GP Farming have all the machinery necessary to maintain and improve your pasture. From mole drainage and ditching to harrowing, ploughing, re-seeding and any type of tillage. And of course all the knowledge and expertise acquired from nurturing hundreds of acres in this area.

Are You achieving the full potential of your paddock?

In this high-tech age of padded stables, horse walkers and complex carbs, the humble paddock gets scant attention. But whether your horse lives out all year or is simply turned out for a precious 20 minutes of playtime, his field requires as much upkeep as his stable.

Horses are notoriously picky eaters and their pasture tends to suffer as a result. All too often you see a paddock with bald areas where horses have paced up and down the fence and lush overgrown patches which are being ignored.

While more people are moving towards keeping their horses in their natural environment, grazing must be in the best possible condition if the horses are going to thrive.

It isn’t just the superficial things, such as fencing, the removal of droppings and poisonous plants that need monitoring. The nutrient levels below the surface are key to maintaining pastures and need to be checked regularly as identifying the underlying causes is paramount for improving pasture.

The main issues relating to healthy pasture is soil type, pH and nutrient status, types of grass and weed in residence and how the field is rotated, with the correct levels of lime, phosphate, potash and nitrogen in the soil being essential.

The cost of maintaining good quality grass and grazing land in good heart is normally more than compensated for by an improved equine health, lower feed and vets bills and better horse performance. Where paddocks are over stocked, poorly managed and allowed to get out of control, the results can be disastrous. A planned pasture maintenance programme with rest or break as part of the rotation is a key factor in good horse grass management.

GPfarming offers a complete paddock maintenance service to enable you to achieve the very best from your land.

	Harrowing (very) Is the grass in your field patchy, covered in mole heaps or dung pats, harrowing will spread these and let the air into the roots, plus seed can be sown at the same time if required		Muck Spreading Why not let us remove your muck heap and spread it back on to the pasture. Spread thinly gut worms will be killed and an excellent source of nutrient will be put back into the ground
	Spraying Treat the weeds in your field with a selective weed killer, get rid of those unsightly docks, thistle, nettles and buttercups. Access to most areas the sprayer is the same width as a tractor		Rolling Get rid of the ruts and poaching by your stock during the winter, also roll in your newly planted grass seeds.
	Fertilser Fertiliser applications are used to feed the ground and encourage good strong plant growth. The level of application will vary depending on the requirments of the grass (i.e. whether for grazing or hay) and the stocking rate. With equine grazing it is important not to have strong grass for various reasons.		Topping Is your field growing out of control, whether its just that the grass is to old and long, patches of nettles, thistles, docks, brambles, gorse or bracken. These can all be cut and chopped into mulch
	Lime Spreading Is your soil “sour”, the grass not very palatable, only the weeds seem to grow maybe it’s acidic? If the PH is below 6.5 an application of ground limestone will sweeten it up. Animals need calcium in their diet to remain healthy		Hedge Cutting Using an experienced operator, we can cut all growth from one year to the well overgrown hedge, we can also cut hedges by hand in the hard to get areas