There's a field beside us that has been left untouched for must be 25 years now. I think it was in an agri environment scheme but after the scheme finished was just left. I walk past it every now and then and wonder if its main benefit is for nature, how good a job is it doing? Would it benefit from some management? Hypothetically if you had the opportunity what would you do with it?
Some pics below.
Its a brown earth soil. Not heavy and free draining. Similar to the two cropping fields we have nearby. Lovely structure and texture and as you'd expect no compaction. But kind of lifeless. No worms.
This is the predominant cover.
Quite a bit of plantain.
Some big areas of redshank and scattering of ragwort.
A bit of gorse.
Some willow.
Vetch.
Brambles and nettles.
Personally I would be brave and leave it to go wild in its own natural way. It will slowly revert to woodland. I wonder what you did in the end?
If you could keep them in, pigs would clean up the briars in no time! I can lend you some!!
Could be a good experiment field. Take soil samples now. Let sheep in to only half of it. Give other side some bio-stimulant with humic or seaweed. Then sample again next year the two half’s and see if animals or natural inputs have better effect.
As a farmer with a commercial hat on I would say this field needs a good clean up before you can start to rejuvenate it. I think there is too many invasive species on the way to taking full control. Soil looks good and the sooner it's taken back into management ( whatever you consider) the better