Very rough rushy ground,

I've been offered about 15 acre of very rushy ground, it's for free, as its needing some long term improvements, kinda funny bit so lm not ploughing it, the rushes are heaven's high, so cutting them would be a slow hard job, l was told if you roll them down with a heavy roller to break them and then spray them it would backen them . The field isn't wet, but just been getn wilder buy the years.
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
Roll them, twice in opposite directions if you can and spray with mcpa plus wetter if there's grass worth keeping, glyphosate if there isn't. Ignore the advice about not spraying within so many days of rolling.
Cutting rushes is a waste of time and diesel and by the time they have regrown you might have missed your opportunity to spray them
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
With due respect if you spray with roundup you wont need to roll roundup will kill them dead . MCPA is a waste of time . It will only half kill them
The rushes are described as very heavy and heavens high, they'll need to be rolled to keep the sprayer boom at an acceptable height. Mcpa isn't a waste of time if it's treated as the start of a process rather than a complete cure.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
The rushes are described as very heavy and heavens high, they'll need to be rolled to keep the sprayer boom at an acceptable height. Mcpa isn't a waste of time if it's treated as the start of a process rather than a complete cure.
I've been processing them for 40 years and the still shooting back at me .time to send in a nuclear warhead and be done with them
 
Top them off ASAP, low as you dare.

In June, when they are growing hard and at least 12 inches high, hit with max rate of 2,4D and max rate of MCPA, using plenty of water and solar plus adjuvant.

They will go yellow and die.

In the meantime soil test the field and correct any issues with it to get the grass growing properly.

Slurry the thing heavily. Graze it with stock once all weeds have died and become unpalatable.
 

Mur Huwcun

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North West Wales
I've never seen rushes more that 2 ft . But let's see what he says

We cleared and baled some here for a neighbour on some very wet land at least 20 yrs ago (it was a very dry summer whichever year it was) that had not seen a machine or animal for years. That was easy three feet tall in places but had some canes and all sort in it aswell. Plain Disc mower couldn’t cut it as it was blocking on top of the bed! We had to drag the sperry new holland 5’6” moco out of the nettles for the job!! Was a tedious job in low box in some areas but by hell did the conditioner hood on the mower shine up nice and bright!! We got hundreds of round bales off about 15 acres!! I’m pretty sure that you couldn’t actually walk those meadows now. Last year was a good season for baling rushes.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
Fire!
Hit them hard with your favourite toxins and burn the bestards when they are properly dry.

And unless you want to play outdoor bowls on it, don't disturb the soil as the ground will be full of rush seeds, you'll only stir them up.

Then heaps of muck and lime, may as well lob a couple of sacks of black oats in the muck spreader and give them some competition
 
Round up will kill everything?, l suppose if l could roll them , l could cut them, but my topper is far to light, rolling would be easier , less fuel, even if l could kill 3 quarter's of them this year it would make a big difference.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
You will not kill rushes by topping or rolling.
You dont know my rushes
40 years I've been fighting them
Rolling waste of time
Topping bigger waste of time
MCPA . You May as well pee on them
Roundup kills them dead . If you have no grass worth saving then dont worry work about total kill . Within 4 months it will be geen again with self sown grass or do the job right and drill some seed in
 
You dont know my rushes
40 years I've been fighting them
Rolling waste of time
Topping bigger waste of time
MCPA . You May as well pee on them
Roundup kills them dead . If you have no grass worth saving then dont worry work about total kill . Within 4 months it will be geen again with self sown grass or do the job right and drill some seed in

If you can afford to have it done, weed wiping would be my go-to solution. For bigger areas, you have to top them and spray the weed growth with a max dose of MCPA AND 2,4D. Anything less is pointless and half a job. MCPA on its own is not effective enough. I know a guy who used to put in a cimarron tablet as well but I was never brave enough to do that.
 

Wellytrack

Member
You dont know my rushes
40 years I've been fighting them
Rolling waste of time
Topping bigger waste of time
MCPA . You May as well pee on them
Roundup kills them dead . If you have no grass worth saving then dont worry work about total kill . Within 4 months it will be geen again with self sown grass or do the job right and drill some seed in

Total and complete infestation of rush then sure, nuke them.

Your solution is not applicable to areas with say 30% of rush as your killing the remaining area of grass too.

Truth be told if it wasn’t for MCPA thousands of farms wouldn’t be able to graze a goose.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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