Land managment - nitrogen based fertilizers

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Lollii

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Anyone that uses nitrogen based fertilizers could you let me know how long you keep your horses off the grass after it goes on?

The farmer that put it down said as it had rained heavily over the weekend it would be ok to graze the horses on it after 2 or 3 days but looking it up on tin'ternet it says 2 to 3 weeks :rolleyes:

Any experiences please?
 
mrdarcy said:
Permanently! Horse pasture should be unfertilized. It can take 20 years for pasture to recover from being regularly fertilized.
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Um it its possible not to fertilize if you have the luxury of a large parcel of land and only a few horses to graze!!! sadly most of us have to make a little do a lot and that means bag muck...
 
mrdarcy said:
Permanently! Horse pasture should be unfertilized. It can take 20 years for pasture to recover from being regularly fertilized.
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Well it's a bit late for that as it was done over the weekend!;)

The fields have never been done in the 7 years we have lived here.

We only have 8 acres, they fertilized the summer paddocks (4 acres) on Saturday, I want to get the horses on there asap, I'm just not sure how long to wait ... 14 days seems safe. :rolleyes:
 
You should never ever fertilize pasture used by horses as the resultant grass etc can do all sorts of damage to them such as laminitis and Scouring.
If the land has been trashed then this is a result of overgrazing and/or bad drainage.
The best pasture for horses is mature traditional meadow grass.
If the field has been trashed then the solution is not fertilizer but resting the field and re-seeding it with a specialised equine grass mix.
Maintenance of grass land is best done by those that specialise in it as most arable farmers do not understand horses or how to manage grassland for horses.
 
The yard i am at fertilize every other year with a liquid nitrogen based fertilizer. If there has been a good amount of rain to wash it in we tend to leave it 12 - 14 days if not much rain we leave it longer before we allow the horses to graze.
 
Thanks for the replies,

In a perfect world (with lots of acres) I'm sure it would be best to rest these paddocks but we are on horrible clay soil which has had to put up with over grazing, the summer paddocks are patchy and the winter ones are trashed, we have re seeded the rested summer paddocks but they needed fertilising - which has been done.

When we finally use the summer paddocks I can then get the winter paddocks done, they will be re seeded and fertilised if necessary.

I know several people with horses that fertalise their land, it is an anual or bi anual thing to do, they don't seem to have any problems ;)
 
Lollii said:
In a perfect world (with lots of acres) I'm sure it would be best to rest these paddocks but we are on horrible clay soil which has had to put up with over grazing, the summer paddocks are patchy and the winter ones are trashed, we have re seeded the rested summer paddocks but they needed fertilising - which has been done.

When we finally use the summer paddocks I can then get the winter paddocks done, they will be re seeded and fertilised if necessary.

I know several people with horses that fertalise their land, it is an anual or bi anual thing to do, they don't seem to have any problems ;)
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TELL me about clay! I'm struggling now to repair fields trashed over the winter - by the time they were dry enough to roll they were too dry to roll! My treatment of them might horrify the purists - I empty the muck heaps onto them, then run over the piles with the transport box at ground level (that pushes the sh*t into the ruts and smoothes down the ruts) - then harrow thoroughly with mounted harrows. I then pray for some rain to wash the sh*t in and get the grass growing - prayers are NOT being answered at present!

There are two problems with the use of nitrogen based fertiliser.

1. If you use too much it makes the grass grow fast - and the grass doesn't pick up other nutrients from the soil as well. But a bag to the acre (50kg) shouldn't cause problems unless you have laminitics.

2. It puts no real goodness back into the soil (as it's taken up very quickly by the grass which the horses eat.) If you poo pick, then NO goodness or organic matter goes back into the soil and -over a period of years - the soil will become 'dusty' and malnourished.

The cure is LOTS of organic matter (which is why I use my muckheaps - lots of muck from upwards of 20 horses stabled all year around!!) Yes, you have to be aware of the worm situation - but as my muckheaps are heaped up, pushed back and compacted over several months - and get hot enough to combust spontaneously - and as my horses are regularly wormed, I don'tthink it's a major risk. I rest the fields that have had large quantities of muckonthem for 8-10 weeks. We're slowly breaking down the clay with this treatment judging by the number of moles who have moved in!
 
JG I am astounded by you fertilisation techniques :eek: :) my local farmer has told m to do exactly he same with my winter fields :D but OP he did say that if I feel the need to fertilise to use a Compound Fertiliser as this will also add minerals to the soil..BUT he also said use very very sparingly as you can burn your grass...and he emphasised you shouldnt really do anything with horse pasture except good old Sh@te put on over winter and left to rot!! My old place use o seaweed his fields and always said turnout would be at least two weeks after depending on rainfall!!
 
Pasture management is very time consuming. I clear my small acreage daily (if not twice daily) of droppings, have dosed it with calcified seaweed, cross-grazed with sheep, harrowed, weed-killed and rolled and still the blasted buttercups grow.

Next-door's heavily tilled pasture has not a buttercup to be seen. I think somehow, the goodness needs replacing every few years.

This year seems to be the year of the dandelion, though, and they are meant to be massively sugary. Can't win!
 
Ah Janetgeorge you are a girl after my own heart :) no poo picking - spread it around with a harrow. :D

The bloody clay is so horrible, as you say it can change within a day from thick sloppy mud to hard as concrete 2ft ruts - damn stuff :mad:

We do the same ... harrow and roll in the sh*t then rest until we have heavy rain ... we have also got a muck heap that is well rotted, I will look into spreading it at the end of this summer.

I know it is not ideal putting nitrogen on but it was all we could get at short notice.

We had 4 buckets put on approx 4 acres (I think!) so I will leave it for at least 14 - 30 days, we have had lots of rain so it will be washed in.
 
I was told that you should use a fertilizer LOW in nitrogen on grazing intended for horses otherwise the grass will bolt. When we had our small paddock fertilized we used a special mix for horse pasture which sustained the grass over a longer period of time. Nitrogen fertilizers are for grass intended for haylage or hay.
 
I've been advised to use either a low nitrogen or zero nitrogen product. My wife's horses had their feet permanently damaged by nitrogen base fertiliser (white line separation and severe cracks). Perhaps a chat to the farrier or vet may be useful...
 
We use a balanced fertiliser that contains some nitrogen, but in low levels. We keep the horses off the paddocks for 2 weeks, although the farmer supplier advises there is no need to.

I disagree with the poster who says you should never fertilise grassland. Our paddocks have very poor grass and without fertilising we would likely have none. With the new balanced fertilisers they are purpose created for horse grazing and you actually need to use them year on year to get your growth. We also spread our muckheap in winter to improve the land.

Noone wants 'lush' grazing, but abundant grass is good imo - we let it grow up and start to seed - that hopefully reestablishes more new future growth and the horses have safe dry matter to eat in abundance. No horse should be starved of forage and even my chronic laminitic and good doer are safe on our paddocks.
 
grass like all plants needs food to grow. Lightening fixes nitrogen in the soil for example. FYM feeds the plant too , or compound chemical fertiliser. We use a horse frienddly product, 16:16:16 which feeds the roots well but doesnt give as much top growth like 20:10:10. Stressed grass eg unfertilised, or frosted is more sugary.
We keep our horses off the pasture until the fert has been absorbed this depends on the rainfall and temperature, it can be a few days to a few weeks.
remember up ,down, all around ,ie N is for top growth, P is for roots and K is for all round health. Horses dont need much quick top growth so lower nitrogen is recommended.
 
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