Your grazing paddocks produce the most natural - and cheapest - feed for your horse, along with the essential benefit of turnout time to 'just be a horse'. In the seasonal 'Gourmet Grazing' features in every issue of Equine magazine, the experts at Logic answer reader questions providing practical advice on many different aspects of managing grazing paddocks as well as possible.
For video and more information about managing your grazing, visit www.LogicToday.co.uk
Q - Our three horses share their daytime
summer grazing of nine acres with pedigree Blue Leicester ewes and lambs, but
our stocking density isn’t high, so there still is a need to top the pasture.
What is the best way to manage this – should we top shorter and so less
regularly, or do we leave it longer and top a little off more frequently? What
is the best option for the horses and does that compromise what would be best
for the sheep? The land is sloping and drains well and it’s open, North West
facing, so grows fairly evenly. It’s been down to pasture for nearly 10 years
now, but is still a healthy sward that is fertilised with 20:10:10 each spring.
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| Logic TRM120 Rotary Mower topping a paddock |
Answer - Generally
horses and sheep like a similar type of grazing as their eating method of
nibbling and biting off grass is suited to short growth. To provide this, our
recommendation would be to top quite regularly. This would be at the end of
each grazing period if you are rotating grazing, but if you are not dividing up
the area with electric fencing and the area is set stocked, then once a month
would be appropriate. With the use of a Logic Rotary Mower you could top the
whole area in a few hours; about a morning’s work. When the grass is kept to a
shorter length you will find poo picking is so much easier and if you use one
of our Sweeper Collectors the job will be done in a very short time. With the
addition of sheep you should get less ‘soiled ‘areas as they will clear up
after the horses and topping will remove seed heads to keep the new shoots
short and nutritious. Even though the
pasture has been down for 10 years, regular topping will encourage the finer
grasses to flourish and output from the paddock should increase.
Q - What is the best way of dealing with
worn patches in grazing pastures that are used for ponies? We have several small
paddocks, divided by a mix of stone walls and electric fencing and three Welsh
ponies that don’t need lush grazing, especially at this time of year.
The land is very free draining, so in drier
periods, it ‘wears’ in patches, which can end up with bare ground and we want
to stay on top of repairing these to keep the grazing looking as good as
possible. We can move the ponies around to give the paddocks a rest for a
period, so how do you suggest we best repair the grass and what type of seed
mix will be quick to establish, hard wearing and yet not too nutritious? Is
there such a mix??
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| Logic LPH200 Pro-Harrow and EBC-TFS80
Electro-broadcaster on the ATV, over-seeding this paddock. |
Answer - If you have the ability to close up a grazing area as you
indicate, with electric fencing or by closing the gate into the paddock with the
‘bare’ area, you should be able to carry out repair work quite easily. The
choice of seed mixtures is important and advice can be taken from your local
agricultural merchant or go online to source a suitable mixture from a
reputable seed house. It should contain meadow fescue, timothy, creeping red
fescue and smooth stalked meadow grass, which are suitable for horses and
ponies. They are hard wearing and don’t provide too much protein, so should not
create any issues. Often these mixtures contain ryegrasses as well which are
not so suitable, but are good for growth and may be worth considering in your
drier patch as they have deep root systems and would probably thrive better.
You could always create your own mixture using any of the above grasses with
some herbs and wild flowers as well.
The best time to over-seed in in the autumn or spring
when there is enough moisture in the soil to ensure good germination. The first
job however, is to check the pH of the soil and spread a liming product to
correct any acidity and this would be best done in the autumn. You can ask an agronomist to carry out this
service or you can do it yourself. Simply take a small soil sample, about an
egg cup full into a clean plastic bucket, from about ten equally spaced sites
across the whole area and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon, before taking it
to your local agricultural merchant who will arrange to have it analysed. Once any remedial measures have been carried
out the next step is to sow the seed. You indicate the worn areas are in
patches, so are probably too small to use an electro-broadcaster, in which case
sowing by hand would be appropriate. You will need to create a suitable tilth
for the seed to be broadcast onto and a Logic Tine Harrow is the ideal
implement to run over with a few times, which will level and prepare the area. Simply
spread the seed as evenly as possible then go over with the harrow a few more
times to spread and cover the seed with soil. Roll the area to consolidate and
level, which will ensure the seed is in contact with the soil to encourage good
germination. A Logic Ballast Roller
would be perfect for this work so that the optimum weight for moisture and soil
type can be provided.
Use your electric fencing to cordon off the area, to let
the seedlings become established before allowing livestock back onto the
grazing. A slow release, balanced compound fertiliser should be applied to make
sure the new plants have the correct nutrients to grow well and get established.
This article first appeared in the June 2017 issue of Equine magazine. To subscribe to Equine, visit the secure online store at www.theequinestore.co.uk
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