Creating a dry lot- safest way to kill grass

[HeatherB]

What is the safest way to kill grass in an area that is being made into a dry lot?

Thanks again!!!!!!

 

[Ryan Johnson]

It really depends on a few things. Whats Available where you are (Herbicides)?

How long MUST the area sit after spraying?

When is it safe for horses to return to that area without being affected?

I use a product called "Roundup" It will kill everything. I use this for the fence lines and to spray out the blackberries.

21 days after spraying is recommended as a rest period before horses returning to the area. I usually wait 4-6 Weeks just to be safe.

I Highly recommend going to your local feed store and asking what they would use as I am sure it differs from country to country and climate to Climate.

Best of luck

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I created my dry lot without the use of chemicals at all. I simple allowed the horses to graze on it for an hour a day every day and once it was eaten down to nearly nothing I left my horses there permanently. They never let anything green rear its head except the odd buttercup or daisy which I promptly yank out. Of course I started with a corral that had housed cows and sheep who cleared all the vegetation before I got here so I had somewhere for the horses to be while they weren't allowed to be grazing on what would eventually become their new drylot and home (around the new barn)

 

[bevann]

I have used a product called SPIKE to kill multiflora rose.I ground kills everything.Pellets and very expensive.I have also used Pramitol also pellets and liquid.Not as expensive but also good.Never had much luck with Round UP-stuff grows back, but there are different strengths of Round Up as previou9sly posted overgrazing with horses will kill everything.

 

[amysue]

I just put WAY too many horses or cows out in a lot during the dry season. Throw a goat or two out to clean up the weeds and you'll have a desert lot in no time. If you do not have a lot of head to graze it down, and allowing other's animals to join is not an option, they sell an herbicide at tractor supply designed for use around horses called pasture pro. One kills only broad leaf and one kills everything. After 25 hours it is safe to turn animals back out.

 

[chandab]

If your horse(s) can graze, then mow it first, remove the clippings, and they'll do the rest in no time.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

In my dry lot, only weeds they don't like come up now. I hoe them, or we spot spray them with Roundup. Not an issue, as they aren't things my horses eat anyway. But it's taken a few years of drought and hooves to get to this point.

Please read labels very carefully when using weed killers. Some will drift and cause damage to your or your neighbors trees/shrubs. Some have arsenic.

Cutting the grass very short may help in the long run, but short, stressed grass can have a lot of sugar at first.

 

[shorthorsemom]

How big an area? I chopped mine low with a mower and then I filled it up with 6 inches of pea gravel.

 

Dry lots create themselves here. Just take a pasture.....add a few horses.....pretty soon.....VOILA! Dry lot!

 

[lucky seven]

Seven keeps what grass comes up short and I mow the weeds. This is after a footing of gravel to cover the clay.

 

[Miniv]

What was mentioned above.... Mow it, let your horses live on it, and don't water it!

No chemicals needed.

 

[Shari]

If you have to running goats or sheep on an area, can make it into a dry lot real fast.

 

[Tony]

I have never heard of having to make a dry lot. My horses have been making them without help for over sixty years!

 

Right on!!!!!

 

[paintponylvr]

and if you use an herbicide to kill the grass, understand that you won't be able to use the horses' manure for a couple of years as compost. The herbicide takes a long time to break down and will kill or do major damage to garden plants if that manure used for compost directly on your garden.

We've found out the hard way the last couple of years...

 

[AngC]

Without being rabid, I lean towards organic methods. ...but if some weed ticks me off, I would use a herbicide or a nuclear bomb.

We've tried a couple strengths of Round-Up on our driveway, which is well away from our well, our garden, and our horse pastures. For the cost, it doesn't work for squat. We've had better luck with an attachment that hooks up to a propane tank and flames the weeds.

Regarding buttercups: Here we have what are called Ranunculus repens. When Baby got laminitis, we had to make a dry lot quickly. Prior to that, when allowed to graze freely, ours never touched the buttercups. When we made the dry lot, we took weed-whackers and cut the buttercups short (kind of bounce it off the ground to get them as short as possible.) The girls dug down and ate every root they could find, probably including lots of buttercup roots. It didn't give me a warm, fuzzy feeling that they were eating potentially toxic buttercups/roots, but so far all is o.k.