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Cover for rough pasture / grassland


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Hi,

I have access to a limited amount (about 17 acres) of rough pasture with a copse of trees and some broken up old hedge rows and a moderately sized copse of trees. The horses that used to graze the ground are now gone and occasionally we have sheep in for a few weeks at a time (but that is more like spring than through the season)

 

I release birds for a bit of rough shooting and mainly for training the dogs but the sheep really over grazed the ground and things are looking a bit sparse currently. I could do with some suggestions for some fairly quick growing cover that is suitable for the ground I described above, obviously it can't be a proper crop as I have no means of either harvesting or ploughing it back in. I was thinking of types of fast growing grass maybe? I am open to suggestions. This is for a bit of fun and training for the dogs so it doesn't have to make "sense" but as the ground belongs to my mother in law I don't really want to put anything down that will harm the sheep if they come back next spring or that will require heavy work to keep tidy after the season is over. I already have a largish partridge pen up there that work very nicely last season. Forgot to add got 5 of those nice big quill top hat (http://www.quillproductions.co.uk/Quill-Feed-Bin-Kit-Green.html)feeders spread around

 

Location is typically fairly damp Devon rolling hillside.

 

Hope the above makes sense, if not I am sure I can clarify further.

 

Many thanks,

 

Mike

Edited by WorkingHPRs
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Unless you can cultivate the ground a bit, it will be difficult to plant anything. If you could do some cultivation, have a look at stubble turnips. You could drill/broadcast them around July/August and they will provide you with some decent cover for your pheasants. At the end of the season, you could let the sheep graze them off

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I don't see why not, but cattle are normally indoors when the stubble turnips are grazed off at the end of the shooting season. Have a look at the link below, and give King's a call, they would be able to advise you:

 

https://www2.frontierag.co.uk/cgi-bin/iTRACPortal.cgi/wh?PageID=ProductDisplay&ItemNumber=5669088&ParameterSet=ByItemNumber&Brand=Kings&ProductFindMechanism=ProductGroupBrowse&SearchWords=&SearchFunction=PackagedItemsOfGroup&SearchProductGroup=5915885&SearchProductDB=genenq&ms=1173712778033

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For the op some sort of stubble turnip/or fodder crop kale/rape (not oilseed) and possibly plough small areas scattered about the ground so u have small holding cover spread about. Possibly planting them on downwind sides of any barrier? (burn,ditch, fence dykes) so u can work ur dogs into the wind and try to stop the birds running out the end in front of u.

 

Mich, possibly look at some of the perrennials as it will save u cultivating every year which would save some money. Have a good look throu Kings, Oakbank or Bright seeds or any other cover crop specialists.

There is all sorts of wild bird, nectar rich, wild flower type mix's that might be useful for ur wider conservation ideas. Felling small areas/rides in ur wood and planting nectar rich should increase butterflies etc

An awful lot of airy farms are now zero graze so s fooder crop may ot be as handy for strip grazing, althou with turnips u can lift them and add to there feed in the sheds

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Thanks lads no it's not under a stewardship and with the wild flower mix there is a local chap who keeps 3 bee hives at the start of the woods so it would be a win win really and I would think the bee would help with pollination.

 

And Just for the zero graze scotslad I might sound really thick but does that mean the cows are not in the field at any time as these are in the fields grazing but are in the barns over winter period

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Aye spot on, a lot of the bigger more modern systems are now zero graze (althou quite a few small dairy's are to esp if useing robot milkers) they say they can regulate wot the cow is eating better so control the milk yiels/quality plus the modern milking cows are too soft to go outside. All wrong nothing nicer than seeing proper old fashioned friesians in a field in the spring.not the bags of bones u see now.

 

Best speaking to the farmer but i think the problem u will have wih a fodder type crop is his cows will be in throu winter and i doubt many crops will kep there goodness untill april/may time when they usually get out again. Possibly sugar beet or turnips would work as u can lift them after the shootings done and add they to the feed wagon (althou most farmer i know that do that have a seperate chopper for them)

Speak to some cover crop advisers or look throu the catalogues, loads of different things u can do

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If your getting wild type cover seed be very carefull as some have a huge amount of air born seeds that get everywhere you dont want them I had some few years back you just literally sowed and it grew ill dig the paper work out wasnt no higher then knee level but grew so easy and wasnt that dear either

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Thanks for the input and been and had a good rummage around some of the seed sellers and like the look of some of the beetle bank mixes for tussocky grass. Mix in some wild flowers and I reckon it will work nicely alongside the hedgerows.

 

Talking of hedge rows, how do you "build up" ones that have been seriously overgrazed by sheep? Talking to mother in law and she isn't sure the sheep are even coming back, happy days!

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Talking of hedge rows, how do you "build up" ones that have been seriously overgrazed by sheep? Talking to mother in law and she isn't sure the sheep are even coming back, happy days!

 

If its not too bad, just leave it and it will keep growing. If you want to fill in gaps or make the hedge wider plant some bare root hawthorn "whips". They are cheap and easy to plant, but if the sheep do come back you would need to fence the hedges off to protect them. This is my local supplier, but they are widely available:

 

http://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/product_10280.html#aQUI2

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Generally the sheep browse the bottom 2ft or so, u could underplant as colin says but i'd imagine layin the hedge would be far better, to get them done right is a skilled job.

But sort of thing u can tackle urself if u read up on it, some conservation charities do/used to do day courses in it.

Does leave a very thick hedge in 2/3 years time

 

Ps I take it it is hawthorn hedges?

Edited by scotslad
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