Fertilising Fields

[dwi]

YO is talking about fertilising my starvation paddock just when i had got it nice and bare because she doesn't want it to turn into a sea of mud when winter comes. I can respect that but at the same time Daisy cannot get any fatter than she is already. YO knows this and has told me so herself so I don't know how to persuade her not to do it?

 

[kirstyfk]

can you not get some electric fence to make the paddock smaller. I think it would be best for the field if it was fertalised.

 

[RunToEarth]

Can she not fertilise her field and you buy a greenguard, they really are good. x

 

[dwi]

She runs through it and she can't wear a muzzle because it rubs something awful whatever brand I buy and however much I pad it

 

[Patches]

I wouldn't have my starvation paddock fertilised, but then it is my land and only my ponies on it, so my choice. I'd have it sprayed for weed killer, harrowed and over sown if it got particularly bald though I guess. However, I would have another starvation paddock ready before even that was done.

Anything fertilised would have to be grazed for a while by other horses/cows/sheep before I put my fatty on it.

 

[mollymurphy]

How many horses use the paddock? If it's just you, can't you just say you dont mind it being muddy? Or once it's at risk of getting muddy, you'll come off it? We asked our farmer not to fertilise 'cos ours are all fat, and he was made up! Said it would save him money! So he just did the other paddocks and left the 2 that we use. Even if they DO get trashed, they're always fixable with a bit of TLC...eventually!

 

[RunToEarth]

Speaking from YOs point of view, muddy fields are a nightmare, and in the winter it is one less place to chuck them out in the mud. I am like patches, I have a starvation paddock, which is basically dirt, but we are on own land nad the paddock has all winter to recover.

 

[Llwyncwn]

I can see both points of view. We keep a 3 acre field as a fat paddock and also a little 1/2 acre paddock. Neither of these are ever fertilized, just rested, harrow and rolled.

These are kept for the many fat or laminitic prone horses.

I can understand the YO wanting the land to look good, but not much good to laminitics if fertilized.

 

[Patches]

You see my fatty paddock is very short grass, but it's not mud. I don't graze on it over the depths of winter when it would get trounced. Fatties can graze my larger areas over winter. I don't supplement grazing with hay anyway as we're never short of winter grass (having 230 acres of the stuff lol).

I just can't see the point of having a starvation paddock and then fertilising it. Seems a contradiction in terms to me.