Ploughed Land, Growing Weeds - Will Power Harrow Eradicate Weeds Before Seeding?

[EnglishRose]

Due to a disagreement with neighbouring farming family company, over who owns 4-acre of land that I've been on for over 27 years and that is only accessible by me from the 7 acres I rent off a different landowner, his answer to me applying to Land Registry to change the register, when I found out that they had registered it in his name in 2013 and didn't declare I'd been there all that time (they only realised it had originally been owned by his family, when they registered all their surrounding land in 2013), was to plough it up at end of May this year by dropping my electric fence, driving over my grazing and loosing my horses into a different field!

As they didn't consult the boundary plan, they also ploughed up over an acre of land I rent off the Council.

I got a contractor in to power harrow it thinking it would grow grass but it's just grown weeds!

The farmer is being forced by the legal dept of the Council, to reinstate the grazing I rent off them.

The farmer's solicitor says a contractor is due tomorrow and apparently are going to power harrow until a suitable seed bed is established and then a seed drill will be used.

But surely, this will not kill off the weeds?

Also, where the land has lain so long without grass and we have quite a drop down to a river side, it's washed a lot of soil off and some of it looks like a pebble beach! Will the power harrow bury those stones and bring soil to the surface? Surely the power harrow cant do the job of a stone burier?

Also, do you roll before seeding or after and if after, how long after seeding?

The Council aren't farmers and I know very little about cultivating land as only grazed my acres and took hay so I need info to go back to this farming company and say actually, what you're planning won't return my lovely green rolling field to as good as it was before.

Any advise from you 'seasoned' farmers would be appreciated

Regards, Rose

[MC130]

If the weeds have been growing since early summer, it really needs ploughed again. Repeated power harrowing might break up the weeds enough to make a seedbed, but it's not ideal.
Best thing at this late stage is to be waiting for the contractor when he arrives and have a chat with him. It's not really in his interests to be seen to make a mess of the job. He might go back to the farmer and persuade him the plan needs changing

Beware, once the job is done you will likely get a new crop of weeds along with your new grass. Get someone to look at it, an agronomist or the contractor maybe if he has a sprayer, as soon as they appear. Don't let them get too big. This should really be part of the reinstatement as well so mention it to the council.

If it's had to be power harrowed repeatedly, rolling afterwards should be sufficient, but you might need to wait a few hours until the surface dries out, depending on what type of soil you have.

[Ironhead]

. . . snip . . .

washed a lot of soil off and some of it looks like a pebble beach!
. . . sbuo . . .

Regards, Rose

Rose
Has the owner of the acre that has been washed off been consulted as to what they want for the repair of their land?

a seeded "pebble beach" would not, in my opinion, be prime grazing land (thus you should not be charged as much per acre as the rest of the land)

[4wd]

If the seeding is done with a direct drill style machine it can work quite well to (ballast) roll it before sowing, and preferably again afterwards.
Broadcasting onto fuzzy power harrowing you might just roll it again afterwards, grass doesn't like to be in too deep and the chance of an extended dry spell ought to be diminishing towards October.
As for the weeds, depends what's there, if mainly annuals they could be killed by cultivation in a dry spell, a load of docks and such will soon regrow but grass might still establish and weeds could be topped over.
It's getting rather late so even down south need to crack on or leave it until early next year.