can the volunteers etc cut back the scrubby stuff?
No, they struggle to do the couple of acres at the end, along with all the other bits. There's an area upstream that they paid our neighbour £5k just to cut a few years ago - it was no easy money, that stuff eats mowers.
Fortunately they've done a good trample on the paddock I've moved them out of tonight (the one in the picture). It's a bit wetter and looks messy now but not poached so if we can keep that up it'll be some nice stuff come next season, but I have a feeling that we'll have to move them out other than by choice.
can the volunteers etc cut back the scrubby stuff?
No, they struggle to do the couple of acres at the end, along with all the other bits. There's an area upstream that they paid our neighbour £5k just to cut a few years ago - it was no easy money, that stuff eats mowers.
Having had to change the flails on our mower last year as well as several belts, I can understand the reluctance to mow. We did several acres of bracken this year, and that can take a fair time. If your 5 acres cost that much it must be very hard work.
It was 100 acres, and not ours, in fact not anyone's because noone could make use of it. Usually it is rented out to farmers & they don't have to be paid to take it on.
Having had to change the flails on our mower last year as well as several belts, I can understand the reluctance to mow. We did several acres of bracken this year, and that can take a fair time. If your 5 acres cost that much it must be very hard work.
my"guerrilla forestry" 7 acre wood(about 30 types of oaks and assorted other trees)has taken 45 yrs but it has(mostly) finished off the bracken even though it was all planted by "broadcast" a few pocketfuls at a time over the decades.(spose the next thing is organizing long term management for it as it does need some first thinning in the next decade or so)
trying to get rid of the stuff by mowing,ploughing or even grazing is always going to be an ongoing battle.
Not an option on this site as it is heathland. Our efforts over the last couple of years have increased the heather, as flailing breaks up the mat. There are ground nesting birds there too, and it has had bracken on parts of it for as long as husband and I can remember, which is the best part of 60 years. The Parish Council are managing it, and they employed us as we were quicker and more effective with our mower than their brush cutters.
Tavascarow
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Posts: 8407 Location: South Cornwall
Effectively, the only thing I've found they don't deal with is docks.
Tavascarow
Joined: 06 Aug 2006 Posts: 8407 Location: South Cornwall
Posted: Sun Oct 18, 15 8:34 am Post subject:
Bracken was once a resource not a weed.
Makes excellent animal bedding, & used to be harvested & stored like straw for that purpose.
Many (1980s) years ago the Dartmoor national park tried forage harvesters & composting on the more accessible places. Haven't read about it since so assuming it wasn't a success.
The good news is that we finished grazing the field from this post yesterday. OK, there's still work to do because we should have been able to graze it at least twice in a season, but it's progress on last year when we were flooded out before getting round it once.
clifton ings looks better for 4 1/2 months grazing.it will take a while to recover the small critters/birds from last years first day harrow with a mower but the flora looked good if a bit degraded in diversity(a lot less vetches and medowsweet) before it disappeared under several meters of chilly water.
i recon the ideal thing would be to partially mow and then free graze for a few years to distribute the rarer flora and give the little critters a good chance
ps it was seas of plantain and thistle and buttercup with plenty of docks,some very sparse patches of low value grasses and only part good grassy/herbage hay at mowing time earlier this year as i predicted but plenty of moo action seems to have helped a lot(it has thinned out the non doggy dog walkers as well cos they seem scared of some of the nicest natured moos i have met )