So seeing as my two horses enjoy using the seemingly luxurious long grass as their toilet, and eating other areas of the pasture (4 acres) down to the dirt, I spent about 4 hours picking up all the poop out of the long grass, and flinging or moving it by wheelie into the stubble grass areas in hopes that it will force the horses to eat the longer grass, and help to fertilize the short areas and deter the horses from eating the little bit that is there.
I usually drag the pasture and just leave the poop where it lies, but the nice grass just gets more lovely.
I do mow during the summer, and try to keep the pasture between 4-6 inches.
Thoughts?
It makes no sense to do that. Horses have their grazing areas and their bathroom areas. By spreading their manure all over the field you are reducing their grazing areas, or simply spreading parasite eggs. Better to just leave it alone, and fertilize and seed to improve the areas they graze.
OK, I see your point, but then should you never drag a pasture because of parasites? I thought their manure would be fertilizer. I am not terribly worried about parasites. I only have two horses and they are wormed regularly. I have also had fecals done, although I know that a fecal test doesn’t show all types of worms. They don’t seem to have a parasite problem though and if I keep allowing them to graze down their favourite areas to nothing, they won’t have that pasture at all. I will be applying lime in the spring.
Nooooooo!
The eaten areas are called “lawn” (really) and the horses DO NOT manure there because it is how they pracrice parasite control.
The long grass is called the “rough”, and they don’t eat to because it’s full of manure and parasites.
You just contaminated some good, clean area.
Can you drag the hell out of that area and break everything up into tiny bits so the eggs are killed? This is why people pick pastures. Don’t try to force your horses to eat the rough. It’s sour, yucky manure grass,
[QUOTE=Cruiser12;7813152]
OK, I see your point, but then should you never drag a pasture because of parasites? I thought their manure would be fertilizer. I am not terribly worried about parasites. I only have two horses and they are wormed regularly. I have also had fecals done, although I know that a fecal test doesn’t show all types of worms. They don’t seem to have a parasite problem though and if I keep allowing them to graze down their favourite areas to nothing, they won’t have that pasture at all. I will be applying lime in the spring.[/QUOTE]
Horse manure is a pretty crappy (no pun intended) fertilizer.
The whole point of paste dewormer is to try to help break a certain point in the four stage worm cycle, it doesn’t simply rid your horse of worms all together, unfortunately. The best way to hell keep your horses as worm free as possible is to keep your pastures worm free as possible. Their environment is much more important than any deworming method we have available. If your pastures are clean enough, you ideally won’t need to deworm them with pastes.
Worms reproduce by laying their eggs inside your horse, the eggs come out in the horse’s manure. Worm eggs are VERY hardy, they can survive for a long time in both hot and cold weather. They basically wait around to be ingested by another horse. When they get inside the next horse they grow and reproduce and the cycle continues. I hope I explained all that correctly and it made sense.
If the eggs aren’t ingested, eventually they will die, breaking the cycle. That is why you want to make it as hard as possible for them to become re-ingested into another horse. Spreading the manure out makes the worms very happy because the horses are much more likely to ingest the eggs.
The BEST way to cleanse your pastures and ensure the worm cycle is broken is to have multiple species (cows, goats, horses, etc.) on the same land. Worms cannot survive in another species, so once ingested the cycle is effectively broken. It is healthier for both/all species, and the land itself, just not for the parasites 
Fresh horse manure is “crappy fertilizer”, aged horse manure to plants is like “crack” to addicts.
I have been composting and spreading it on my fields for years, and every year the grass comes in more lush, healthy, and abundant. Granted, the horses are off the fields in fall (rainy and slick) and until it is good and frozen and snow covered in winter.
It is hard to make them eat the “rough” and am not sure it is a good idea. Better management would be to split the pasture into more sections so while one is eaten, others “rest” and re-grow better.
Yes, exactly. Dividing a pasture and resting part of it at a time is a great way to protect your horses’ pasture forage supply, along with soil tests, appropriate response to the soil tests, and periodic seeding. Rotational grazing with another species such as cows, goats, or sheep is also an excellent way to rejuvenate horse pastures. Those animals will happily eat the “roughs” left by the horses.
Not only is fresh horse manure a terrible fertilizer, horses also typically refuse to eat from areas where manure has been spread. Spreading manure will limit your horse’s grazing areas further. If you must spread manure, the best way to do it is to compost it first and then spread it. Still, I have noticed that my horses refuse to graze the lush area in one paddock that used to be a garden fertilized with composted horse manure.
It has been shown that during most times of the year dragging actually enhances parasite spread by dragging parasite eggs onto clean areas of a pasture. The only time this wouldn’t be true would be during very hot, dry weather which would kill the parasites. So, dragging a pasture actually has very limited utility in terms of good pasture management.
We do drag pastures, but only when the horses have been rotated off it, never while they’re still grazing. We usually move the horses, drag, and then leave the pasture fallow for a minimum of three weeks. We also time deworming to coincide with moving to clean pasture.
So in your situation, I would definitely consider dividing your grazing area and rotating the areas. Moving the manure around is not a good idea. Depending on how heavily you’re grazing, you may also have to do a little picking to ensure they have clean grazing.
Horses hate the taste/smell of grass grown where manure has rotted. And they can tell that manure used to be there for a very long time (6-12 months I think I read somewhere) unless you pick it up within 24, preferably 12, hours.
