I will be applying 15 15 15 fertilizer to my fields this spring. How long do I have to wait before I can safely graze my horses on this pasture?
I’d call my vet to be sure. I keep mine off 7 days --based on what he recommended, returning them to pasture (ideally) after a heavy rain. But, I have only geldings --might be longer for mares or foals.
Foxglove
First, read the label on the product. That’s the first and best source of information.
Second, wait for a good rain. That can be 24 hours later or several days later.
Third, go with your vet’s recommendation if it makes you comfortable.
G.
A good rain, or even a heavy dew is helpful in taking the nutrients down into the soil, but nothing in a 15-15-15 is going to harm your horse.
Unless you are applying 300# per acre, you could turn your horse out as soon as the spreader leaves the field. But a nice 0.5" rain makes us feel better about it. 
Read the label. I’ve heard/read to wait until after half an inch of rainfall. But I prefer smaller increments over a few days to one torrential half-inch downpour, which makes me worry the fertilizer will wash away.
Liquid spray or beaded/slow release broadcast?
I have only applied beaded/slow release. There is no graze restrictions for what I use. The tiny “beads” lay on the ground well below what a horse will graze from.
I did beaded fertilizer and our pastures are irrigated. I think I waited a week.
[QUOTE=gumtree;8642703]
Liquid spray or beaded/slow release broadcast?
I have only applied beaded/slow release. There is no graze restrictions for what I use. The tiny “beads” lay on the ground well below what a horse will graze from.[/QUOTE]
Yes, beaded fertilizer. From what I read 2 weeks and 1/2 inch of rain fall. I’m applying it at 100# per acre. Does that sound about right?
[QUOTE=Forte;8643014]
Yes, beaded fertilizer. From what I read 2 weeks and 1/2 inch of rain fall. I’m applying it at 100# per acre. Does that sound about right?[/QUOTE]
“100# per acre. Does that sound about right?”
Every pasture, field will require different amounts. It’s generally based on a soil test from lots of samples taken from various parts of the paddock/field. Mix all the samples together well and fill to the “line” on the sample bags. Submit several bags per paddock/field.
When the test results are returned it will tell you exactly what is needed of each and how much per acre. I take/fax/email the text results to my local Ag fertilizer supplier. They mix up the batch as outlined on the report, fill the spreader buggies/wagons set the amount delivered at X ground speed and drop off.
Hook to my tractor and have at it. Or pay them to take care of everything for you.
Thank you Gumtree! That’s extremely helpful info.
I was going to ask you to reconsider using a generic fertilizer like 15-15-15, to fields that may not need them. Gumtree’s recommendation of soil testing is the BEST way to get your fields the proper ingredients needed to make them productive for your CROP, which is grass. You need to talk to the folks at the Fertilizer plant with your soil test results, to make the best fertilizer recipe for your fields. They will also tell you how heavy to put it on. No use putting on 200# if 100# an acres is good enough. And you could be just “teasing the plants” if they need a really heavy application of fertilizer per acre, but you only give them that 100#s. Not nice to fool Mother Nature! Ha Ha
Truly, you are wasting money, washing away nutrients not needed into the water table, when doing an “all purpose” fertilizer to acreages. Yards can manage generics because they are small, less waste. But fields need closer attention to proper ingredients of fertilizer minerals, to get the best results for your money invested. Nitrogen washing down the stream does grow great alge, weeds in the lakes and rivers!
Might I also suggest you ask for Ammonium Sulfate as the Nitrogen provider, because it is SAFER for horses than Urea. Doesn’t evaporate quickly like Urea does. Urea will decompose fast when spread, losing the Nitrogen into the air, if not rained on pretty quickly to go into the soil. There are also problems with Urea, founder issues, when used on horse fields. This is even when well rained in. We never use Urea these days in our fertilizer mix because the Ammonium Sulfate is so much safer. Cost is about the same, with similar good results to the plants.
Folks here are braver than I am, letting horses back on the fields so quickly after fertilizing. I usually wait a couple weeks, during which a couple rains have happened, granules are not visible anymore on the soil.
