Grazing management in summer and winter

V

Velvet turner

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How do you all manage your grazing in summer and winter / whats your set up? Im interested in what works for others to see if I can improve how I manage mine!

I have 2 horses and 2 ponies on 8 acres that is split into 4 2 acre paddocks. I use 2 for winter and 2 for summer, 1 of the winter paddocks is very very wet so get completly trashed but recovers well after a harrow and rest. I have mud mats in part of one of the winter fields with hay boxes so they have a dry area and each field has a field shelter but mid winter they have pretty much no grass left depending on how wet the winter is. They are turned out 6:30 am until 7pm from late november - mid-late feb.

They are all on 24/7 turnout from late feb - late october on the summer grazing. The ponies live on thin air so they stay on the winter grazing for a month when the horses first move to summer grazing. I split the 2 acre field the horses have grazed down in half and then put a moveable stripe of eletric fencing across both halves and strip graze the ponies on one half and then move to the other half once done so half is always resting. The horses spend most of summer in their summer field but have the odd couple of weeks in the winter fields if they have grown like crazy.

I poo pick in the summer but not winter and all fields are harrowed every spring.

I feel i may have overcomplicated it for myself after writing this haha!
 
That actually sounds very well managed to me. Our 3 share our 14 acre field with our sheep over the winter and any time now depending on grass growth will move onto a track round two sides of a 4 acre field. Starts narrow and expands as needed.
 
I am on livery, horse is out in a 10 acre field and we don't change fields. My management relies on restricting access through muzzling, increasing work and not permitting 24/7 turnout for most of summer. That has worked to limit the weight piling on, but it means he is in more than I would like as an older horse.

With all of that said, this is by far the best option I have for my horse. The YO prioritises turnout all winter, we can turn out earlier than anywhere else I have come across, he can stay out on weekends year round, the small herd is stable and kind and he appears happy and settled.

I used to have an 8 acre field with a friend. We set up strip grazing and moved the horses across the field through summer and let them have all of it for winter. That worked well and allowed for resting it - but it was a lot of moving of electric tape & posts! Sadly that yard was a very difficult place to be, and YO's arguments with neighbours meant it lost all access to hacking other than boxing out.
 
I have a 3 acre field with 2 horses and a shetland, I had a track system until last year, when I moved yard, but have now moved back... they would graze the track in the summer and have the track and middle for the winter! I poo pick twice a day all year round and feed hay in their field shelter, all year round. I'm trying to work out what to do this year as I found part of my field got really wet the last few winters, so I'm thinking of just splitting the field in half and letting them graze the wet side for the summer and then save the rest of the winter! but will probably be less than half for the summer as they dont need so much grass in the summer
 
I've got 3 on about 6.5 acres. The summer fields have a spring under them so as soon as the water table comes up they get boggy.

Usually they move to the 2.5 acre winter field around Dec and come off about now. I do poo pick because I think it stops weed growth and if I didn't it would be grim by now. My 3 acre summer field is L shaped so there is currently a track (electric tape) around the smaller bit whilst the spring is still high. They don't need much grass.

I poo pick all year and well rotted muck goes back onto rested fields
 
I have 2 on just under 4 acres. When we started they were both fatties and I set up a permanent track that incorporates a yard and shelter with water which also opens onto the middle. They are on the track May-Nov and in the middle over the winter. One of the winter fields is a sacrifice field so the others don't get overgrazed. They can always access the yard. Now one is still a fatty and the other needs more help so things are getting trickier - if we had two of each it would be easier as I don't like separating them (tho needs must at times). They are both retired though so I'm not going to make their social lives miserable just to keep them going.
 
I have 2 out 24/7 on 6-7 acres.

Mid-April to mid/end October they're on about 1 acre, which includes a separately fenced starvation paddock (supplemented with hay) for my Welsh A when he needs further restricting. They can reach each other over the fence, but I invested in post and rail because all the volts in the world wouldn't keep him behind an electric fence if there was greener grass on the other side. He has huge hedges and a tree canopy for shade, and the bigger field has a field shelter in (as well as hedges and trees etc). I very rarely see them use a shelter in the winter, whereas in summer they're in there a lot. I don't put hay in the shelter, my bigger pony is very territorial over food and I don't mind them taking a break from eating while in there. For two natives, neither are greedy (territory aside) and both regularly stand and snooze/watch what's going on.

I rotate round the other 6 acres from October to mid-April. They're in together here during the winter, neither are rugged and I have lots of hedges/big trees, and some fields have a shelter too (although as I said they rarely use them in winter). I have a good grass covering but it isn't that think/rich, which suits my natives. It also helps avoid too much mud! I'll rotate back onto a field if I need to, at the moment they're back on a field they came off in early January because I'm not quite ready to move them to the summer field yet.

They only tend to come in on days the farrier is coming (summer or winter) and in winter if there's a particularly horrendous forecast they'll come in for 12/24/48 hours but that is more about giving them a break from relentless wind and rain than it is about preserving the ground.

My land is on a slope, some of it more hilly than the rest. I also have a spring under one winter field, so that tends to get the least use over the course of the year as it is generally the wettest. But with being on a hill, and I have a good network of land drains into my stream, I'm fairly (touch wood) lucky. Helped by the fact I'm not in any way overstocked.

I poo pick every day all year round, and having spent days digging up ragwort the first summer I was here, anything I spot gets dug up by the roots which is how I deal with docks as well.

I roll and harrow as soon as farmer can get on the fields, this year that happened to be last week which is the earliest I've ever had him turn up. And well rotted muck gets spread every other year. Although a lot of my muck I throw into the hedgerows. I have Suregrow spread every other year.

I love the flexibility of having them at home and being able to suit myself and move them on a whim, depending on weather and ground conditions etc.
 
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