Anyone else worried about their grazing?

muckypony

muckypony

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After all this wet weather, I'm really starting to worry about my field. I only have a small field, more than enough for my two mini shetlands, but its turning out to be a really really wet field. I know they don't need a lot, which is why I have just the one paddock and didn't section it in to two - was advised by several people that they would probably be better off grazing the whole lot continuously instead of going onto richer grass every so often and risking lami. I tried having them in a smaller pen too made up of sheep hurdles (so they didn't escape!) and this was more than ideal until the wet weather started... Being in a smaller space meant they were constantly walking over the same bits and making it muddy, so I've abandoned that idea and am letting them in the whole field. I'm dreading this recent lot of snow melting and leaving me yet again with a soaking wet muddy field... Not sure if I need to worry though... Being shetlands as long as they have hay and night and a small hard feed, should they be fine?

So what are your fields holding up like and are you worried? How many of you are keeping in just purely to save your fields?
 
My fields are the worst I have seen them in the 22 years I have lived here. However experience has shown me that they do recover although it doesn't seem possible just now. They will certainly need rolling and harrowing in the spring.
 
Our fields are saturated, the small winter field is trashed, it slopes and we have large horses, I closed it off and taped off a section of the bigger field, unfortunately the ground is too wet to hold the posts for electric fencing, so they now have full access to the big field and the winter field, luckily we had too much grass last year so grazing it now may help with that, bring on summer
 
No point worrying about things you can't change. It will recover amazingly well. Just hard to believe at this stage! Things will start growing soon tho, we are nearly there!:)
 
I have two fields i am keeping for when this wet weather stops (haha) but the ones they are in are trashed like they haven't been before. But I know they will recover in the dry weather with harrowing and fertilizing.

I am using a lot of ready grass on top of my ones hard feeds. They are not on ad lib hay so the grass bulks them up. All the liveries have brought their own ready grass. So they are fairing well.
 
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My mini is also fetlock deep in mud! chuckle. The grass will live ... dont worry! I had to start bringing our field gremlin in at night though just to get her out of the mud for a bit.
My mini just lives on grass when she's out - muzzled during all this frost and snow at the moment (mental!) - and just has half a slice of haylage when she's bought in at night. No need to give any hard feed at all. xx
 
Ours are as bad as I've seen them; coming off a rubbish summer last year when the grass just didn't grow :rolleyes:

First winter ever I've been needing to give decent amounts of hard feed on top of ad lib haylage when they're in.
 
I have always had mine out during the day, but this winter mine are coming in at lunchtime and have been since early December. Yesterday I turned out at 7am and brought in at 9am it was so miserable and slippy. My ponys field is a quagmire. They are all frustrated and grumpy. I'm trying to do something with mine morning and evening to keep him sane, but its pretty exhausting especially with driving home every lunchtime to bring in. I've got 18in of standing water in the furrows in my field, so its going to take a really long dry spell for any recovery to happen.
 
I don't have any spare electric fencing otherwise I would section it off. My thinking for now is the 'pen' I had used for them, I can move around the field and rest small parts, so they have a bit of fresh but not too much. So instead of using the sheep hurdles to keep them in, I'm now trying to keep them otu!! :rolleyes: lol.

They are currently only out for about 5/6 hours a day as I go and get them in on my lunch break for several reasons. 1) Trying to give the field a break. 2) If they did get out of the field they're in (theres another fence after it though), I wouldn't be able to see them easily after I've finished work at 6 as its dark! and 3) by lunch time they're fed up and wanting in anyway!

This winter just seems so long, roll on summer!!
 
Mine are awful....not muddy per se except for gateways, but the ground is that wet they are past fetlocks in parts.....
Wish around the shelter and gateways were concrete and the back lawn was tarmac as they could have hay on there.....
 
My field in France is trashed. 15 acres for 4 horses and its a mud bath as the bottom half has been under water for most of the winter and the top half is rocky clay. I normally pull them off it April and get a decent hay crop off it but there is no way I will get hay off it this year and I will prob have to re seed it. My paddocks in the uk are looking pretty grim too.
 
