Spraying is the most effective means of controlling heavily infested grassland. When applied at the right time, i.e. when weeds are at rosette stage and in an active growing cycle, the herbicide is ingested into the plant causing it to die. It is important to time spraying applications carefully since it is generally the case that only plants visible above ground will be destroyed and the herbicides generally used have no residual capacity in the ground. Spray too early and you miss plants which have not yet emerged, too late and some plants will be too well established to be affected fully by the herbicide. This is all totally dependant on weather conditions so it is difficult to say precisely when is a good time, but generally speaking April-May in Spring and Sept in Autumn are near the mark.

There are however some fairly major down sides to spraying. Many wild flowers and herbs regarded as pests in agriculture are highly useful in equine paddocks. By spraying you can be assured that many highly nutritious and palatable plants such as dandelion, yarrow and salad burnett will be lost. Removal of livestock will also be required for up to 10 weeks in extreme cases and there are also the environmental concerns attached to usage of such chemicals. We regard chemical spraying as a means of regaining control as quickly as possible and a return to good pasture maintenance thereafter is the preferred approach to this continual problem.