This whole blog was great! I loved how you included the “Things I wish I would have known” too instead of “we just built this barn and it was great”. I’m having my husband read the whole thing later. He’s a newbie to horses and we’re planning to tear down the barn on our property and rebuild next spring. How many acres do you have total and how many acres is each pasture?
[QUOTE=Candle;8922095]
This whole blog was great! I loved how you included the “Things I wish I would have known” too instead of “we just built this barn and it was great”. I’m having my husband read the whole thing later. He’s a newbie to horses and we’re planning to tear down the barn on our property and rebuild next spring. How many acres do you have total and how many acres is each pasture?[/QUOTE]
Thanks Candle! I’m glad it’s been helpful to you. My hope is that others can learn from all of my mistakes, lol. I have 9 acres total but only 3 in pasture because of the property layout. Each section is about 1 acre now.
[QUOTE=Libby2563;8922407]
Thanks Candle! I’m glad it’s been helpful to you. My hope is that others can learn from all of my mistakes, lol. I have 9 acres total but only 3 in pasture because of the property layout. Each section is about 1 acre now.[/QUOTE]
How many horses are on it?
[QUOTE=normandy_shores;8922418]
How many horses are on it?[/QUOTE]
Two horses and one mini-donkey. I updated the original post to include that info since you’re the second to ask!
For anyone who’s interested, I added another post with more details on how I did my cross-fencing. Lots of pics!
looks great!
Really interesting, thank you for sharing!!
[QUOTE=Libby2563;8917206]
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![/QUOTE]
Just curious - on our pastures we rely on having more pastures than turnout groups. Because of weather and other things, they get rested more than they get used, which is a good thing. However we see the grazing is intense in some areas and nonexistent in others.
Did you see the horses “re-set” their habits w.r.t. to their waste areas and their eating areas?
David
[QUOTE=DHCarrotfeeder;8924557]
Just curious - on our pastures we rely on having more pastures than turnout groups. Because of weather and other things, they get rested more than they get used, which is a good thing. However we see the grazing is intense in some areas and nonexistent in others.
Did you see the horses “re-set” their habits w.r.t. to their waste areas and their eating areas?
David[/QUOTE]
Interesting question and I’ve been trying to observe that this year. I notice that they graze some areas down to the dirt and let others develop into roughs. They do seem to poop in the roughs more often than in the favored grazing areas. It’s kind of frustrating to see them out there nibbling at stubble when there are huge swaths of what looks like good grass. I finally realized that the rough areas are orchard grass, which gets less palatable when it’s more mature, and the areas they prefer to eat are tall fescue. I think next year I might have to mow early and often to keep the orchard grass immature enough to be palatable. Does that make sense?
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences of building a small farm. Your posts are a wealth of knowledge and they let me live vicariously through you! 
[QUOTE=equinelibrium;8925513]
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences of building a small farm. Your posts are a wealth of knowledge and they let me live vicariously through you! ;)[/QUOTE]
Thanks so much!!! 
I’m really just learning as I’m going but I’m glad it sounds like I know what I’m doing, lol.
[QUOTE=Libby2563;8924691]
Interesting question and I’ve been trying to observe that this year. I notice that they graze some areas down to the dirt and let others develop into roughs. They do seem to poop in the roughs more often than in the favored grazing areas. It’s kind of frustrating to see them out there nibbling at stubble when there are huge swaths of what looks like good grass. I finally realized that the rough areas are orchard grass, which gets less palatable when it’s more mature, and the areas they prefer to eat are tall fescue. I think next year I might have to mow early and often to keep the orchard grass immature enough to be palatable. Does that make sense?[/QUOTE]
I’m with you, but keep in mind that even if you mow it low, it will still be “old” plants where the grazing areas will be tiny “new” plants. They always seem to eat new grass only, or grass growing under duress. I’m not sure how to break that cycle other than to reseed, fallow, and mow regularly at a lower height until you have overhauled your turf.
[QUOTE=Libby2563;8918505]
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?[/QUOTE]
Sorry to be so slow getting back to you.
First, you have to accept that they will eat what they like, you can’t “force them” to eat the longer, lush grass unless they are really hungry. Trying to “make” them clean a field, you take the chance of horses eating “bad weeds” they normally would ignore if grazing was good or they had hay fed supplementally because of poor grazing. I think it better to rotate often, not let the short areas get down to dirt. Mow the taller stuff down to about 5", not really any shorter. You can then drag or harrow the field to break up manure, spread around any grass clippings. I was taught that breaking up manure exposes any parasite eggs to sunshine, killing them faster in most cases.
Also with cutting, you remove the longer grass leaves, forcing the plant to put up new growth, which horses like best! It is softer, slender, so they should get in that lush area and nibble some of it better when shorter. My grasses are mixed, timothy, orchard, “wild grass” blown in by the wind. I don’t plant fescue which is not good for bred mares, and we have some now and again. I am sure there is some fescue out there, again blown in by the wind. You can’t keep fescue free of the bad stuff, seeds travel on the wind to contaminate your special endophyte free seeds in planted pasture. But keeping my pastures short, helps prevent conditions that let the endophytes flourish.
You don’t always have to mow when you remove horses from a field, but grass should be kept shorter, not taller than 8-10 inches, not shorter than 5 inches. Look at what your longest grasses are doing, if they are that tall, mow. Maybe you can put horses thru the rotation a couple times, with the short intervals, before needing to mow. Here in Spring, I NEED to mow when horses move off, the grass comes on so fast that fields are all mowed each week! On the other hand, if it looks droughty, no rain for a couple weeks, quit mowing, but keep rotating. Mow after you get some rain again.
