Is anyone else worried?

I am not too worried about haylage as the farmer I get mine from only does a few customers, from one cut, and will just wait until the grass is ready, as keeps a field just for that purpose. The summer before last he cut in July, last summer early Aug, and he still had plenty left over.

I am more worried about lack of grazing as ours are still in so costing in haylage/bedding. The last 2 yrs running I have had them all out 24/7 by mid march and have plenty of land to go around, but the grass is just so slow atm. Tbh we need some rain to get things going, but I said that last year and look what happened!!!!!

I am sure it will all balance out, and if it doesn't, we will just have to grit our teeth and keep going.
 
Zangels - have you tried calcified seaweed? We apply it every 2-3 years and its brilliant, for several reasons:

Promotes slow growth (not dairy-pasture rush job)
Ergo, good for laminitic horses
No need to take horses off when you apply - safe, and palatable
Your neighbours will love you as they'll think they're living at the seaside (ozoney smell)
Effects last more than a year
Not overly expensive
Seems to encourage wild flowers
 
Worrying won't make a blind bit of difference, putting a plan in place will!!

I just cleared out our neighbours barn ready for the first cut of hay (which he rekons is only 3 weeks behind down here) - we salvaged around 120 bales and chucked the rest as couldn't be faffing with tying the broken strings. He still has some 2011 bales kicking about on another farm which he is hoping he can sell.

I think alot of the time the merchants stockpile it in order to push the prices up, no one round here advertises hay for sale until after Christmas when the know that people will be running out (remember everyone panics every year and yet I don't know of any farmers who have shot thier livestock through lack of forage like some of the poor farmers in America last year!)

Best idea is to find some storage and buy off the field in the summer, (it will store outside under a tarp if stacked correctly). Or better still ask the farmer to wrap it for you. We made wrapped hay this year and it was lush - five days of turning then wrap like haylage turns to sweet smelling green hay that isn't acidic like haylage and can be stored wherever.

Don't rely on there being a constant supply, just think ahead.

Also people who are still bring horses in overnight why not hay them in the field? Mine are still on thier winter grazing, but are definately eating less hay overnight than they would if they were stabled, so there must be some grass coming through that they are finding.
 
Whats the point of worrying in April? Worry in August. Who knows what the summer will bring.. The ground is great, a bit of rain and warm weather will bring the grass on really quickly. Yes, last year things were ahead, then it all snowballed in June and second cuts were lost... Its swings and roundabouts.

Driving from the northwest to London I see so much haylage still out in the fields, not even brought it from last year.
 
This thread is very interesting reading because of the widely different opinions.

So just wondering whether the science/facts behind keeping horses out are well known or whether people follow what they always have done or follow what other people do without it always being the best thing.

Cutting up fields into small paddocks when there isn't much grass.
Is that the best thing?
Horses wander a lot to graze and the grass almost "grows behind them" at this time of year.
So if the grass is too short, in a small section does it get overgrazed so that it can't recover?
Maybe better to open up the bigger field and let the horses work out for themselves how to graze it?

Also still bring in because of not enough grass.
As somebody said, why not hay in the field.
Surely the main reason to bring in is because of cold so once that's over, what's the thinking behind bringing in?

OK, I know I am going to be shot down but with so many different experiences from people it does point to some managing better.
 
My horses have the run of about 10 acres, there are two of them, all winter and usually be April I am splitting that into two 5 acre fields and keeping them on one of those as just too much grass to leave them access to it all. No grass coming through yet so they are still on the full 10 acres. My three miniatures are then on a 2 acre paddock and have another two smaller paddocks so rotate them around the three areas throughout the year. No grass coming through on these either at the moment so all five are still on hay. It is worry from a cost point of view as the price of hay could get a little ridiculous by next winter but I will buy in new cut hay in the summer and store it ready. I was always told not to feed hay that had been cut before July until after October and any cut after July should not be fed until after Christmas? I will buy in more this year as have had used up my usual winter supply by the end of February when I would normally start to feed much less anyway but this year their intake of hay has only started to slow down in the last two weeks.
 
Honey08 said:
Driving from the northwest to London I see so much haylage still out in the fields, not even brought it from last year.
Click to expand...

It's not likely to be top quality stuff, it's not been left because there's so much about, it's been left because it's poor and it was too wet to get it off. We had to leave a load out, but now we've run out and the grounds dried out we can get to it and have to...but you sure as hell wouldn't give it to a horse.
 
Aarrghimpossiblepony said:
Cutting up fields into small paddocks when there isn't much grass.
Is that the best thing?
Horses wander a lot to graze and the grass almost "grows behind them" at this time of year.
So if the grass is too short, in a small section does it get overgrazed so that it can't recover?
Maybe better to open up the bigger field and let the horses work out for themselves how to graze it?
Click to expand...

True at this time of year the grass grows around them so you can 'get away' with grazing a large area continuously, but as soon as that growth slows down your horses will have 'favoured' areas which get grazed very hard, and others they don't like so much which don't: the favoured areas will be getting all the new growth nipped off as soon as it arrives, leaving no leaf space for the plant to soak up sun with and photsynthesise, so it will draw on stored energy reserves. You can only deplete these so many times before killing the plant off.

By chopping up the pasture and rotating, you can force the animals to graze less selectively, giving the grass a chance. You're also leaving areas entirely untouched to soak up (free) sun energy which you can then harvest for winter as hay...then graze once cut as they will be horse-length again after the peak growth period in spring.

You also get another smaller flush of growth in autumn which you could use as 'stockpiled' grazing and leave in situ to graze in rationed paddocks over autumn/winter and so on.

Good grass management would save a lot of money!!
 
Rose Folly said:
Zangels - have you tried calcified seaweed? We apply it every 2-3 years and its brilliant, for several reasons:

Promotes slow growth (not dairy-pasture rush job)
Ergo, good for laminitic horses
No need to take horses off when you apply - safe, and palatable
Your neighbours will love you as they'll think they're living at the seaside (ozoney smell)
Effects last more than a year
Not overly expensive
Seems to encourage wild flowers
Click to expand...

Thank you I will look into calcified seaweed.
Does any one have a good management system for their land that works well? Like I said we have 5 and 1/2 acres all together but would really like to get a cut off the 3 acres we took them off in March.
My splitting into 3 and rotating system doesn't seem to be working the minute so am open to try anything else. We putted horses on the and in September so this will be he first spring and summer we have done.
 
I'm not worried about running out but I am worried about what its going to cost.

I am moving yards next week to where my hay supplier cuts his from, so it will be available on site and they always have A LOT, but I will have to stable from Nov-Feb for the first time in 12 yrs! I have 2 horses and a mini to bring in, so gods only knows how much the bedding is going to costs me! I am starting to save any spare cash now for the winter!
 
I have taken action as last year we could have made more hay but the baker broke halfway through and the weather was awful, had to buy in some for sheep and horses.

So this year we are expanding storage space (some of it is barn which is partly ok but partly leaky) by buying a 24x12 field shelter with extra ventilation to store hay as well as provide shade for the horses during the summer and lambing shelter in the spring. Horses are in at night in stables in the colder months anyway. Getting an extra heavy duty model so should last.

We are getting a chap in to give the baler a complete overhaul and will have some rounds made too if we get into trouble, and we are going to make as much as poss and sell some of there's an excess, it is beautiful pale green meadow hay and the animals adore it.
 
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