Author Topic: Paddock /Pasture Maintenance  (Read 836 times)

Offline Ryan

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Paddock /Pasture Maintenance
« on: October 12, 2016, 12:30:20 AM »
Id be really interested to know what kind of maintenance everyone does in regards to Pasture throughout the year?

Do you resow pasture each year? Do you broad leaf spray at certain times ect.

Reason im asking is, I havent sown/sprayed anything in the horse paddocks since we brought the place in 2007 but what im noticing now is an influx of cape weed and mellow weed.

So far, in the last 3 weeks I have sprayed the front paddocks with "Javelin" and was very happy to see the cape weed turn silver and wilt the next day. Only problem with this is , no livestock must graze for 21 days in areas that have been sprayed.  If I had a choice, i probably wouldn't chemically spray at all but with hay prices the way they are here,  I really dont have a choice.

Im only on 10 acres, 7 acres are made up of paddocks. My largest paddock is roughly 4.5 acres, which Id love to slash and bale for next winter, but really need to get the weeds under control first.

We have had a terrible year with Cape weed (which i think is known as Flat weed in other places ) and stringhalt cases here in horses.








Offline Rocklone

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Re: Paddock /Pasture Maintenance
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2016, 03:12:52 AM »
My dad cuts it down a couple times but this year we didn't go mad in weed killing because I wanted less grass haha. Didn't work I still had too much. I'm going to make a smaller paddock for Goldie and thriller. They've got out of hand fat. I'm just waiting for banner to go home and then they will be able to use that smaller paddock which I'll section up even smaller.

Offline Holly

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Re: Paddock /Pasture Maintenance
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2016, 03:56:43 PM »
We have 12 acres, but 8 is woods. So only 4 acres available for grazing.
We drag our pasture to knock down manure and we really need to fertilize come spring. With Kate ( welsh ) we never have enough to hay, so we buy hay year round.
Ive heard tractor supply carries a weed killer that can be sprayed and grazed , though not sure how comfortable I would be with that.
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Offline Ryan

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Re: Paddock /Pasture Maintenance
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2016, 06:23:27 PM »
Dont think I would be either Holly. My SIL is a horticulturalist and she was trying to explain the way the herbicide works. from what I understood, it works in stages (hence a waiting period before grazing) so dont think i would feel comfortable spraying the paddocks and then letting the horses onto graze immediately.