What height do you mow your pastures to?

[dungrulla]

We’re on our second full year of living on the farm and I’m finally–FINALLY–starting to settle into a routine. This year we divided our 3 acres of pasture into 7 equal sections which we rotate the horses off every 3-4 days, then mow. This seems to be keeping things pretty green and lush, actually to the point where the vet advised we put a grazing muzzle on the old guy because he’s starting to look a bit fat.

We have a brush hog to mow with and a small ride-on mower. The brush hog ostensibly is adjustable, but it’s difficult to adjust and maneuver in a small space so I mostly use it to chop down the back or if something’s been neglected for a long while.

When you mow, what height do you mow your pastures to? I was told 4 inches but they look kind of scalped and sad for a few days after I do this. Is that normal or do I need to start using the brush hog and adjusting it to be higher?

[stb]

I think this largely depends on your area of the country and what kind of grass you have. I am in the Southeast and have Bermuda grass pastures. I generally mow at 4” to 4 1/2”. That seems to be lower than most people recommend, but if I mow any higher I do not get the seed heads at all. Also, even the roughs generally don’t get much higher than 5” to 6” in my pastures, so mowing at the recommended 6” to 8” wouldn’t really do anything at my place.

I generally only mow a few times a season, just enough to keep the roughs down and keep the seed heads away. For the most part I try to leave it alone.

[DiamondJubilee]

We cut our pasture 4-6 times a year and use a finishing mower (4 acre pasture with 4 ponies on it through the day time only). We cut it to about 6" and do leave it when we are in a drought or it will get burnt and fried. Just cut it the other day as we had some rain after a long period of no rain and heat. Pasture came back on quickly and looks great but I’m glad we didn’t cut it for the past month or it would be dead for sure.

[NaturalSelection]

We have three pastures, maybe 2ac each and rotate our 4 horses. This year I have used a 2wk on / 4wks rest schedule mowing with a flail mower to a 4” height when we switch from on to rest. Grass has been lush, ponies are a touch fat, and we have had good rain this season.

Does your field look ‘rough’ because you are seeing the clippings turn brown or because the grass plants look dried out? After a mow our field looks a bit brown but it’s really all the clippings drying out.

[trubandloki]

The University of Minnesota recommendation is that pasture should be kept in the 3" to 8" range. I think your 4" is probably perfect.

[dungrulla]

@NaturalSelection

We have three pastures, maybe 2ac each and rotate our 4 horses. This year I have used a 2wk on / 4wks rest schedule mowing with a flail mower to a 4” height when we switch from on to rest. Grass has been lush, ponies are a touch fat, and we have had good rain this season.

Does your field look ‘rough’ because you are seeing the clippings turn brown or because the grass plants look dried out? After a mow our field looks a bit brown but it’s really all the clippings drying out.

That’s a good question. I thought it was the grass itself but we do leave the clippings on the pasture. We’re on a really intensive rotation schedule because we have a lot of horses for the amount of pasture we have.

One of them is at my trainer’s right now (nothing wrong with him but I’m working through some mental blocks) which has helped.

[2DogsFarm]

Midwest here.
When I mowed, I used my riding mower set to 6" & mowed maybe 2X a season.
Late Fall, when grass was slowing down, neighbor bushhogged for me @ around the same height. Mostly to take down the roughs.
I gave up mowing 2yrs ago (landscaper does lawns biweekly) & pasture does what it does until he bushhogs.
I feed hay year-round, but a LOT less when there is grass.
This is for 3 - horse, pony & mini - on 2ac “big” field & 1/2ac small.

[mmeqcenter]

3.5-4”

[CupOJavaa]

It really depends on where you live and what kind of grass you have and, perhaps more importantly, what kind of weeds. Mowing helps to control weeds that spread via seeding but will not do anything for those pesky tuberous types. I never to mow the pasture under 4 inches, and I think this is a good general rule of thumb for most pasture grasses. My most pesky weed is the narrow leaf plantain which is near impossible to control by mowing anyways.

[Madhouse]

I was at 4" 'cause that’s all the higher my mower would go. I have a new mower that will go to 5" so that’s where I am now.

[Simkie]

As high as the mower goes, which is 4 1/2". Really wish I could go an inch or so higher.

[goodhors]

I mow at 5 inches with a finish mower. That is recommended height by Michigan State grass folks. This keeps older leaves trimmed, new leaves coming on, weeds topped off to prevent seeding. We leave the trimmings lay for use as light mulch and returning minerals to the soil, slows rain runoff. Height of 5" helps protect the soil and plant roots from heat of the sun, does not shock the plants with huge leaf removals by letting grass get tall, does not usually allow seeds to set, which tells a plant to go dormant.

I rotate a LOT more often than others! 2 weeks on a field would make it a dirt lot! Depending on the rainfall or lack of rain, they get moved every 2 or 3 days. Grass is not down to the dirt, taking much longer to gain any new length. I do not want those bald spots to develop by over grazing new growth daily. Horses do not like tall, older grass, ignore it when grazing. Cutting often, prevents old growth grass leaves they won’t eat. If it is real dry, in drought, they may go to a different field every day. They are out nights, do NOT NEED 24 hours of grazing time! And that allows better regrowth too, less stress on the fields means better production. I try to mow right after it rains, so grass used the ground water in new growth.

Mow high, mow often, is what we hear from the MSU grass folks, for best results on pastures or lawns. My fields are vastly improved from when I took over field managing from husband. At that time fields got mowed on holidays, Memorial Day, July 4th, etc. Not real productive, full of weeds. We FINALLY got a tractor, mower so i could get things done myself. These days I mow a lot, sometimes weekly during rainy times in spring. Grass does better when you keep it mowed high and do not over graze it.

[jawa]

I go for 5-6”. As others have noted, it gets the grass to shoot out new leaf growth and helps to keep weeds from flowering and setting seed. Less than 4” can leave some of the grass stressed.

I have 2 acres divided into a sacrifice lot, 3 small paddocks and 3 larger paddocks. During the height of the growing season I can get 3-5 days on the small paddocks and 7-10 days on the larger ones. I try to drag and mow each paddock as soon as I move horses off. This year has been challenging with drought and then excessive rain. (I’m not home at the moment, so don’t know rain totals for
the past 24 hrs, but a County over has gotten 9” in less than 24 hrs).