Pasture Management

[heartofwisdom]

I'm green and learning. I've read a lot of books about minis, grooming, training etc. but I neglected to learn about pasture management. For any other newbies out there:

#1 thing I wish I would have known.

I have 3 minis on one acre of pasture. I wish I would have known to divide the pasture and rotate the horses. Now the pasture is overgrazed and the horses are are on hay. I tired rotating them to my back yard but I have to keep them out each time its treated.

I'm working with Trugreen to have organic fertiliser safe for the horse put both the back yard and pasture. . I'm having a fence put up to divide the pasture in half.

#2. thing I wish I would have known.

You don't have to tromp through mud. Thanks to a post here I'm ordering stone dust to combat the muddy paddock. I'm been using straw and we're still slipping and sliding all over the place. How did I miss this? I guess it wasn't mud when I was studying how to care for horses...

Doing both the above would have made life much easier.

Question about pasture cleaning

Now that I'm on roll to make caring for my guys easier...I need to know more about cleaning the pasture. I clean the pasture (I use the word clean because I assume mucking is a word for stalls and there is another word for the pasture?) by scooping poop and taking it to a compost hole. I read manure piles in the pasture should be scattered periodically, by dragging a chain harrow. I have no idea what that is. I have a big riding lawn mower. Can I use it to do this? What else do I need?

Thanks,

Robin

 

[wade3504]

Just a suggestion but I went to a seminar a couple of weeks ago and there was a vet speaking during part of it. He talked about parasite control and said harrowing the pastures spreads the parasites. That's just something else to think about.

 

[eagles ring farm]

we have 1 dry lot area and 3 grass areas for our mares

when we rotate our pastures, the pasture we just got done using we pick up the manure in the area where they most often go then we have a piece of plastic coated cyclone fence with a board on each end to keep it streched and add some weight we use as a harrow much cheaper and works great. we mostly pull it behind our tractor but can also pull with the lawn mower.

we have also used our old riding lawn mower to cut up manure.

 

[heartofwisdom]

I read that you should harrow in very hot or cold weather to avoid the spreading parasites.

Remove or Harrow Manure in Pastures. Piles of manure droppings contribute toundergrazed areas of the pasture, because horses will avoid areas with droppings, and

the added soil nutrients in the manure will promote rapid plant growth. Manure piles in

the pasture should be scattered periodically, by dragging a chain harrow, spiketooth

harrow or other similar implement across the pasture. Harrowing the manure will

promote more even grazing. A good time to harrow the manure piles in the pasture is

shortly after the pasture has been mowed. Breaking up and spreading the manure piles

will help expose any parasites to air and sunlight, and kill some species’ eggs and

larvae. Be aware that parasites are killed when spreading manure in extremely hot or

cold weather; moderate temperatures and moisture favor parasite survival. Manure in

sacrifice areas should be regularly removed to maintain proper footing, reduce flies and

minimize parasite infestations.

we have also used our old riding lawn mower to cut up manure.

Do you mean just mow over it?

Thanks,

Robin

 

[jayne]

In the pasture I employ a much less technical approach than using lawn tractors and a harrow (although if I had them I would probably use them!). I use a garden rake and go for a walk around the pasture taking out my frustrations on poopie piles by flinging them far and wide. I do this when I rotate the horses out of a section. I too have heard that it can help spread parasites, but if you employ a regular de-worming program, this should not be a problem.

Contact your local county extension office and see if they have a class for pasture management. I took one last fall, put on by our local watershed board, and it was an invaluable source of information. Some of the participants also qualified for some money to help make improvements. They got some help buying gravel and/or hog fuel (big wood chips) to help create winter dry lots (in our case in WA it's winter WET lots). The goal of the watershed board was to keep manure tainted water from entering the waterways. This was done by managing manure (they helped us get started with composting), rotating pastures and sacrifice areas so the grass stayed long enough so the fields are able to absorb the water rather than just running off like it does when it's overgrazed. So, what I guess I'm trying to say...is that there are resources out there for this kind of thing. I also got to meet other horse people in my area and that was fun too.

Jayne

 

[rabbitsfizz]

Harrowing can well spread parasites all over your field, whatever the books say. The destruction of parasites relies too much on the weather for me to take a chance on harrowing fields that have horses on them.

If you have a ride on you can get an implement to pick up leaves that should,depending on the size and power of your tractor, pick up poop.

I do harrow the winter pasture as it has six months between the animal coming off and then going back for the winter, and the poop has plenty of time to rot down and turn into fertiliser.

Any poop that hangs around on the surface of my field gets swept up!!

Area I am dealing with is way too large to be using a rake on

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I don't know what area of the country you are in. If you are in a prairie area, harrowing the field spreads the manure out so it dries up and the parasites die. If you are in a wet area that might not be the best answer. The extension office has several pamphlets on pasture management and parasite control. They will inform you about how often pastures need to be rotated for grass recovery also. They will mail them to you if you call. Since we live on a prairie, we harrow our pasture with good results. The horses go into a dry lot at night and I pick all that up for the compost pile. Composting manure will kill parasites because of the heat build up. I test my horses twice a year for parasites and have not had to worm for two years. Isn't it amazing how much there is to know?! Our harrow is a very old one only about 5 feet across. A riding mower could pull it.

Jayne, I like your frustration technique! Much more constructive than breaking dishes!

Marsha