Summer pasture management

Keep in mind that the weather conditions around when you spread fresh (or not well-composted) manure, and whether horses are on or off the field, is going to have a big impact on the re-infection risks.

It does help if you spread it thinly, and when it’s hot and dry - those eggs will die in a hurry.

If it’s cooler and wetter, those eggs can hang around a long time, and hatch into infective larva when temps are warm enough

Spreading during wetter period of with temps in the 45-85* range is great for egg survival and hatching. If the horses aren’t on the field, those hatched larva will quickly die without a host.

Spreading below 45* means eggs will be hanging around until it warms up.
Spreading above 85* and dry, means eggs will quickly die (days, not hours).

They’re just things to think about . I regularly drag my field (it’s too large to pick up after 3-4 horses), and in the Winter, so technically it’s all the worst time. But it is what it is, and my FECs are regularly clean/low. Dung beetles do an excellent job from Spring to late Summer, piles disappear in a matter of days sometimes. For that reason I avoid ivermectin in the Spring deworming, and use moxidectin (Quest Plus)

I’m over here wishing my paddocks weren’t so lush and my horses didn’t have to wear muzzles. And the irony seems that they eat the paddocks down much less with the muzzles so the paddocks seem even lusher. I can’t win. I have one who absolutely can’t have grass, and I had to destroy some beautiful paddock space to make a dry lot.

Horses. :woman_facepalming:t2:

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Heartbreaking. isn’t it? And so perverse.

You buy a farm dreaming of happy horses forever grazing rolling green acres behind perfect white fences, and you end up with a stop watch and pergolide.

Reality stinks.

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And last year 10k new bolton bills for laminitis :frowning:

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A bit off the growing forage subject, but still pasture management.

For those who have fire ants now through October is the recommended time range to apply fire ant control products on pastures.

I use Extinguish Professional, an insect growth regulator which is safe in pastures being grazed.

And the time to sow winter rye forage grass seed is not that far off. Time to think about putting in your seed order.

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well now I am down a horse so I don’t even care any more :cry:

I only spread fresh manure on fallow pastures and grassy riding areas. The rest gets composted, and then used on working pastures (in the fall) and gardens (whenever).

I think most of this depends on how many horses you have, and how much land.

awaywego,

I am so sorry. Is it something you’d care to write about? Sometimes that helps.

I’m sorry :disappointed:

Nooo, I’m so sorry :sob:

Oh no!

I’m sorry. I know how hard that hurts.

Oh, I’m SO sorry.

I lost my darling this summer too. :cry:

Thanks y’all. I keep telling myself that sometimes there are no good choices :pensive:

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It’s true @awaywego. Or, as my vet said, you only get to choose the best of the horrible choices.

I’m so sorry you lost your boy.

Resurrecting my thread from last summer. We have gotten very little rain for the better part of the summer, so that isn’t helping matters this year. I got a new field mower so I am even more OCD than ever about keeping up with mowing (it’s so awesome!). Same thing as ever with these horses, slightly different set-up than this time last year as we no longer have 3 geldings together but 2 together and one solo mare so I can’t rotate as perfectly but none of the pastures should be terribly stressed by these numbers. Last night I was watching the one gelding and mare nibble the weeds around their respective hay boxes that they still prefer to be filled, thank youverymuch, despite the grass mowed to the perfect height further up the field. I guess this is like the thread where someone is confounded by their horses not going in the shed with the fan. Maybe this is why horses are always trying to kill themselves: they are a really unappreciative lot :crazy_face:

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Is your grass all/predominately fescue? Short grass, even fescue, and weeds, have more sugar and are therefore sweeter, than “perfect height” fescue, or grass in general.

Mine will do the same - mow down along the fence line where hubby mows much shorter, instead of graze where there are lovely stands of taller fescue, even though it’s mostly all the same grasses.

Definitely some of the grass is fescue, if not predominantly.

Also weird: my winter fields have a lot of plantain weed this summer, which I never had a problem with previously. It is adding to my mowing compulsion bc I hate looking at that crap!

Got me thinking about what I can do this fall for next summer. That seems to be my problem: I don’t think about pasture til it’s too late to do much about what I have.

Mine only have the 1 pasture so we never rotate :zipper_mouth_face: With 3 horses and 3 Boer bucks on 4.5 acres they can’t eat it all or even come close.

Depends on how big the field is, how many horses, and the time of year.
I am cross-fenced with with 7 fields, ranging from 1/2 acre to 2 acres. With 4 horses each field got 1 - 2 weeks. With 2 horses each field gets 2-4 weeks.