The answer to protecting the nice lawn areas is rotational grazing. Split your 4 acre paddock up into 4 paddocks. Could be with electric tape and standards, or warratahs (T posts?), doesn’t have to be permanent fencing - though you’ll have to spend some money either way. Graze each section for a week, then move them to another section.
Would still be ideal to do something with the manure (e.g. pick it up and compost it) but in an 1 acre area not critical.
We have been dragging our paddocks for 25 years without removing the horses. They are doing just fine. No parasite load in the fecals, regular deworming. We also mow our fields to keep the weeds down. We are in Massachusetts, so our grazing season is pretty short.
OK, I understand. We just purchased this land, built our house and working on the barn, put two nice run in stalls in immediately and now that the house is complete we are back to working on the barn. I haven’t had horses at home in over 15 years, and when I did, I lived on a farm in Ont. Canada and had about 20 acres where I kept 3 horses, so I never gave “poop” a thought.
Our 4 acres of pasture here is quite good but it took at hit late summer/early fall with no rain for about a month and the horses chewed the daylights out of the favourite areas.
I have talked about splitting up the pasture and seeding this year, but opted for working in the barn/tack room instead. It looks like I need to go ahead and split it up though. I use Horse Guard Fence, so it’s certainly easy enough to do it.
I am starting to feed hay now, so I am not concerned about the horses being hungry. I just can’t cut off the “eaten” areas only though because as they are so varied in size in shape and placement. It would look like a drunk person did the fencing!
Well thank you for all of your advise, and to the person who suggested that I break it up very small, yes I am headed out to drag this afternoon. Most of the, “flung poop” broke up very well anyway, but I do want to break it down further. It will hopefully compost over the winter and do some good!
you could also get a pasture vacuum… For your amount of land and the number of horses it makes sense…
Every time someone posts a question like this, it seems like the majority of people post about how awful it is to just spread your horse manure through the pasture and that the only acceptable solution is to pick the poop up and dispose of it - although some will say compost it and then spread it back on the pastures.
Yet, if you actually do some research on the subject, look at extension service reports and such, the majority of experts seem to recommend dragging your pastures to break up and spread manure around. For example:
University of Minnesota:
To ensure that pasture plants can more easily use the manure’s nutrients, frequently drag or rake the manure deposited in the pasture. This will more evenly distribute the manure and promote its breakdown while also reducing the potential exposure of horses to internal parasites.
And this from the University of Missouri:
Some concern has been expressed that dragging pastures may increase the likelihood of spreading infection of intestinal parasites to grazing animals. While this may be a concern in some environments, it is generally not considered to be a problem in the Midwest and Upper South. Manure in dragged pastures dries out very quickly during most of the year (May to October) in Missouri. Exposing more manure surface area to the sterilizing effects of solar radiation kills most parasites. Simply drying the manure out reduces the likelihood of some survival for some organisms.
A quick google search turned up similar advice from Oregon State University and the University of Florida.
If you rotate your pastures you can drag and/or spread fresh manure without much fear of harm.
This does depend on where you are. If you’re in CA or the arid areas of the Southwest you might have to use some different approaches than folks in MN during winter or the very wet Mid-South/Mid-Atlantic during most of the year.
Still, rotation is the key.
G.
Yes, heat and UV rays will kill parasites.
However, the horses still will be reluctant to graze on pasture areas with spread out bits of manure. For a long time. I believe That’s why people are advocating rotating pastures and getting the horses off a pasture with spread manure.
[QUOTE=arlosmine;7813645]
Yes, heat and UV rays will kill parasites.
However, the horses still will be reluctant to graze on pasture areas with spread out bits of manure. For a long time. I believe That’s why people are advocating rotating pastures and getting the horses off a pasture with spread manure.[/QUOTE]
I’m not saying that pasture rotation isn’t a key element of pasture management. I dragged (drug?) a pasture this morning that I rotated off this week. I’ve got 4 separate pastures, of which at the moment I use 2 at a time. I also pick poop, rather than drag, in small pens/paddocks.
My post was addressing the many comments, here and in previous discussions of this nature, in which people insist that the only proper way to deal with manure in a pasture is to pick it up and either dispose of it or put it in a pile and compost compost it. My point was that spreading fresh manure via dragging your pastures is a perfectly acceptable component of your overall pasture management strategy.
Well I dragged the areas where I tossed the manure out of the longer grass and into the short. I turned the drag to the “smooth” side and it broke the already broken up pieces from being hurled across the field into very small pieces quite well.
I also laid out (in my head) how I will cut the pasture in half for now so that they can easily access their run in stalls.
I checked out Tractor Supply and I can afford to get the nicer type of step in posts. I have enough Horse Guard Tape left too, so I should be able to manage the project without hubby dearest, who will be busy in the barn, next weekend.
Guess this was the motivation that I needed to just do it!
I think flinging it around/dragging when it’s really hot, sunny & dry is the best way to avoid problems with worms.
Wow, hubby was going to borrow a harrow and drag the pasture next weekend. We keep them off of it Oct - April. Should I go ahead and have him drag, or not?
[QUOTE=Showbizz;7815960]
Wow, hubby was going to borrow a harrow and drag the pasture next weekend. We keep them off of it Oct - April. Should I go ahead and have him drag, or not?[/QUOTE]
Well that looks like it depends who you talk to for sure! But I would certainly say that if you keep them off the pasture all winter, the manure should be composted by the time they go back on it.