There is hope, met office are saying, certainly for us, mostly dry all next week and then predominantly dry until the end of Feb. First half of march its saying may be drier than usual. It will take a lot for the ground to dry up but less rain/snow than we have been having is going to help! At the moment though I am shutting my ears to the downpour thats going on outside!
 
Yup :(

Tonight was the worst I have ever seen the field. It is probably the driest field in the area, on a steep slope that drains down into a small burn. Top of field and parts of the slope have always been dry even in bad weather. Tonight, this morning's heavy snowfall was melting into frozen sludge, and the heavy rain falling on top of it was running in a river down the hill.

The horses looked pretty fed up, and they're hardy beasts that don't normally bother about weather.

I know it will recover in a month or two (in fact, I could see it starting to dry out over the last few days), but if the summer is like last year, there will be residual damage and I don't know how to get around that.

It's good that you can get your wee ones in - that will help the field recover (and help their feet dry out!). We don't have that option, but I'll have to come up with something creative, because we desperately need the field harrowed and rolled now.
 
Beausmate... :D

I'm glad I'm not the only one, although I'm thinking myself lucky having stables for them to get them in! Poor littlies... They were out all day Sunday and got soaked... Today was the first day since then that they were completely dry :D

Hopefully it'll dry up soon... Bet we'll be moaing for rain then!! :rolleyes:
 
lpeacock said:
Cheered me up.

although thinking of opening a spa in my field. silly women pay hundreds to sit in mud!
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Now that's an idea. Except I don't even have any mud left-that washed away too!:eek:

There's just this sort of watery, silt-like stuff over the top of some rock. And that's just in the dry bits!!:eek::eek:
 
my fields are sodden so I have sectioned the top paddock in half and been feeding twice as much hay to keep them busy. The yard is calf deep in mud as I have left it open so they can shelter in the stables when the rain gets to them. I have looked the rest over and it will recover as soon as the grass starts growing and hopefully it will get a chance to dry and firm up a bit x
 
mines in and staying in until it dries up...!

i dont fancy dealing with pulled tendons as she loves nothing more than to run around - so can run around on a nice level sand paddock :)

shes not bothered....and i sleep at night!...:D
 
Goldypops... I am now holding you responsible for my new found optimism!
Our field drains really well but the water is just sitting there. Luckily, the gateways are not too bad as over the last couple of years we've been packing it with hardcore.
Even the road outside was closed off and traffic diverted due to a great flood. The kids had a ball riding through it though!
Just waiting in the imminent rain to hit us again tonight.
 
For the first time in three years I've chosen not to turn my pony out- our fields are a mess, mud and standing water :(
I keep telling myself 4 weeks from now everything will of changed- the grass will be growing, the evenings lighter and hopefully the temperatures a little warmer

It's been a long wet wet winter :(
 
Just lying in bed listening to the rain and I could cry. My field horses are sodden, my gravel loam, free draining fields can't drain :( there is nowhere for it to go. We have fed nearly 50 round bales since November, I'm feeding them as well but my old horse has come in, he has dropped so much weight he's clearly not coping. I have one field which has been rested and I'm just waiting for the weather to turn so I can swap them over.
I'm trying to stay positive but right now I'm struggling!
 
worried1 I feel your pain! my old boy has ad lib haylage (large bale dumped in field) comes in every night with another mountain of haylage and has two high calorie feeds a day and his weight is dropping off : ( such a worry. Hes a body score of scraping a two now so just hoping he can hold it until spring comes. He was fat going into the winter a good 3.5 body score. Enough of winter already its been a long year!
 
horserugsnot4u said:
I'm still waiting from last April for it to be dry enough to do this. Any market for a bullrush crop? (Too muddy for watercress):)
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Almost same here... we did get most of them rolled last year, but even catching the driest week, it was still bad enough so that getting the tractor in and out made the gateways worse and left big ruts in softer parts of the field :( (the big ruts are now like little mini swimming pools).
 
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