Now, I always though MA was a he, and then one day I thought, "Oh! he's a she" and then I got confused. I remain so.
I asked MA that question directly once. In true permaculture fashion the answer was 'it depends'.....
In these videos, my favourite herbalist, gives a long series of lectures to naturopaths Before the lecture he collected a 1/2 dozen weeds from the local railway line and then talks about them Not sure which of these videos the weed section it is on; but all are worth listening to. https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1030658933757626407# [video=google;-1030658933757626407]https://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1030658933757626407#[/video]
I am from coastal British Columbia, Canada and I am a single mom who made my living as a breeder of showjumping horses . In the past few years I have been shaking my head thinking that has got to be the least sustainable sport so I have backed off in a big way but still have some horses, including my two breeding stallions on a very compact 4 acres. As I understand it flowering buttercup has alkaloids that make it toxic to most livestock so they do not graze it. I do rotate and mow the buttercup but without spraying poison I have never gotten it under control and not utilizing the land I have is not an option .
You could try deep ripping and agistment while your paddocks rest. Have you see the article on the PRI website about fodder trees for horses. She is saying that horses in the wild get as much as 70% of their diet from browsing, so you could look into planting some known fodder trees.
Seed ball in Autumn with enough species to push out the buttercup. IE. You need a rhizosphere plant to replace the buttercup. Something that holds soil well like Crimson clover, add to this other seeds such as lupine, daikon, shasta daisy, etc to complete a proper meadow with proper varied root system. Just my idea, could be wrong.
I really think that you have answered your own question. I see that the weeds" are telling you that the pasture is overgrazed and needs decompacting and resting to allow for the return of competing pasture. Or live with the Buttercups.
I pretty much think purplepear is right, it needs to fallow , a year or two with the grass uncut the tall growing grasses selectively out perform the buttercup and reseed establishing a better pasture but with this small a plot I cannot afford to leave the pastures fallow for any amount of time and I have sprayed nothing in 18 years here , just mowing to try to cut the buttercup before it has a good chance to seed but it regrows from roots too. I was under the impression reading somewhere that our buttercup was indicative of an acidic soil and adding lime might knock it back . I seeded red clover one year and the horses single it out like candy and destroy it but are good with white clover and grass growing together.
Can you move the horses through faster to sort of "top" the grass but not cut it close? I'd be worried that letting it go entirely fallow without any cutting would favor only the tallest grasses which might shade out other beneficial plants like the clovers....
Horses mightily prefer grazing low grass so will eat it down to its roots and leave any weeds they do not like to flourish and they prefer not to graze tall grass if they have any choice . I know getting rid of the horses is one solution .
Dzionik Thank you for the info. I have downloaded the book you mentioned from the Soil and Health library. So far, it looks like a good read lol. Benjy