How to maintain/cut pasture land?

We have just purchased a new house and looking at purchasing approx 3/4 acre of pasture land behind it. The concern is how do you maintain the land ie keep the grass short?

Current owner has a couple of sheep grazing it but you can tell it’s also been cut before.  Are ride on mowers suitable  or is it something more agricultural?

Ta

A normal ride on mower will do that OK.

We’ve got about 6 acres and started cutting it regularly with a tractor and a finishing mower which worked well but we’re now using a commercial John Deere  ride on mower which takes a little longer but can carry out many other jobs also.

If you’ve got decent access to  the paddock I’d suggestsugg find a farmer who can cut the hedges for you – unless you really like cutting hedges!

By the time you’ve built the pump track there won’t be enough grass left to worry about surely?

Invite a neighbour with a herd of goats/sheep to pop by occasionally.  Seriously.  Win-win.

With the price of hay this year you’re missing a trick!

My parents have a field that size.

For years they had sheep but now they rent it out to neighbours for their sheep and get a freezer full of delicious lamb.

We are thinking of buying as the current garden is quite small, what 8yr old wouldn’t want a field to play in, and a slight concern the land could be built on eventually.

Not thought about the hedge at the back !

Can 2 sheep actually keep something that big maintained ? We had thought about buying and then still keeping it open allowing existing sheep to maintain (with consent of owners etc)

A decent sized ride on would handle that, otherwise some alternatives below;

Get a couple of orphan lambs each Spring.

Dig a big pond to reduce amount of grass to cut.

Convert to hay meadow and get it baled at end of summer.

Make it into a wildflower meadow, and just mow it a couple of times per year.

And get a scythe.

Its 3/4 of an arce…its really not that much; my elderly mother maintains more than that with her push along petrol mower so unless you’re that lacking in spare time, im sure you’d manage with a sit- on mower

Only problem with sheep is that they’re airways looking for new ways to kill themselves!

If there’s the smallest hole in the fencing/hedge they’ll get themselves such in it and then die…. Cos that’s what they like to do.

So if you want sheep (and they could keep it tidy) you’ll need to spend quite heavily on sheep fencing.

A wild flower meadow sounds nice but to get one you need to plough the field and have it sown with wildflower seeds.  Plus the long grass makes it pretty unusable for anything so there’s not much point in buying it!

Sheep = chaos and death resulting in digging holes or calling the knacker man

Sit on mower = flat grass and a strange form of therapy that only blokes can understand

3/4 of an acre is a few hours with a push mower or 30 mins with a ride-on. Depends on how long the grass is and also to consider is how rough the paddock is and any rocks/ etc there is hidden away. Most ride-ons do not have hinged blades and it can get expensive if you start hitting big rocks.

This is Stw so,

consider is how rough the paddock is and any rocks/ etc there is hidden away.

That was partly my thought, I’d always assumed ride ons were for large pristine lawns, not rough sloping fields ?

Maybe a visit to a combine harvester shop (lawn mower) is in order before approaching to buy the land.

Make it into a wildflower meadow

Easier said than done.

A wild flower meadow sounds nice but to get one you need to plough the field

No you dont!

Wild flower maze plus pumptrack ftw .

+1 for wildflower. No need with expense of ride-on, decent brush cutter (or scythe as mentioned above)

Ride on mower – wtf? Why would you not buy a tractor? You can use it to haul the dead sheep away as well

Do you want/need to keep it as open paddock?

You could plant it up into a (very) small wood.  You can get subsidies to do that sort of thing.

That was partly my thought, I’d always assumed ride ons were for large pristine lawns, not rough sloping fields ?

Depends what you buy, but most will cope with that ok – just set the deck high enough that it’s not cutting too short. Certainly for the first couple of cuts I’d leave it as high as you can get it until you get things under control and find out if there’s any rocks there etc.

I’d still prefer the idea of a couple of spring lambs grown on and into the freezer though – if there’s sheep on it already then it must be reasonably sheep-proof. But they will invent new ways of trying to kill themselves.

A colleague of mine had sheep on his, but there’s apparently a lot of paperwork, even if you just lend the grazing to a farmer. He gave up after 2 years.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xquad+flail.TRS0&_nkw=quad+flail&_sacat=0

Of course you will then need to buy a quad of small tractor but you could tow it behind a landrover or similar if you really wanted to.Advantage is that if it is rough or stoney or you left it a couple of weeks you can still do it. A ride on mower will struggle if you don’t stay on top of mowing. Use a flail and only need do it a couple of times a year.

A fail or mulching mower will deal with that easily . I’d be putting in large tulip or daffodil beds .

+1 for wildflower meadow. Cut once in September, Poldark style. You may or may not struggle to get rare orchids but it’ll still have lots of wildlife value and be great for the kids to play in. If you want it to not look neglected then cut round the outside or a few paths in it.

Edit: be aware you can’t just turn it into garden, so tulip/daffodil beds may be contravening that unless you are growing them agriculturally.

My father in law has a pice of land (quite a bit bigger than that though) and he used to let a local farmer cut if for baling each autumn. However the farmer died and no-one else is interested in doing it so he bough a flat pack tractor and just cuts it himself and grass cycles it.

With the price of hay this year you’re missing a trick!

Scaled has it nailed. We used a 1-acre field for hay this year (was meant to be haylage, but it was way too dry by the time it was cut). Just wanted small bales for ease of handling / storage. Paid less than £200 to get it cut and baled, which landed us 207 small bales. Going rate at the moment round here is £5.00 per bale… you can do the maths.

Because of the long dry spell we only got one cut off it, but normally we’d expect at least 2. We’d also usually go for haylage as storage is less of a pain – costs a bit more to do, but also gets more if you sell it. The only problem is getting someone who’s willing to do small bales. They’re a right faff.

Cut once in September, Poldark style. You may or may not struggle to get rare orchids

They will NOT get rare orchids.