In case anyone is interested, I just published a new blog post documenting my first season of rotational grazing. It includes pictures from last year when the pasture was grazed continuously, as comparisons. I also have photos of some sections before, during, and after a grazing period that show how the grass is consumed. I might have more somewhere to add later. I thought it was all quite interesting to see–and, might I add, really easy to do with Horseguard tape and step-in posts!
nice!
and I think your new dry lot will help even more, as you can put them someplace where there is NO damage to grass, when conditions warrant.
Once you live with the horseguard long enough to see exactly where you like the crossfencing, do you have plans to replace the horseguard with wood fence for aesthetics and permanence?
The pictures are great to chronicle the differences and it will be interesting to see how much the weather effects results in future years.
Thanks, as always, for a well crafted and informative blog entry. 
Great to see the pictures and the difference - your pastures and farm are lovely!
Pictures are pretty clear, the rotation has helped keep the paddocks more productive.
My suggestion would be to rotate much more often, don’t let the horses shorten the grass down to the dirt.
The reason for faster rotations, of 4-5 days, is that the paddocks can recover faster, less waiting time to get length on the grasses before having horses grazing in there again. I have a small place, with about 11 acres in pastures, paddocks, for 7-8 horses. They only get grazing in summer, no hay unless we are going to a competition. They all get some grain, wet beet pulp once a day in a very minimal amount.
I do not want my grass down shorter than 4-5 inches, because then the hot sun, dry weather, can cook the grass roots with being exposed. Grass with leaves too short, takes MUCH longer to get length and be productive enough again for grazing. I change the 3 or 4 animals on the acre and a half paddocks about every 2 or 3 days, mow the paddock to keep weeds from growing and even up the grass lengths. I don’t want the grasses going to seed, they quit growing then. Mowing also encourages more growth of new grass leaves, which the horses like best. The big field of 3 acres can go 3-4 days of grazing, before I move the 3 to 4 horses to another location.
We also had drought weather for almost 7 weeks, starting the end of May. I quit mowing, just kept rotating the horses often, and they seemed happy. I offered hay in stalls, they were not interested, didn’t eat it. So what looked like poor pasture to me, still produced enough grazing to keep the 6 or 7 horses we had on it happy and full during that terribly dry and hot time. There was enough length on the grass to prevent plants getting sunburned, they could recover and grow during the days horses were in other fields.
Have to say that 4 horses in an acre and a half, are kind of like the locusts, they eat a LOT very quickly. So keeping everyone rotating after only a day or two, was needed to prevent overgrazing here.
They are only on fields half the day, stalled half the day. Flies don’t bother them in the barn, they are handy for being used, instead of out in the fields during the daylight hours.
There is NO ONE here who got thin on that daily grazing time length. Some are in work, they also did not lose weight or condition. They did not need any extra food in hay or increased grain portions. The yearling and 3yr old both grew quite well, no special feed or supplements, just grazing.
So you might consider dry lotting your horses part of the day, while doing more frequent rotations between the paddocks, so they ALL stay fairly lush looking. It is better for the plants, less likely to develop bare spots that let weeds get going. Mowing often, like when grasses reach 8-10 inches tall, shorten them to 5 inches, will really help develop a strong root system under the plants. We have wonderful turf here with that system. No divots as horses run and play, turf shows no impact from the hooves. Such turf can withstand the drought times, soften and absorb heavy rains, without letting erosion start. You have a more productive pasture over all, more grazing surfaces without bald spots.
I fertilize regularly each year after getting my soil tested. This means I am putting on only what the dirt needs to produce good grazing. This years testing showed my PH levels are perfect, so no lime needed. A savings for me! I get soil tests done every third year, should the dirt change. I spread bedding on my fields and it can cause soil to need additional nutrients or changes in the percentages I apply.
Congrats on a VAST improvement from last year to this year with rotating the fields. I think they can be even better for you, with a tweak or two. No need to just let horses graze a couple hours, then dry lot them, when changing fields. Fields will all be equally “rich” with much shorter rotations, so stomachs will be used to that kind of grazing. You may want to limit grazing times, so as not to over feed the horses. Like I do with only half day turnout and stalling. Good grass is the best food for horses, better than hay. Lots of nutrients, keeps them moving in the fields just being horses.
Awesome! We just bought a farm with 31 acres and my plan is to do rotational grazing! When I lived in KY it was the norm, but it doesn’t seem to be practiced as much where I am now. Of course, I have the luxury of it being just my own horses, I imagine it’s hard to do with a boarding barn.
Very cool! So grateful you shared!
How many equines did you have on each section? Just the two?
How much time per day on average did they spend out?
Did you pick up manure from the grazing areas? If so, how often? If not, did you manage manure in the grazing areas at all or just leave it lie?
Did you mow, fertilize or lime at all?
Thanks again for sharing!
Nice way to illustrate how useful (and easy) it can be. Definitely will do better with the dry area too. I do rotational grazing here too, using electric tape on step in posts to split areas. It makes a huge difference – my trainer/friend was here the other day marvelling at how much nice grass i have vs. the mud and weeds at his boarding barn (no rotation or maintenance, used every day, all year round). Of course, mine was “helped” this year by only having one horse that could be on grass for a large part of the summer as my youngster was off at training and my IR horse was restricted to a dry lot.
