We just had our 1.5 acre pasture brush hogged after an extremely wet spring that left it very overgrown. It’s a mix of grass and weedy grass and weeds. The cut growth is still out in the field (not picked up in any way). How long should we let it sit before letting horses out to eat on it? Don’t want any gorging of fresh cut anything. They have been adjusted to grass in other pastures already
Thanks!
Tough job, but is there any way you can rake up the wind rows? I’d be more worried about heavy wind rows laying there and rotting = mold = killing/preventing new grass from growing where they lay especially if it rains again any time soon.
Last year I couldn’t mow one of my lowland, very wet pastures for months – grass was waist high – mowed and got it raked up (with help) and all was well.
Since you only have ~1-1/2 acres, I agree to rake up the wind rows due to molding/rot. Plus, leaving all that clumped up grass lay around will kill the grass under it and stink.
If you compost, put the grass in your compost bin. If not, buy some industrial size & strength garbage bags at Lowes or Home Deport and start filling them:)
1-1/2 acres is not that big, raking up the excess won’t take that long. You could section it up and divide the time into a few days:)
Agree, that little of an area with that much growth should be cleaned up for the health of the pasture
Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’ll see if I can round up some friends who are dying for an upper body workout! Thanks for the insight and feedback!
You don’t have to do that. Just mow it again.
We don’t really have the equipment to mow it ourselves - we hired it out for the first round. I fear our zero turn would really struggle with the piles of loooong grass/weeds that are now down on the ground and my husband would kill me if I ruin his new toy. And wouldn’t smaller pieces also cause the same problem? I’m new at managing more than a small lawn so definitely want to learn more about options 
I killed two traditional mowers trying to manage pasture, so I understand. Got a used ATV and a swisher. I’ve mowed pretty tall vegetation like yours and never had an issue with mold or dead grass, but I do mow twice if it gets really tall. You don’t need to pick it up. Haven’t picked up grass on my lawn or pastures in 20 years. I don’t have mulching blades since the grass can get too tall for them to handle.
If it’s not too tall and I’m basically topping weeds I let them graze the same day. If there is a lot of growth all around, I wait a couple days.
All the Free pizza and beer AFTER the raking is done:):)
I have never taken my horses off the pasture when it gets mowed and I have not had any colics. Mostly they do not want what has been mowed - they are looking for the new tender grass underneath. The small pasture I mow with my riding mower every week/ every two weeks. It stays pretty short because it is small and I am mostly knocking the weeds down and grass on the edges of the “lawn” which they use as their bathroom.
The larger 15 acre pasture just has one horse grazing it so it stays out of control. Especially since the guy that mows it has a broken tractor and I have been waiting for months for him to get to it. I did mow small areas of it last weekend with the riding mower but too much of that will kill my mower. I just leave the grass when he mows it. It is well established and I don’t think there is any way to kill that grass. Now this is not lush northern grasses - just fescue, bahia, and a little bermuda.
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