth pattern to something similar to grass, you get small solitary rush leaves all over the field, very hard to kill those
 
I've got a,weedwipper coming. But rushes are a result of armchair farming . What's the point of painting over cracks .
Lime Drainage Reseed . After roundup that is,

Fair call. If the entire paddock has rushes then it’s a no brainer. If it’s only patches here and there then that’s a different story.

I have seen mob stocking by sheep have an effect on rushes. But it can be just a delaying tactic too...
 
A lot of the places I have seen rushes growing I am not sure you would want to plough them- some of the land out on the levels would not take too kindly to it I fancy as it doesnt have any backbone.
 
I would agree that you need to soil sample to get the grass growing properly. I would not be surprised if rushes grew in alkaline dirt though I have never seen any land like that growing them, truly alkaline soil in my part of the world was something of a rarity, I don't think any of the soil samples I ever took turned up at even pH 7 from memory.
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

This webinar will be...
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