Ok this might sound like a dumb question but…
What’s the difference between using packaged fertilizer vs. spreading/grading manure that is already on the ground?
I guess the biggest difference would be manufactured products are made to a standard and manure isn’t.
G.
Manure doesn’t give as much to the soil, as the manufactured products. Manure might not even contain the minerals needed for the ground to improve production. This is why the invention of manufactured fertilizers were able to help the American Farmer increase his production so significantly when fertilizers were put into use. You got times 10 or more, bushels, bales, to the acres, for the same time spent plowing and planting, increasing yield AND the money you got paid for the crop.
Manure does help the land, adds organic material, but can’t do the same job, help the land the same ways, as applying specific minerals to aid the expected crop. You would not put the same fertilizers on the land for growing corn or beans, as you do to get hay or pasture. This is why you tell the Fertilizer Folks your crop is grass, for horses, so they can help you best with the proper minerals needed for that crop.
And as Guilherme said, your manure is not standardized. Only as good as what the animal eats. Which may be poor pasture, low calorie hay, which ALREADY do not have high mineral contents, so they can’t add much back when spread on the fields. Minerals in the fertilizers help each other too. I had PLENTY of soil Nitrogen, but needed lime to allow plants to use that nitrogen. Other years I did need Nitrogen, which gets “tied up” processing wood products used for bedding, which I spread on the fields. Nitrogen is not “gone”, just unavailable at the moment, so I needed it added to the fertilizer that year. The woody products help my fields with clay dirt immensely, adding all that fiber to the soil, allowing much better drainage and “mulching” the plants to prevent sunburned roots or really dry, hot soil. The plants grow well, even in periods of sparse rain with this protection. Straw bedding doesn’t do that for me, won’t stay down, blows away.
My soils are greatly improved, much higher production of grazing plants, with attention to field care of the land. We USED to have to start feeding hay in August, because we didn’t mow much, not using wood bedding products, not spreading on our ground. There just was nothing to graze, so we had to feed hay a lot longer in the year. And we only had 4 horses then! Big savings, healthier for the horses to be grazing them, over buying hay. They are in great working shape, shiny enough to blind you, and only out grazing half the day to prevent being overweight. They work hard too, but don’t need a lot of grain, good pasture fills them up and out.
Thanks goodhors
[QUOTE=goodhors;8649826]
The woody products help my fields with clay dirt immensely, adding all that fiber to the soil, allowing much better drainage and “mulching” the plants to prevent sunburned roots or really dry, hot soil. The plants grow well, even in periods of sparse rain with this protection. Straw bedding doesn’t do that for me, won’t stay down, blows away.[/QUOTE]
Interesting! Do you compost the bedding/manure first? How thick do you spread it? Do you keep the horses off that area afterwards and if so, how long?
If a soil test shows things need to be heavily amended be it with lime and or a combination of fertilizers. It’s not a good idea to do all at once. A lot may get washed off and or just too heavy a concentration to do at one time. Much better to do 1/2 in the early fall and the other half in mid to late winter depending on how hard your ground freezes.
I would be careful spreading any quantity of compost made from “woody stuff” like shaving, etc. Wood compost is pretty acidic and will drop the PH of the soil. Grass does not grow well in “sour” soil. You will need to add lime also to bring it back in balance. More money and time.
I spread it all in one application. The fertilizer spreader wagon throws it wide and far, with warning of 40ft width spreading. I put markers in to barely overlap the lines of spreader wagon. I have never noticed the wagon leaving piles or heavy fertilizer concentrations in any locations to burn the land. Wagon I rent from the fertilizer plant, does a good job for me.
Usually fertilizer is done in spring, but fall will work also. Sometimes it depends on the weather, with too much rain making ground too soft, too late into spring. You just can’t get it done in “the window” where you get the good rain to wash it in, before the plants have gotten going really well, so the field has time to “heal” in growing back a good cover before horses get out on it to tear things up.
