[SallyintNorth]

sally your non show of turnips and cabages    was it finger and toe disease some soils just cant grow them 

Not sure what 'finger and toe disease' is, but BH has grown turnips and cabbages on this land in years gone by.  He reckons it was just too cold and too wet after the seeds were sown; we were a little late getting them sown as it was.

[darkbrowneggs]

Ok - I know buttercups mean less grazing..... but I can't help liking them 
 
Anyway I have some geese now, and I think they eat buttercup roots, so perhaps a balance will be struck 
 
 

[robert waddell]

sally its right name is club root
darkbrowneggs that is some field of buttercups looks better than oil seed rape

[Bionic]

Wow, someone who has more buttercups than I do.  I feel a bit better now.
 
Sally

[SallyintNorth]

Anyway I have some geese now, and I think they eat buttercup roots, so perhaps a balance will be struck 

Oh, do let us know if that really works!  What a cracking excuse to get some geese! 

[OhLaLa]

(a) remember, particularly if using preparations containing aminopyralid or clopyralid or similar, that any hay made from sprayed fields could still contain active ingredient, which would remain active on passing through the livestock which eat it and end up on - and killing - your vegetable garden.  Always make sure that the manure resulting from the feeding of such treated grass - or from the hay or silage made from it - is put back on grassland and not where you want broadleaved plants to grow.

(b) it's early days, but I can report that we split a field infested with buttercups last year.  One half was ploughed, mucked, and turnips and cabbages sown; the other half had the pigs running on it.  We had a terrible non-crop of the turnips and cabbages (and no I can't be certain there was no muck from stock fed on hay made from grass which had been Grazon-ed!) but that half of the field is now full of rank grasses, reshes - and buttercups.  In fact, it's more-or-less 50% creeping buttercup, just as it was before we started.  The pigs' half is of course rather bare still (the pigs are still on it - I said it was early days for reporting!) but there are still docks to be seen (the pigs don't eat all of these, they can be toxic in quantity to pigs) and so far, nothing much in the way of buttercups.

I will report again!

A good reminder for everyone re spraying.
 
Re ploughing v pigs, that is about what I would expect in both of those cases. Ploughing the field will have torn the roots and they will multiply that way (especially docks). Grass seed needs to be sown or the 'weeds' will take over. Then it's a case of topping constantly, or spraying, or both, depending on the severity.
 
Piggies are fab ground clearers.
 
 

[Womble]

Anyway I have some geese now, and I think they eat buttercup roots, so perhaps a balance will be struck 

Oh, do let us know if that really works!  What a cracking excuse to get some geese! 

Sorry Sally, but the paddock our geese short-grazed a few weeks ago now has more buttercups showing than anywhere. They don't eat dock leaves either! 
 
I took a walk up a nearby hill the other day, and you can really tell which fields are ours - they're bright yellow, whilst all the neighbour's ones are lush green.
 
The trouble is, the land has been farmed using a mixture of organic methods and loving neglect for the last 25 years, so I really don't want to start using chemicals now (except lime for the buttercups).  Any good tips on how to reduce the docks, nettles and thistles then folks?

[henchard]

Spray them before flowering with a weed killer containing a 2,4-d/mcpa mix

[SallyintNorth]

The trouble is, the land has been farmed using a mixture of organic methods and loving neglect for the last 25 years, so I really don't want to start using chemicals now (except lime for the buttercups).  Any good tips on how to reduce the docks, nettles and thistles then folks?

Top, top and top again.  If the ground is too wet to travel, learn to live with 'em or grit your teeth and use chemicals - weedwiping is less destructive than broadcast spraying.

[clydesdaleclopper]

Ploughing or pigs will both give rise to the same problem of turning over the soil to enable the germination of all the millions of weed seeds lying dormant in the soil. We had pigs on a strip of land a couple of years ago. The rest of the field is mainly grass with a few docks. The strip where the pigs was is 90% docks where all the old seeds germinated 

[darkbrowneggs]

I shall take you a photo of the meadow tomorrow.  Though I say it myself it looks great.  Just wish I could find someone to make small bale hay    And my geese eat docks and also buttercup roots. 
 
When I moved back it was full of Creeping thistle and Scottish thistles plus dock from literally end to end.  When I bought my first Jersey Cow I could never find her and had to walk the field till I cam across her 
 
I have never used sprays, but simply top the field at the appropriate time.  The old folk wisdom is that weeds cut on or near the full moon nearest Midsummer day will not reappear, and though I wouldn't take this literally, if you think about it there is sense there. 
 
Plants with earlier seeding - such as thistles and docks tend to run up to seed at midsummer, and it is most likely to rain around a full moon. 
 
Weeds cut then will have expended the vast majority of their energy trying to seed, and if cut probably won't have the resources for further strong growth.  Anyway it worked for me. 
 
If I wanted to be rid of the buttercups I would use lime, and seaweed meal (assuming I could get it) and if not a good mucking.  But I like the mix of sorrel, trefoil, cuckoo flower and red and wild white clover etc that goes with my buttercups 

[Womble]

And my geese eat docks and also buttercup roots. 

Great!  So now I've not only got rubbish pasture, but also defective waterfowl to worry about!! 
 
Seriously though, thanks for the tips folks, though I have to say I'm not really looking forward to repeatedly topping five acres with a strimmer.
 
I wonder if anybody will hire me out a    or two? 

[FiB]

I wonder if anybody will hire me out a    or two? 

Youd be surprised - put the word out and see!!!  Last year I 'borrowed' some horses and this year I intend to borrow some cows to tidy up the edges after hay making.  I know I could borrow goats, but I'm terrified of them eating all my new trees (which are fenced of enough for sheep and cows, but possibly not a determined goat?)!!

[Bionic]

Womble,
We have 2 acres to do with the strimmer and I was feeling hard done by. There are times when less land is a bonus 
Sally

[Womble]

LOL, it's ok Sally. My main annoyance will be looking over at the geese whilst I do it, and thinking "This is really your job you know....."