[QUOTE=ElementFarm;8917275]
Once you live with the horseguard long enough to see exactly where you like the crossfencing, do you have plans to replace the horseguard with wood fence for aesthetics and permanence?
The pictures are great to chronicle the differences and it will be interesting to see how much the weather effects results in future years.
Thanks, as always, for a well crafted and informative blog entry. :)[/QUOTE]
Thanks again, Element! And Pocket Pony!
I don’t know if I will ever replace the Horseguard honestly. It is so easy, I’ve already invested in it, and it’s almost invisible from the house so the aesthetics are really pretty good. The house is to the left of the field in the aerial view, so if I added wooden fences all you would see from the house is a quadruple line of fences, and they wouldn’t be parallel to each other.
[QUOTE=buck22;8917662]
Very cool! So grateful you shared!
How many equines did you have on each section? Just the two?
How much time per day on average did they spend out?
Did you pick up manure from the grazing areas? If so, how often? If not, did you manage manure in the grazing areas at all or just leave it lie?
Did you mow, fertilize or lime at all?
Thanks again for sharing![/QUOTE]
Haha I guess I need to add more details to the blog!! Fair questions.
I have two horses and one mini-donkey (muzzled). They were out overnight in the summer, so about 14 hours a day, and about 8 hours a day in winter.
This year when I rotated the horses off a section, I mowed it then dragged with a chain harrow to break up the manure.
I did a soil test in February of 2015. In March of 2015 I fertilized according to the test (about half of what it needed), then in August I limed. Both springs (2015 and 2016) I also overseeded with 80-100 lbs of tall fescue blend.
I’m going to do a repeat soil test late next winter even though they say you only need to do one every 3 years because it’s cheap and I want to know what’s going on! My pasture was just a wild tall fescue meadow before we bought the place so it’s taken some time to tame and I want to stay on top of things.
Thanks for looking!
[QUOTE=goodhors;8917332]
Pictures are pretty clear, the rotation has helped keep the paddocks more productive.
My suggestion would be to rotate much more often, don’t let the horses shorten the grass down to the dirt.
The reason for faster rotations, of 4-5 days, is that the paddocks can recover faster, less waiting time to get length on the grasses before having horses grazing in there again. I have a small place, with about 11 acres in pastures, paddocks, for 7-8 horses. They only get grazing in summer, no hay unless we are going to a competition. They all get some grain, wet beet pulp once a day in a very minimal amount.
I do not want my grass down shorter than 4-5 inches, because then the hot sun, dry weather, can cook the grass roots with being exposed. Grass with leaves too short, takes MUCH longer to get length and be productive enough again for grazing. I change the 3 or 4 animals on the acre and a half paddocks about every 2 or 3 days, mow the paddock to keep weeds from growing and even up the grass lengths. I don’t want the grasses going to seed, they quit growing then. Mowing also encourages more growth of new grass leaves, which the horses like best. The big field of 3 acres can go 3-4 days of grazing, before I move the 3 to 4 horses to another location.
We also had drought weather for almost 7 weeks, starting the end of May. I quit mowing, just kept rotating the horses often, and they seemed happy. I offered hay in stalls, they were not interested, didn’t eat it. So what looked like poor pasture to me, still produced enough grazing to keep the 6 or 7 horses we had on it happy and full during that terribly dry and hot time. There was enough length on the grass to prevent plants getting sunburned, they could recover and grow during the days horses were in other fields.
Have to say that 4 horses in an acre and a half, are kind of like the locusts, they eat a LOT very quickly. So keeping everyone rotating after only a day or two, was needed to prevent overgrazing here.
They are only on fields half the day, stalled half the day. Flies don’t bother them in the barn, they are handy for being used, instead of out in the fields during the daylight hours.
There is NO ONE here who got thin on that daily grazing time length. Some are in work, they also did not lose weight or condition. They did not need any extra food in hay or increased grain portions. The yearling and 3yr old both grew quite well, no special feed or supplements, just grazing.
So you might consider dry lotting your horses part of the day, while doing more frequent rotations between the paddocks, so they ALL stay fairly lush looking. It is better for the plants, less likely to develop bare spots that let weeds get going. Mowing often, like when grasses reach 8-10 inches tall, shorten them to 5 inches, will really help develop a strong root system under the plants. We have wonderful turf here with that system. No divots as horses run and play, turf shows no impact from the hooves. Such turf can withstand the drought times, soften and absorb heavy rains, without letting erosion start. You have a more productive pasture over all, more grazing surfaces without bald spots.
I fertilize regularly each year after getting my soil tested. This means I am putting on only what the dirt needs to produce good grazing. This years testing showed my PH levels are perfect, so no lime needed. A savings for me! I get soil tests done every third year, should the dirt change. I spread bedding on my fields and it can cause soil to need additional nutrients or changes in the percentages I apply.