I have been doing this method now for over 12 years, with pastures looking better each year. We now graze horses far into the fall, Oct. usually, though it was Dec. last winter, before having to start feeding hay. The turf is thick, productive, keeping horses well nourished during the grazing season. Much better than when we didn’t take very good care of the land, never fertilized or even mowed much because of our ignorance.
I don’t believe I get much fertilizer run off ever, partially the way my land lays. Secondly because I am not putting it on raw ground. I do lightly disc the pastures, score lines thru the turf to let air into the soil, cut the grass roots to promote growth by splitting plants. The pasture plants, spread bedding both slow and catch runoff. The disc lines in the ground also help in slowing water flow and any granule movement by catching them in the rough cuts, if there should be heavy rains.
I would not consider spreading fertilizer in the winter, hard ground or not. Horses are out in those fields, nibbling what is left of the grasses. Certainly no one locally does any kind of fertilizing in the winter times, despite getting frozen ground sometimes 6ft deep. Not recommended in our location.
I do not compost my bedding, before spreading on the fields. Composting would severely reduce the quantity of material I had to spread. I believe I NEED all that volume of woody bedding, to do the job needed on my kind of clay ground. Without organic material, woody in this case, the clay gets very hard, no place for air between the dirt particles for absorbing rain, letting plant roots grow down into it. If you spread the bedding in thin layers, the micro animals in the dirt will come, pull down the woody fiber, manure fiber, help open the clay soil. It works the same in other soil types too. Then the fibers start breaking down. I like the wood, it takes longer to break down, stays in place better than straws, so it does a better job for me. The extras do pile up with grass trimming from mowing, around the plant bases, like mulch. Just being wet, those trimmings, wood fiber, helps even out the soil temps to prevent drying over fast, getting too hot, cushion the dirt surface between plants.
Doing the soil tests, shows me if I need to add the minerals to balance any acidity, mineral imbalance from whatever reason. I expect yearly fertilizer costs to keep my pastures productive at the high level I need. Gumtree, if you don’t want to fertilize yearly, save money, fine. I can’t run my acreage that way, do not consider the investment of time, money, to be wasted or useless. There are places to pinch pennies, times to spend them, and fertilizing is one to spend on for me. I get new soil tests done every third year, to make sure my fertilizer “recipe” is still good. Sometimes things change, the recipe may need changing to suit the needs of the land.
I have a nice manure spreader, throws it far and wide. I make one pass on the land daily, with edges of each pass slightly overlapping. It is a light layer of bedding and manure laid down over the field. I try to spread from one side of the farm to the other. Some years I cover the whole farm, other years (more or less horses here) I don’t get everything covered in the year. Fields are dragged to break up any pasture manure from horses, additional spreading of the bedding to aid in breaking it down quicker, leaving no cut grass windrows, piles or patches of manure or bedding to kill grass underneath.
The problem with spreading pine shavings on the pastures (not to mention composting kills the flies and parasites in manure) leaches out nitrogen from the soil.
[QUOTE=khall;8651022]
The problem with spreading pine shavings on the pastures (not to mention composting kills the flies and parasites in manure) leaches out nitrogen from the soil.[/QUOTE]
Actually, according to my Fertilizer Folks, the Nitrogen is not leached out using woody bedding products, pine or otherwise. The wood takes longer to break down, using the Nitrogen, but Nitrogen is not actually ever “gone”. It may just be busy at the moment with the woody stuff. So adding a bit more Nitrogen to the mix helps the plants right now.
This also might be where the Lime addition to Fertilzer mix helps in letting plants better access the soil Nitrogen not being used. Chemical reaction process. It is very interesting what those soil tests will show, because that is what they say happens in my soil some years. Lots of soil Nitrogen, plants need lime to get the Nitrogen working for them.
My bedding is a mix of woods, not straight pine or even much pine at all. I get it from a wood company, with a horse knowledgeable person in charge of the safe woods allowed in the bedding mixes. We have been very happy with their bedding products for a number of years. They provide many local horse farms with their bedding. Everyone has been very happy with their services and products.
The horses are all testing negative for worms, so composting to kill eggs is not really an issue at the present time. Daily spreading seems to keep flies pretty reduced, no manure piles to let them lay eggs in.
