Why do we top mow or mulch grass?
Grass is topped so that it can rot down and create good nutritious soil to grow good vitamin and mineral rich grass. What we take from land we must put back.
Advantages
1. topping seen in this way adds to a self sufficient permaculture with no need for bagged fertilisers
2. There is a reduction in horse sick pasture with no need for bagged horse feeds. Bagged feeds and horse sick pastures create affluent malnutrition and metabolic disorders in horses.
3. Rotting of Cuttings also helps build soil life and therefore reduces compaction.
4. We can’t take from land without giving back or land will get horse sick, esp if we also poo pick and remove our black gold, then our land would be getting sod all
5. Topping retains moisture and so does muck so throw some of that on too!
6. Topping weeds before they seed saves a fortune on weed killer and is environmentally friendly and the weeds rot down and feed soil
7. Not using bagged fertiliser means no nitrates which although may help grass grow can also kill soil life. The very life we need to decompact our horse crushed or machinery crushed earth.
8. Topping encourages a stem to produce more side shoots and increase the amount of grass. This then will make the grass plants thicken up and outcompete weeds as well as shade the ground from harsh sun while keeping even more moisture in the soil. This is called encouraging the grass to tiller.
To summarise .... we give back to the land in the form of cutting so it can rot down and feed your grass to feed your horses. We can’t grow good grass in compacted dirt.
We all differ depending on our circumstances, land available and whether or not we are bound by other people’s rules but I top up until farmers take their first cut about now, then I grow it long as winter foggage. I stopped topping this year about a month ago and won’t top again this year as I need more grass plants and want it to go to seed. That will save me buying grass seed in September and having to overseed. Last year I had a lot of moss simply because there weren’t enough grass plants because I overgrazed the winter fields and now I’m thinking of next winters moss.
My grass is good now because I’ve done this over the years and built up a soil that retains moisture so the grass remains unaffected by drought. Mowing the roughs and angling the grass chute into the shorter areas to feed them, ensures that potassium rich roughs feed any overgrazed lawn bits.
It takes a while to improve land but only one season to wreck it.
We have drought but this is my worst field today simply because I’ve rested, rotated and topped. You can see how much moisture is being retained. This will be grown up as standing hay and overseeding fodder while the horses are tracked around the perimeter with access to more foraging and both long and shorter grass.
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