Congrats on a VAST improvement from last year to this year with rotating the fields. I think they can be even better for you, with a tweak or two. No need to just let horses graze a couple hours, then dry lot them, when changing fields. Fields will all be equally “rich” with much shorter rotations, so stomachs will be used to that kind of grazing. You may want to limit grazing times, so as not to over feed the horses. Like I do with only half day turnout and stalling. Good grass is the best food for horses, better than hay. Lots of nutrients, keeps them moving in the fields just being horses.[/QUOTE]
Goodhors: Thanks for all the great feedback! I did struggle a bit with the rotation intervals. My goal was to let them graze it down to 4" then rotate, but they eat some areas down to nothing while other areas still look lush. I finally figured out that they demolish the fescue but leave the orchard grass. I’ve read that orchard grass is less palatable when it’s mature so I probably need to mow more often, especially in the spring, to keep it from maturing. Does that make sense?
You’re right, they really are like locusts. In the photos where you see Section 1 really eaten down, it’s because I had to keep them out of 2 and 3 while the dry lot was installed. I tried to time things well but the contractor got delayed so my field paid the price. I hate to have them cooped up in the barn/runs, even if it would be better for the grass. Now I have the dry lot though so problem solved.
I would like to try your suggestion of shorter intervals. If I do that though, I don’t think I should harrow the manure anymore because parasite larvae won’t have time to die. Do you pick your fields?
Hmm, I’m wondering now if I should do three smaller paddocks… I was going to do two one-acre paddocks to rotate two horses on.
[QUOTE=TheJenners;8919912]
Hmm, I’m wondering now if I should do three smaller paddocks… I was going to do two one-acre paddocks to rotate two horses on.[/QUOTE]
I would do 3. That way if you ever need to rest one for a long time to seed it or something, you can still rotate the other 2. You can also do the shorter intervals that Goodhors suggests. If you’re not sure, maybe start with a permanent perimeter fence then cross-fence with something flexible/temporary like I did? Then you can always change your mind later!
[QUOTE=Libby2563;8920299]
If you’re not sure, maybe start with a permanent perimeter fence then cross-fence with something flexible/temporary like I did? Then you can always change your mind later![/QUOTE]
This is how I did mine. Nice permanent perimeter fence (Centaur) and then I used Horseguard on t-post covers to break my pasture into two. But I wasn’t happy with just the 2, so I then used 1/2" tape on step-in posts to split those as needed…and now I’m finally going to use some Horseguard again to make the splits semi-permanent. It took me a bit before I figured out the best configuration so it was nice doing it with temp fencing and seeing what worked or didn’t.
Well poo.
[QUOTE=TheJenners;8919912]
Hmm, I’m wondering now if I should do three smaller paddocks… I was going to do two one-acre paddocks to rotate two horses on.[/QUOTE]
100x over, I’d way rather have more smaller areas, than less big areas. I’ve got 5 fields that are roughly .5-.75 acres each, and I connected them with gates so I could open them all up or use them to rotate
Great thread!
I took a pic this morning of my pasture from the house to show you what the Horseguard cross-fencing looks like. Or doesn’t, because you can barely see it! If you download the pic and zoom in you can make out the tape but not the posts. I really like that it’s unobtrusive as well as flexible. I think if I replaced it with wood fencing it would look kind of ugly honestly, because from the house all you’d see is four lines of chunky wood fence that aren’t even parallel to one another!
The farm where we board got their additional turnout areas fenced in early this year after letting the seeding take in a strong way. That’s allowing for rotational grazing and it’s made a huge difference in keeping grass strong and abundant in turnout fields. While my two are “normally” in a particular field, from time to time they get to adventure elsewhere and it’s greatly reduced even the “bare” area near their gate as grass keeps a good hold from being able to rest.
Remember that any grazing management has to be according to the region you are talking about.
In our area of the SW, many over decades have tried all kinds of rotational grazing with mixed to terrible results, because our rains are sporadic with long stretches of drought between.
You can try intensive rotational grazing, longer periods between moves, according to what the grass is doing, you can have sacrifice pastures and watch and guess at the weather and you have to end up destocking when it just doesn’t rain and you run out of stockpiled pasture.
What has worked somewhat here is deferred grazing systems, where you change to other kinds of pastures, for us we graze the canyons in the winter on stockpiled grasses and the plains in the summers on a short growing season, until it doesn’t rain at all, then we destock completely, as in 1999 to 2004, that we didn’t have any rain to speak of and didn’t graze not one hoof on the place.
In 2003 we had 3 1/2" of rain, all year and barely a bit more the years before that.
That is very different than where you get a steady average of 30"+ of rain a year, at sensible intervals, in rainy sessions, where you can irrigate your grasses, fertilize and reseed, etc.
Just explaining that, how to manage pastures, that depends on every region.
Those new to this should try to get with their county agent and find out more, they have brochures printed out to help in each region and can help, thru the USDA Farm Service Agency and Soil Conservation Office, to cost share in doing improvements to grasses and fences, our taxes at work.
Check with them, they know their stuff.
