Manure- moving it around the field- does this logic make sense

[kalidascope]

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.

[dotneko]

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.

[Cruiser12]

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!

[Manni01]

you could also get a pasture vacuum… For your amount of land and the number of horses it makes sense…

[NoSuchPerson]

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.

[Guilherme]

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.

[arlosmine]

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.

[NoSuchPerson]

[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.

[Cruiser12]

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!

[saultgirl]

I think flinging it around/dragging when it’s really hot, sunny & dry is the best way to avoid problems with worms.

[Showbizz]

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?

[Cruiser12]

[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.

[S1969]

I believe I read that horses will avoid eating from the roughs for as long as 3 years after they have been used as manure areas; so dragging won’t really change that, nor will rotating, unless you have tons and tons of pasture.

I drag my pastures for aesthetic reasons more than anything else. I don’t want to look at piles of manure in them, nor do I want to pick 4 acres of manure. But I try not to drag the manure into the lawns, since that is only likely to make the grazing area smaller.

I’m not particularly worried about parasite contamination by dragging as I have big enough pastures and supplement with enough hay in a drylot that my horses don’t have to graze from the roughs (nor will they anyway). And I do fecals and deworm twice a year and/or as needed.

So, I would say go ahead and drag your pastures; but don’t expect that by doing so it will necessarily force your horses to graze the roughs more than they do now.

[LDavis104]

From AAEP.org “AAEP Parasite Control Guidelines”
http://www.aaep.org/custdocs/ParasiteControlGuidelinesFinal.pdf
The entire article is VERY informative, but here is the part specifically about environment-based approaches:

Eggs hatch and develop into infective larvae under conditions of moderate temperature and moisture. Cold slows the rate of development or stops it altogether, and excessive heat kills eggs and larvae. It is possible to heat manure sufficiently to kill the parasites, including even ascarid eggs (Gould et al., 2012). Proper composting of manure and soiled bedding will generate relatively high internal temperatures, and strongyle larvae in manure are virtually eradicated by exposure to temperatures over 40 ºC for a minimum of two weeks. Composting is a practice that should already be in place at any stable.

Non-composted horse manure should never be spread on pastures as this will increase the level of parasite contamination.

Leaving pastures unoccupied for several months of the year may or may not reduce the risk of infection depending on the time of the year. Infective strongyle larvae (L3) can survive for only a few weeks in hot weather, but for as many as six to nine months during colder weather (Nielsen et al., 2007). Consequently, L3 survival in the environment will vary greatly from region to region and season to season. Thus, strategies for environmental control must be made based on local conditions.

[purplnurpl]

welp. I suck then.
We have 2 acres for our 2 horses. there doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to where they crap.
I spread out there too…and I pick the poop in the pasture and spread it. Everything gets spread out there.

Everyone seems fine.
I’ve never noticed them not eating from a certain area due to poop. There is one really green small area where the water flows when it rains…they neither poop nor graze there. lol.
who knows…

[dotneko]

Yes, I am terrible, too. I have been spreading the manure in my paddocks for 20 years. (22 paddocks from 1/2 acre down to round pen size with one occupant apiece). My horses are all worm ridden creatures and the vets doing the fecals are incompetent.

[SuzieQNutter]

We drag paddocks here in Aus but then we have a lot of heat to kill the parasites.

The easiest way for us (maybe not for you) is you let cattle into the paddock. They eat the rough and if they pick up the horse parasites they don’t continue the cycle. WIN WIN:yes:

[Bluey]

We spread the horse manure in cattle pastures.

I wonder if some of you without those could possibly find some neighbor that will let you spread there?

[dotneko]

I use a chain link drag behind my tractor.

[merrygoround]

We drag winter pastures as soon as the troops move to summer pastures. That gives the worms plenty of time to die. However when the horses come back, they still won’t graze the roughs. That’s the only time I wish I had beefers.