I have 2 - 3 acre pastures. How long after I mow and drag the pasture (to break up manure) should I wait before using the pasture again? Live in central PA. Also, any suggestions for weed killing that doesn’t involve Round Up?
Are rotating your pastures or are you putting some horses in each space?
Mr Trub sometimes mows the pasture while the horses are in it.
Since most of the mowing in ours involves mowing the rough, we do not worry about turning out immediately after mowing.
Round-up will kill everything, not just the weeds, so I would assume it is not on the table anyway.
Getting rid of weeds depends on the weeds.
Contact your local cooperative extension agent and discuss how to manage these things. They will know just what to do for your soil/weeds.
The answer will likely include soil testing.
4 Likes
I’m on even smaller acreage: 5ac total.
Pastures are ~2ac & ~1ac for current Herd of 3.
Horse, pony, mini are out 24/7.
Prior to adding mini in 2017, 2 geldings for 13yrs, same usage.
Like @trubandloki I mowed (riding mower) with horses in pasture. They followed me, Equine Bagging attachment 
Mostly taking down the roughs, but mowing the rest to 6".
Never a problem with weeds, or at least none horses didn’t eat.
What weeds are you targeting?
Around here they sell a product called (IIRC) Graze that kills weeds, but is safe for horses to go out on.
I don’t use it, so not certain how it works
Ideally you wait until grass has reached a “safe” height again for grazing. Generally, this is in the 6" range,depending on the type of grass. This could be 2 weeks this time of year, it could be 4 weeks in another month, depending on rainfall and type of grass.
If it’s the mowed grass clippings that’s a concern, it’s really not a problem for the vast majority of horses, assuming you’re not waiting until things are 3’ high. I mow our pasture with horses in it, they might nibble up a few of the clippings, but usually they want the freshly mowed stuff which is sweeter
Glyphosate would kill grass, so you can’t use that anyway. You need to know what weeds you have, to know what to use and when. Like, you might have buttercups, but it’s the wrong time of year to spray for them. Call your county’s extension/agricultural agency and have someone come out to help you.
Grazon Next 
Yes, that targets a whole lot of things, but is overkill for many.
very important note about Grazon - its carryover effect means it persists in manure for 2 years or so, which means if you use that manure on any plants that fall into the category of what it kills, it will kill, or at least majorly harm them
4 Likes
I mow pastures with horses in them, staying out of mower-lauched projectile range. I use mulching plates and blades to limit that, but someone can certainly berate me on mower safety and ppossible equine eye injuries if you wish to.
I use GrazonNext HL as a horse safe herbicide in pastures.
And I use Cheetah Pro as a nonselective herbicide alternative to Roundup to kill weeds and grass growing in my gravel driveway and impinging on the borders of my dressage arena.
I mow when it gets a decent length 8-10”. I try to mow before anything goes to seed/flower.
Then I’m slowly but surely manually removing weeds with my little weed tool. I’m doing my best to not use any chemicals since I use my compost in my garden and flower beds.
We are working to amend the soil with lime and working on spreading compost to help the grass and increase nutrients in the soil. Slow but the pastures look so much better in just two years.
2 Likes
Everyone else has covered the mowing pretty well, so I’ll just touch on the dragging.
For the purpose of limiting parasite transmission, pastures should only be dragged when temperatures are over 90 degrees Fahrenheit and the weather is dry. Parasite eggs are very hardy in damp, cool (or even freezing) conditions. I found a Swedish study once that documented the presence of viable ascarid eggs on a pasture that hadn’t contained horses for seven years!
4 Likes
Mowing high and mowing often, is better for your pasture plants. Removing shorter amounts of leaf is less shocking to the plants than taking off 2/3 to 3/4 of the total leaf length. Plants get back to growing faster with smaller leaf amounts removed each cutting. I never cut shorter than 5-6 inches. This length helps protect the plant roots and soil from sunburning in heat and “softens” rainfall onto the dirt to prevent erosion with water runoff. Leaving the clippings on the pasture is a two-fold benefit with clippings acting as mulch and returning nutrients to the soil. Over a season of mowing, the experts say you get a fertilizer application worth of benefits returned!
I try to mow when grass is 8-10 inches in height. With a variety of plants in the pastures, some grow faster than others, so it is not a exact height. Seeds appearing is also a sign, MOW NOW! Letting grass go to seed lets plant go dormant!! His summer job of reproduction is over, go to sleep now. Pasture growth grinds to a halt. If there is a drought then I quit mowing, reducing stress on plants, until we get rain again.
I never let horses graze grass way down to a couple inches! I may be changing their fields daily in drought times. Grass gets a little growth time overnight. We have limited acres, 11ish for grazing 7-9 horses. They get 99% of their diet from summer grazing. So preventing overgrazing is important to keep fields producing all summer.
Our horses are stalled in daylight hours, so pastures get that additional time to grow. My horses would be terribly obese with 24hour turnout! Very easy keepers. They get small amounts of grain and wet beet pulp in their stalls, when they come in. Most ignore it until later for eating. Usually no hay. I am NOT in the “horses need to eat 24 hours a day” camp of thinking. No ulcers here, no bad stall habits. They sleep in stalls or get worked during daylight hours. They DO QUIT grazing all the time when out, are standing around together at various times not eating or waiting in the drylot barnyard to come inside in the AM.
You may want to get your soil tested to determine fertilizers needed. Applying the one-size-fits-all additives using pre-mixed bags or just lime fertilizers, does not provide all the needed nutrients for best plant growth. Or wastes your money when parts of pre-mixed fertilizer is not needed, washes away. Grass is a crop, needs the correct minerals to provide good grazing for your horses. Good pasture on small acreages is going to take some effort on your part, but is very doable. Good grazing is healthier, more beneficial for horses and cheaper than buying hay.
4 Likes
