Hi Everyone! I need advice

Hi I'm Mark.
My wife (Kimberley) and I bought 3.5 acres in the Wairarapa and love it. We rescued 3 horses destined for an uncertain future - whom are now lawn puppies.
Our little problem is that our back 1.5 acres needs ploughing, fertalising and reseeding. But we can't find anyone in our area who has a plough small enough to do the job. We are considering buying a small block motorised ploughing system. Can anyone offer advice on what sort of machine combo we should buy?
Thanks in advance,
Mark and Kimberley

Old gravely's have a rotary plough as part of their accessories. They work really well at turning over the soil, or, the rototiller is equally as good and would easily cope with small areas. Here's OH putting in our garden last year. That's the rotary tiller,. It just unbolts and you can put the plough on. The dual speed one is the best sort to get. They often come up on TM

Attached files [IMG]http://app.lifestyleblock.co.nz/images/converted_files/403456=9605-rotary hoe.JPG[/img]

why do you think it needs ploughing? We had some pretty rough ground, and now have nice paddocks. First we ran some neighbours cows through to take out all the long stuff, mowed it back to lawn length, put a good dose of fert on it and sprayed the weeds out, The weeds after the were not too bad as the mower did a better job. If you have three horses, it may pay to get a couple of goats or sheep to cross graze.

Welcome Mark and Kimberley.

Where in the Wairarapa are you? there are a lot of us here . Again, I would ask why you think it needs ploughing. Parts of our place have a lawn-like smoothness, but parts are a bit bumpy where we had a pair of ploughing pigs in a while back, and where sometimes we have run our cows on a patch that is a bit wet. The parts that are lawn-like have been retrieved from a paddock by constant mowing with a lawn tractor, with any bumps being taken out over time by careless use of said lawn tractor. Come over and meet our lawn (and us and our menagerie) some time but don't tell OH of the possibility of rescuing horses. []

thanks for this - it looks like the go. Cheers Mark

I too wonder why you want to plough, or rotary hoe?. If the soil is really compacted then it is probably worth doing. Ploughing makes the carbon and humus available for bacteria to decompose and release as fertiliser. This uses, and removes, the carbon stored in the soil but only increases the fertility for a short while.
I personally would direct drill because that does not remove the carbon stored in the soil. But by fertilising and spot spraying I have not yet needed to do a total pasture renovation. The change in fertility has encouraged the pasture plants to grow better, and the weed plants to grow less well.
But if you are in a hurry, then re-sow .... but don't forget to change the soil conditions to what your crop (pasture in this case) needs.

kindajojo;403477 wrote: why do you think it needs ploughing? We had some pretty rough ground, and now have nice paddocks. First we ran some neighbours cows through to take out all the long stuff, mowed it back to lawn length, put a good dose of fert on it and sprayed the weeds out, The weeds after the were not too bad as the mower did a better job. If you have three horses, it may pay to get a couple of goats or sheep to cross graze.

Hi KindaJoJo - the reason we'd like to plough is that we have no idea how long the paddock has had animals grazing on it as many families have lived here before us with animals - we've had three horses compressing the soil for 2.5 years so we thought it might be time to give it a new life.
We have just looked up 'direct drill' for soil and it definatley looks like the go - many advantages.
The next questions is - does anyone know know who offers this service in the Wairarapa?

eelcat;403556 wrote: Welcome Mark and Kimberley.

Where in the Wairarapa are you? there are a lot of us here . Again, I would ask why you think it needs ploughing. Parts of our place have a lawn-like smoothness, but parts are a bit bumpy where we had a pair of ploughing pigs in a while back, and where sometimes we have run our cows on a patch that is a bit wet. The parts that are lawn-like have been retrieved from a paddock by constant mowing with a lawn tractor, with any bumps being taken out over time by careless use of said lawn tractor. Come over and meet our lawn (and us and our menagerie) some time but don't tell OH of the possibility of rescuing horses. []

Hi eelcat - thank you for your kind offer - our email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. please forward your contact details - we'll bring the honey beer and snaks.

mcalondon;403597 wrote: Hi eelcat - thank you for your kind offer - our email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. please forward your contact details - we'll bring the honey beer and snaks.

Honey beer sounds interesting...[]

Welcome, let me know if you find anyone for the ploughing etc...

Actually, it is probably time to have another Wairarapa get-together and put faces to names - I'll sort out a date and get back to you - watch this space. Yesterday would have been good and then you could have brought in the rest of our hay before it rained grrrrrrrr

Hey Eelcat - could Wellington members gatecrash that get-together???
Cheers, Mich.

Mich;404110 wrote: Hey Eelcat - could Wellington members gatecrash that get-together???
Cheers, Mich.

Sure, I don't believe I am prejudiced

eelcat;404108 wrote: Actually, it is probably time to have another Wairarapa get-together and put faces to names - I'll sort out a date and get back to you - watch this space. Yesterday would have been good and then you could have brought in the rest of our hay before it rained grrrrrrrr

Was thinking that myself...

Hello Mark and Kimberly,

we are in the Wairarapa as well. We bought 5 acres and had 1 horse (recently upped to 3 ). As we use a sacrifice paddock for over wintering the horse we completely destroy a paddock each winter, to restore the paddocks we purchased a little Fergy TEA 20, a 2 furrow plough, a rotovator and a fert spreader. We tried getting the contractors in to do it but found the big equipment was too cumbersome for our little paddocks, the poor guy spent more time doing multi-point turns than the actual work. The tractor and equipment has proven very useful, I have no idea what other sort of motorised ploughing systems there are, this is just what we went with. You are welcome to come and have a look at our little tractor and gear, Hubby has just spent some time pootling around and ploughing a paddock so there is a chance to see the finished product and we are not far from Xartep . Otherwise we will be at Eelcats Wai get together on the 4th and can chat there if you are interested.

for whats is worth.. my place has had horses on it for the 25 years i have been there and i know the previous owners had at least 3 horses as well for the previous 7years.. so its flat, boggy in winter and has horses and 4 cattle beasties.. i havent ploughed, but i did get attachments for the quad bike.. fert spreader, spray unit and harrows..and over the course of 2 years have knocked the place into park like shape..
like foufee, the bigger contractors spent most of the time just trying to get around the paddocks and the big heavy equipment made a hell mess..
well worht investing in small diy equipment to keep on top of things as and when it suits