How to manage a standing hay/forage winter field?

[Melandmary]

I know it may be a little early but I am planning ahead for winter!! Due to having 1 horse pts a few weeks ago and my remaining 2 having ems and therefore severely restricted grass I now have 3 acres not being used ( will have to mow) and I am allowing access to a 1.5 acre field which has got a small area sectioned off for them to go on with muzzles during spring/ summer/autumn with the plan to strip graze the rest all winter when they can have their muzzles off. I have not done this before so my question is, do people continue to cut the field up until a certain time of year and then leave to grow for standing hay or do I just leave it for the whole summer and risk it falling over and going mouldy? Should I be collecting the cut grass or leave it lying each time? Any advice would be gratefully received, I know the ideal would be a track system but I can’t make that option work here.

 

[cauda equina]

I never cut mine, just leave it to grow
Nothing has ever gone mouldy; mould would be far more likely if cut grass were left on the field

 

[TheMule]

Mine gives me a haylage cut in the late June and then grows up for winter standing hay which I strip graze on to through the winter.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Standing hay or foggage is fine to graze right through into the following year. That's how I manage my grazing. I've just fenced off my summer equicentral paddocks which will do my 3 neds fine (2 have PPID) til autumn, then in late autumn I start strip grazing into the foggage.

The horses do very well on this arrangement.

 

[southerncomfort]

I always did this until we started getting ergot fungus.

For me it's not worth the risk and i wont let it grow that tall again. I've just bought a second hand ride on flail mower so I can keep on top of it.

 

[ycbm]

I had ergot on the ryegrass in my field the last two years i was there. Thankfully there was almost no ryegrass, but it would have been too dangerous to graze if there had been more.
.

 

[SEL]

I don't have much ryegrass and I keep a close eye for ergot, so l let mine grow and strip graze into it. I track around the field so if there's a bit that gets especially long then I'll graze into that earlier. They went onto their winter field for a few hours a day at the beginning of last Dec and it's fair to say that when the cold spell turned up mid Dec my smallest cob had her own insulation at the ready.

My biggest problem this year is going to be yellow rattle. I thought we'd attacked it with the strimmer before it went to seed but apparently not! Horses won't eat it and it really does trash the grass growth when it gets out of hand.

I'm sorry you lost your other horse OP. It's my first year without my equine lawnmower and I miss being able to get him to eat down the grass. You might find in winter strip grazing gets very muddy. I'm doing it right now and we've had so much rain they're churning the ground up

 

[Burnttoast]

I have ergot on a variety of species, and sooty moulds can grow on seeded grass in the right conditions. In dry years I just let it grow but in wet years I top until later in the summer and let it grow on from late July/August.

 

[marmalade76]

Mine are in an old orchard for the winter and go in a wildflower meadow in the summer. The orchard will be rolled and harrowed, then topped after hay making (it usually looks like you could make hay out of it) then left until I put the horses on it, usually Christmas but that is subject to the weather. We never remove topped weeds & grass, never had a problem, but we use a bladed topper, not a flail.

 

[Melandmary]

Standing hay or foggage is fine to graze right through into the following year. That's how I manage my grazing. I've just fenced off my summer equicentral paddocks which will do my 3 neds fine (2 have PPID) til autumn, then in late autumn I start strip grazing into the foggage.

The horses do very well on this arrangement.

Sounds like I am doing similar to you - I have just fenced off a small section to use till late autumn- does your grass not fall over by September though? Or can they still eat it when it’s flattened? Sorry if that is a dumb question but I thought I had read somewhere on here that you have to be careful of mould on flattened standing hay

 

[Melandmary]

I have ergot on a variety of species, and sooty moulds can grow on seeded grass in the right conditions. In dry years I just let it grow but in wet years I top until later in the summer and let it grow on from late July/August.

Hmmm! My fields I would say are wet due to being on flood land,they sometimes have ponds on them so I am thinking I may have to do as you suggest and cut in july, thankyou

 

[Melandmary]

I don't have much ryegrass and I keep a close eye for ergot, so l let mine grow and strip graze into it. I track around the field so if there's a bit that gets especially long then I'll graze into that earlier. They went onto their winter field for a few hours a day at the beginning of last Dec and it's fair to say that when the cold spell turned up mid Dec my smallest cob had her own insulation at the ready.

My biggest problem this year is going to be yellow rattle. I thought we'd attacked it with the strimmer before it went to seed but apparently not! Horses won't eat it and it really does trash the grass growth when it gets out of hand.

I'm sorry you lost your other horse OP. It's my first year without my equine lawnmower and I miss being able to get him to eat down the grass. You might find in winter strip grazing gets very muddy. I'm doing it right now and we've had so much rain they're churning the ground up

Thankyou SEL, yes she was the best lawnmower!! I really now have far too much land for 2 ponies but I am trying not to get another one!!

 

[Burnttoast]

Hmmm! My fields I would say are wet due to being on flood land,they sometimes have ponds on them so I am thinking I may have to do as you suggest and cut in july, thankyou

I top regularly while it's wet (think lawn care). If I waited till July I'd have to make hay which is too much of a faff. It's the weather rather than the conditions of the ground that normally dictates mould growth - if it's humid, moulds do well; if dry, less so.