Dead grass and no rain - anyone else?

[Nudibranch]

We have a south facing hillside and it suffered badly last year. We haven't had any rain for over a month now and over half of it is brown and crispy. Normally I'd be celebrating but now I have a Dales with a muscle myopathy and what seems to work for her is good grass! She's back on her winter ration now - vitamin E, linseed, copra and minerals. There's no significant rain in the forecast at all, at least into July which is as far as it goes, and at this rate the whole 10 acres is going to be decimated. I was hoping for a couple of paddocks of standing hay for winter, and to save another for lambing and kidding in spring but last year plus the current drought has really wrecked it. Weight wise the horses are good but in terms of nutrition it must be very poor.

Is anyone else having the same issues? All our winter hay is used up and at this rate I'll be needing to buy in haylage, which seems ridiculous...

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Mine are galloping to the gate when they see me now whereas a week ago they were not bothered, so I'm guessing the grass is not great as they seem hungry now so have upped hay again.

 

[paddy555]

We have a south facing hillside and it suffered badly last year. We haven't had any rain for over a month now and over half of it is brown and crispy. Normally I'd be celebrating but now I have a Dales with a muscle myopathy and what seems to work for her is good grass! She's back on her winter ration now - vitamin E, linseed, copra and minerals. There's no significant rain in the forecast at all, at least into July which is as far as it goes, and at this rate the whole 10 acres is going to be decimated. I was hoping for a couple of paddocks of standing hay for winter, and to save another for lambing and kidding in spring but last year plus the current drought has really wrecked it. Weight wise the horses are good but in terms of nutrition it must be very poor.

Is anyone else having the same issues? All our winter hay is used up and at this rate I'll be needing to buy in haylage, which seems ridiculous...

exactly the same here (Dartmoor) the good points are that I don't have to worry about lami and I have plenty of last year's hay. The bad side is that it is doing the fields no favours. Last year did little for the grass and this year so far is going to be doing even less.

I am feeding winter rations of vit E and some feed and we are going to start bringing some of them off the fields and feeding hay in the daytime. And it's only the first week of June
If we get any rain this weekend everywhere will simply be flooded with the run off. The ground is just so hard nothing is going to sink in.

Oh, and their wonderful bare foot are soooo hard the new rasp just looks at them and says "crikey" if this goes on, and after last year, I am seriously considering getting a machine to trim their feet with

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

exactly the same here (Dartmoor) the good points are that I don't have to worry about lami and I have plenty of last year's hay. The bad side is that it is doing the fields no favours. Last year did little for the grass and this year so far is going to be doing even less.

I am feeding winter rations of vit E and some feed and we are going to start bringing some of them off the fields and feeding hay in the daytime. And it's only the first week of June
If we get any rain this weekend everywhere will simply be flooded with the run off. The ground is just so hard nothing is going to sink in.

Oh, and their wonderful bare foot are soooo hard the new rasp just looks at them and says "crikey" if this goes on, and after last year, I am seriously considering getting a machine to trim their feet with

I rasped Arabi's fronts yesterday it nearly killed me they are so hard, I couldn't do Louis will have a go at his tomorrow I think.

 

[bouncing_ball]

Have hard feet, but still fair amount of grass!! Rain forecast at weekend and next week.

 

[Tarragon]

I rasp two hooves of my hardy barefoot Exmoor ponies one day and the other two the next!

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

We could certainly do with some rain here!

 

[Lamehorses]

I'm currently strip grazing into long gone to seed grass, which I have far too much of - 2 months worth at current rate. The already grazed bits are coming back, although slowly. Track round the outside is pretty barren though.
Just topped my winter paddock as it had some fairly poor bits along with some going to seed, hoping rain is arriving this weekend & it will all thicken up.
Think I need another horse to eat all my grass

 

[meleeka]

Mine are still eating pretty much the same amount of hay as they do in winter. It’s growing so slowly and there’s big cracks already .

 

[The Xmas Furry]

I could do with rain to soften the ground, but have grass coming out of my ears!
All the paddocks were razed down by end March and I shut the girls out of 3 of them, then mid April closed off another.
The 3 that were shut off at end March have a good thick sward across them..... The mid April one is about 4 to 6 inches of green stuff, I've put my dressage markers up there now.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

It seems the people who need grass don't have it and the ones who don't need it do!!

 

[Esmae]

At the moment we are okay but we really need some rain soon now or will be down to floorboards again.

 

[toppedoff]

we may have storm on the weekend..........!

 

[honetpot]

Up to last week I was cutting my lawn three times a week, we had the wettest March for years, they didn't go out until the start of May as the ground was too wet. They are cutting hay this week. Last year we had field fires, so I hope we get a bit more rain.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

It seems the people who need grass don't have it and the ones who don't need it do!!

This time last year, the year before and previous too, I had scorched brown crispy grass. It's only the wet early spring through to Windsor in May thats given us good grass round here.
Happy to send some.....

 

[PSD]

We don’t have heaps of grass in the fields they’re in now but there’s enough. When the extra field was opened my lad refused to come in, now he’s happy to - so I know the grass is getting low and I really don’t mind. It’s brown in places, but there’s still plenty enough for him to eat. Feet are a mess though as it’s so dry despite me moisturising them, took him barefoot behind a couple of weeks ago. Farriers due to trim soon thankfully.

We’ve got rain and/or storms forecast over the weekend. If they come, he’ll be coming in off the grass during the day again as I know it’ll go up like nobody’s business!

 

[Highmileagecob]

Our pasture was under water until the end of March, now it looks like a bowling green and is drying rapidly. Dreading the flush that the rain will bring on - it's all or nothing isn't it?

 

[Surbie]

Our field is a bit of a mix because it's on a big hill. The top half is cracked concrete, the bottom half is damp still and bright yellow with buttercups. Lots of grass tho, so I'm very grateful the thinline muzzle is working out, particularly if we get rain and that starts more flushing.

 

[Tarragon]

We have lots of grass as loads grew in April and early May, but the grazed bits are not growing back. I fence a small summer section off with electric fencing, high enough to let the sheep come under, and the sheep farmer has recently turned hundreds of sheep onto my grazing field and I can see it disappearing fast!

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

We don’t have heaps of grass in the fields they’re in now but there’s enough. When the extra field was opened my lad refused to come in, now he’s happy to - so I know the grass is getting low and I really don’t mind. It’s brown in places, but there’s still plenty enough for him to eat. Feet are a mess though as it’s so dry despite me moisturising them, took him barefoot behind a couple of weeks ago. Farriers due to trim soon thankfully.

We’ve got rain and/or storms forecast over the weekend. If they come, he’ll be coming in off the grass during the day again as I know it’ll go up like nobody’s business!

I find just putting water on them every other day helps to stop them getting hard and drying out.

 

[Birker2020]

Us too Midlands

Have hard feet, but still fair amount of grass!! Rain forecast at weekend and next week.