I have two horses at home and quite a bit of acreage with grass. In between three big pastures is a “run” about 1/2 acre narrow strip where for some reason they like to hang out. In this area the grass has never been the best pasture grass, but its not bad.
I have been dragging this small area to spread up the poop that is left there about once a week. Is that “bad” ? I pick the sacrifice paddock where it’s just dirt, but this area is somewhat grassy and it seemed reasonable to just drag?
I harrow my fields too, and have never had a problem. (I fecal test the horses here). If someone has more than an acre and picks up poop I kind of think they are nuts. (Just that it is a huge amount of work for little gain).
I (or should I say my husband) mows, drags with the rake, then comes back with a spikey harrow thing and drags again. We leave the horses off it for a few weeks, and after the next rain the grass bounces back very lush.
I only have 5 acres of pasture, and roughly 7 horses right now, but we have it divided into small fields with small herds, and keep it rotated plus supplement with hay. Its new, so the grass isn’t very well established so that’s another thing we watch carefully. The soil is a hard clay so I want as much manure in there as possible!
[QUOTE=SMF11;8246928]
If someone has more than an acre and picks up poop I kind of think they are nuts. (Just that it is a huge amount of work for little gain).[/QUOTE]
Well, call me nuts. We have 10 acres, with probably 3 as pasture, and I do pick up the manure. Climate here means that dragging is not that effective as we don’t normally get the sun/heat to kill the parasite eggs (I say normally as this year is odd and it has been hot and sunny…but I still pick it up). I also find that by keeping it picked up, it makes a big difference in the flies. We also had a big pigeon fever outbreak here a few years back and I still believe my fly control and manure pickup contributed a lot toward not having it at my place. We compost all manure and then can spread the resulting compost back out there once it has cooked down, killed the weed seeds and parasite eggs, and broken down into something that will be useful.
Now, if I had a large property, huge fields, and lived where it was dry and hot in summer, I would probably just drag. But here, I think my method is the right one for my situation, judging by the results.
We harrow pastures and pick dry lots. If they hang in there a lot, there is a good amount of manure. Are they using one specific area or going all over?
You could pick and start a pile in there and move it regularly.
The poops need to be broken up to dry out thoroughly in the summer months…
that seems to be the main reason.
I drag. I would not mind picking it up, but hate wrestling it out of the grass. It’s like a tug of war sometimes. So I drag.
Thanks all! Yep hot and dry here so within a few hours of spreading its dried out completely. Unfortunately because it’s the main access area to the other large paddocks I can’t keep the horses off it. That was my major concern. There’s usually 2 poop piles per day so it’s not like I’m dragging in obscene amounts of poop… they used to be on a regular deworming program because they were at a big boarding barn but since being home they have been done once in the spring (had a rescue horse here with a high worm load) but will likely now just follow up with fecals. Hopefully I’m going to get some negative results!
Obviously dragging is a labor saving for those who have plenty of property to work with. In our neck of the woods we get plenty of hot dry days. So dragging works fine, breaks up everything allowing it to dry out and bake killing anything that called it home.
For those who are working with small acreage dragging is really not an option if they don’t have a swing paddock to rotate into. Dragging spreads out “contaminates” so most horses won’t graze in that area and will graze the few small “uncontaminated” areas down to dirt. In our area it takes about a 4-6 weeks with normal rain fall for everything to break down and “wash” into the soil.
IMO the number 1 problem for people working with small acreage is soil compaction. The grass will grow but it generally won’t get “lush” without the ground being aerated periodically.
You have 2 horses and “quite a bit of acreage with grass” I see no reason not to continue dragging. Horses generally don’t eat where they s**t when they have other options.
Climate and number of horses dictates dragging or picking. Here in CA, it’s almost dry when it hits the ground–which may be why we don’t have many flies this summer.
We drag. We have 8 horses and 20 acres divided into 5 fields. I have a 13 month old son and am 28 weeks pregnant. Poo picking does not happen!! We don’t have hot, dry summers here to kill parasites but our fecal testing shows that we have no real issue with parasite burdens so I drag to try to minimize the rough patches in the fields rather than kill any eggs or larvae.
I go one step further and pulverize the dried manure piles w/ a small lawn tractor/mower w/ the blades set low to scatter and break up each ball. After one rain, which we get daily this time of year, it has fertilized the grass and all but disappeared.
Dragging just scattered the dried manure balls and they take a long time to disintegrate.
[QUOTE=Marla 100;8249776]
I go one step further and pulverize the dried manure piles w/ a small lawn tractor/mower w/ the blades set low to scatter and break up each ball. After one rain, which we get daily this time of year, it has fertilized the grass and all but disappeared.
Dragging just scattered the dried manure balls and they take a long time to disintegrate.[/QUOTE]
I do the same, Marla, and have found it very effective.
[QUOTE=Marla 100;8249776]
I go one step further and pulverize the dried manure piles w/ a small lawn tractor/mower w/ the blades set low to scatter and break up each ball. After one rain, which we get daily this time of year, it has fertilized the grass and all but disappeared.
Dragging just scattered the dried manure balls and they take a long time to disintegrate.[/QUOTE]
I do the same here. Works great.
[QUOTE=Marla 100;8249776]
I go one step further and pulverize the dried manure piles w/ a small lawn tractor/mower w/ the blades set low to scatter and break up each ball. After one rain, which we get daily this time of year, it has fertilized the grass and all but disappeared.
Dragging just scattered the dried manure balls and they take a long time to disintegrate.[/QUOTE]
Ditto. When mowing I just lower the hog over the piles and shred them.
I have kind of a dumb question…if you pick the poop, will they go back and eat in that area? I’ve never seen them do that…my horses usually poop in grass and then if i drag it, they won’t go back in the area they previously pooped and eat… and I think they do the same thing if i pick… but i’m just getting the routine down for picking now as I’ve been too busy wiht projects in the past few years to do it…
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