Paddocks and field conditions can rapidly deteriorate when certain livestock and animals are kept on the land. Let’s take horses for example:
- Horses will tread similar paths repeatedly, such as fence walking. This removes all the grass, compacts the soil preventing further growth and can leave deep pits where their hooves have sunk in we weather. It is highly unlikely grass will grow here again
- In wet weather horses hooves will rut the ground, leaving it uneven making any maintenance of the fields difficult
- Horses urine is Alkaline, this will eventually cause the PH level of the soil to become more alkaline, reducing growth of grass exponentially without treatment. (In the olden days this wasn’t so much of a problem because of acid rain, but now industry is very clean, acid rain isn’t common thus the alkalinity in the ground can only be combated by hand)
Typical effects of horses ‘Fence walking’
Note the highly compacted ground, ruts and zero grass growth
The list above are the major issues with horse paddocks. Similar issues occur with all livestock. Ultimately, if the issues aren’t address, growth of grass in the fields will get worse and worse, resulting in higher and higher external costs for the landowner to make up for the lack of grass.
As a leading company in it’s field, Hampshire paddock management have put together a complete field maintenance program and broken it down into 3 separate products dependent on your budgets and needs:
Partial Paddock rejuvenation program. For those with a smaller budget. This is charged hourly at £55ph + VAT
- We rotavate all the seriously damaged areas in the field. Eg next to fences, gates and animal communal areas. This softens up the ground ready for seeding
- We flatten the rotavated areas using a box plough. This flattens the land without compacting it. Thus giving maximum opportunity for growth
- We seed the affected areas with a seed which is suitable for your type of grounds
Full Paddock rejuvenation program (£1,495 per acre)
- We conduct a site visit and accurately measure your ground area
- We rotavate the whole area
- Flatten the whole area
- Seed the whole area with appropriate seed
Ultimate Paddock Rejuvenation program (£1,995 per acre + treatment costs)
- We measure your whole area
- Conduct a soil test
- Rotavate the whole area
- Flatten the whole area
- Seed the whole area
- Over the following 6 months we will treat the area as per the soil test (This includes all aspects of chemical management including PH management of soil)
We can mix and match the above, this would then be charged at our hourly rates
If you would like your fields completely rejuvenated to give your animals a healthier and better life, and as an added bonus, to reduce your ongoing costs then get in touch and we will be more than happy to help!
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