foggage or standing hay

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katymay

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Utilised a track system around the paddock this year and I have to say it's working a treat, both good doers are dropping weight and toning up nicely, we now have a load of rough grass - standing hay etc and I extend the track a little daily onto some of this, they eat most of it but tend to leave most of the trodden down stuff which looks fairly brown and dry, although when I poo pick and lift it some of it still looks edible.
Are they likely to eat this if I leave them long enough before I extend? Trying to stop wastage if possible, they get vits and minerals in a token feed so not worried that it's not nutritious.
Or should I just let it rot down? All the grass seeds have dropped which is a bonus :)
 
Not sure what to advise without seeing it, I assumed this area would be opened up in winter so it does not matter too much what you do now, the other option is to top, which I would be inclined to do, so that you get regrowth to carry you through to late autumn/winter.
 
I feed standing hay in winter - turn out horses into 2 foot high grass - a fresh field every 6 weeks or so - so in Feb they have fresh grass.

Mine don't every get round to eating the trodden in stuff - they consider the field 'run out' and stand at the gate with the starving look even when there is apparently still quite a bit still in there. I let mine rot in (it seems to stop bad mud as it forms a sort of mat over the mud) - in winter I'm not sure it would top (mud aside) as it's lying to flat by the time they have finished!
 
I have always cut the middle for hay but it wasn't cost effective so I'm buying in this year and then keeping my centre parts for standing hay. I'm not going to top as mine are all good doers, I don't want them having a flush of grass.

It doesn't matter if there isn't much nourishment, they will be supplemented enough with hay if necessary and vits / mins
 
I have mine on a field that is part well eaten down and part standing hay, with an electric fence dividing the two sections. I move a small section of the fence twice daily to give them a long thin strip of standing hay. The key is to make it narrow, so they don't trample down the standing hay and long enough so that they all have an eating spot without needing to argue. My gelding is good as he likes the standing hay and eats it in preference to the greener grass at the base of the standing hay.
 
Faracat said:
I have mine on a field that is part well eaten down and part standing hay, with an electric fence dividing the two sections. I move a small section of the fence twice daily to give them a long thin strip of standing hay. The key is to make it narrow, so they don't trample down the standing hay and long enough so that they all have an eating spot without needing to argue. My gelding is good as he likes the standing hay and eats it in preference to the greener grass at the base of the standing hay.
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This is the only way to do it. If they trample the 'standing hay' down while they search out the tastiest bits, it then 'suffocate' the new grass coming through in the spring and makes it sour and nutritionally less well balanced.

If you do just let them into a field of 'standing hay' then in the Spring it is best to harrow with a tyne harrow rather than a chain harrow so you can really pull up all the rank bits.
 
katymay said:
Utilised a track system around the paddock this year and I have to say it's working a treat, both good doers are dropping weight and toning up nicely, we now have a load of rough grass - standing hay etc and I extend the track a little daily onto some of this, they eat most of it but tend to leave most of the trodden down stuff which looks fairly brown and dry, although when I poo pick and lift it some of it still looks edible.
Are they likely to eat this if I leave them long enough before I extend? Trying to stop wastage if possible, they get vits and minerals in a token feed so not worried that it's not nutritious.
Or should I just let it rot down? All the grass seeds have dropped which is a bonus :)
Click to expand...

They won't eat where they've soiled. Personally, I'd harrow to shift the crud & dead stuff.
 
Im doing the same as Faracat. I have 1 highland on just over an acre. He has the whole field all winter then as soon as the grass starts to come through I shut the far end off with two strands of electric. Once he has eaten the paddock he has access to down to the roots, I move the electric fence back a tiny fraction morning and evening, I try to calculate about a bucketful of fresh grass each move. He is a total gannet and eats every last blade. My plan is to open the whole lot once we have had some heavy frost on it. Tbh, I will probably have to shut it up again if we start to get a flush in Autumn but hopefully by January it will be safe to let him loose. He does stand at the fence looking longingly at it but so far he hasnt managed to break through!
 
I have had my Welshie on standing hay this summer and it has done him the world of good! I move the fence a bit each day and he eats it down well with no waste because he only has a narrow strip. He has actually lost weight with little exercise and I can only put it down to him chewing long stalky stuff of little nutrition. On short bare grazing he blossoms in summer.
 
When we had a track we were on wet, low lying clay so we would strip graze bits of the middle but mostly take hay from the middle, let it grow up again for the rest of the summer as long as it could and then use it for winter grazing, quite happy for them to trample bits down as it prevented the ground getting poached.
 
our winter fields rest and grow from end March-end sept so i guess its standing hay when they go on to it!

they have about 1/4-1/2 acre each for the winter but we are on sandy soil and ex dairy grass so that lasts them really well.

they spend all day searching for the tasty bits and the very rough stuff lays over and mats down which stops us getting any mud. by the end of march the very long stuff is all gone so when they go on to the summer grazing, the winter stuff is then short enough to get the rain and sun and grow again :)
 
Thanks all, we haven't moved into the middle bit yet as we are working our way around the edge still which to be honest is probably the thickest roughest grass :) will start to strip graze into the middle in a month or so and should see less wastage. This is the first year I've had far too much grass as I took on another paddock March time which has been rested for a fair while now, I am hoping it will cut down on my hay bill this year as last year it was hideous! I usually get them Harrowden and rolled in spring so new grass can emerge
 
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