Long grass vs short grass - interesting article

I'm bringing two ponies home next week, all being well and have been out mowing the field in readiness as it's lush cattle pasture. Everyone thinks I'm bonkers as it's taken me two days to complete but I thought it was a good idea, in combination with strip grazing.
 
Forageplus have just been posting about how they use a cell system (small areas) for theirs, including their lammi risks, topped, grazed, rested and topped again on a rotation.
 
So it is saying its OK to keep the grass short? I was told by my vet that longer (ie older/uncut) grass was better for a laminitic prone horse than a field where the grass had been cut as the new grass growing through would be full of sugar. I currently have my fatty on a strip where he has grazed the grass down to very short. He is out overnight for 12 hours and stabled during the day and given two slices of small bale timothy haylage one AM the other PM. So far no sign of laminitis.
 
TotalMadgeness said:
So it is saying its OK to keep the grass short? I was told by my vet that longer (ie older/uncut) grass was better for a laminitic prone horse than a field where the grass had been cut as the new grass growing through would be full of sugar. I currently have my fatty on a strip where he has grazed the grass down to very short. He is out overnight for 12 hours and stabled during the day and given two slices of small bale timothy haylage one AM the other PM. So far no sign of laminitis.
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It's very hard to figure out the best course of action isn't it? I just know that I couldn't possibly let my two graze on cattle pasture without doing something. I have had bullocks in there to graze it down as well but they're now out of the field ready for the fencing to be done.
 
After my vet and others had recommended I let my ponies on the longer dead grass rather than stripped bare paddocks with hay , I stripped a small area for them . Took 2 days for one to become slightly footy . Took them back to bare paddock with hay and back to normal . It really is whatever suits your horses , some fine but I won't be taking the chance again .
 
Follysmum said:
After my vet and others had recommended I let my ponies on the longer dead grass rather than stripped bare paddocks with hay , I stripped a small area for them . Took 2 days for one to become slightly footy . Took them back to bare paddock with hay and back to normal . It really is whatever suits your horses , some fine but I won't be taking the chance again .
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Oh dear :( It's such a worry.
 
Snowy Celandine said:
It's very hard to figure out the best course of action isn't it? I just know that I couldn't possibly let my two graze on cattle pasture without doing something. I have had bullocks in there to graze it down as well but they're now out of the field ready for the fencing to be done.
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Indeed!! I am a bit confused I have to say. Last year I put my two horses out in a 1 acre field which we'd topped. After topping we removed the cut grass then after a week turned them both out on the pasture (which is ex dairy farm). The fatty came down with low grade (thankfully!!) laminitis. He was immediately removed to the outdoor school and given only soaked hay. Once he was OK he was then put out in a small non topped field for a few hours a day with a muzzle on and then later he was moved into a strip which I had the other horse graze down first.

So this year being ultra cautious I've avoided putting the horses out onto topped pasture altogether. They've both gone into strips with long grass but the fatty is in a small strip (other horse has a much bigger area) and was wearing a muzzle at first and now the grass is down 'naturally' the muzzle is off.

Also last year I borrowed 35 sheep to graze down the fields but they caused havoc with the troughs and electric fencing so decided not to do that this year! Anyway this year we're only topping the other fields which will be used for winter. The horses will have to stay in their non topped strips 12 hours on 12 hours off until then.

I really don't know if topping the field the first year caused the laminitic episode or if it was just overall poor management on my part (first time I'd had this horse at home and he was out 24/7 which on hindsight probably wasn't a good idea!).
 
TM, I'm glad your 'fatty' boy didn't suffer too much. It will be my first time bringing the horses home and I am stressing mightily about it I have to say. In the horse world everyone is 'right' and yet their opinions all contradict each other :( I'm just going to try my best and hope I can keep them both healthy and happy. One is 19 and arthritic and the other 14 and a non-ridden companion so, in theory, what I am doing is a good thing ...
 
it depends on so many things-not on the horses but type of grass, weather, altitude. I've managed the fatties every which way. now they live on long grass much of the year and muzzled. the pasture they are on is non-improved-mostly because on the majority of it you can't get machines on it and the other bit is crossed grazed with some cattle and a few ewes to keep the weeds down (not my land). They are 1200-1500ft up though on poor soil but grazing is rotated very frequently as ground takes a long time to recover and there is only a short growing season.

I only had problems on overgrazed, richer pasture, lower down.
 
I'm not sure that many would think of 15cm tall grass as "short".

I'm torn on this - we're told laminitis is on the increase but the majority of cases I hear about seem to be horses on small, over-grazed paddocks... which seems to chime with what MoC is saying.

Ours are currently on a paddock of long (40cm), non-improved old pasture at night and in a well but not over-grazed field (8cm long) during the day and, fingers crossed, although a bit podgy, neither is obese. The old pasture is full of variety, such as vetch and docks, and while they stuff their faces, they seem fine. The grazed pasture is seeded with a "horse" mix, ie not dairy grass.
 
moleskinsmum said:
I'm not sure that many would think of 15cm tall grass as "short".

I'm torn on this - we're told laminitis is on the increase but the majority of cases I hear about seem to be horses on small, over-grazed paddocks... which seems to chime with what MoC is saying.
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the other problem with overgrazed paddocks are weeds like buttercup, too much clover and daisies. All the horse paddocks that are too heavily grazed around here have sprung up with buttercup this year. The good paddocks are those that arent cropped short and that are often (i.e. fortnightly in winter, monthly in summer) rested completely.

I've done it the other way-strip grazing, grazing it almost bare, constant bloody poo picking. none of it does the pasture any good at all nor the horses either ime. I have two on 7 acres in the winter, 5 acres in the summer and a couple other smaller paddocks at home ranging from 1/4 acre to 1 acre.Yes I use muzzles but I'd rather that and have them moving on varied terrain in company than on bare, flat, postage stamp paddocks-bearing in mind I don't have any underlying conditions to worry about.
 
I recently put two of mine in a field full of very long grass. One was skinny when he arrived, and he stayed resolutely skinny out in the long grass for a month, then suddenly piled on the pounds. Onset of weight gain corresponded with them eating all the long dry stuff, and cracking on with the shorter grass underneath. I'd have no hesitation in putting fatties on long grass, but I'd get them off it pdq once the long stuff was eaten.
 
I would pay more attention to that study if they said what happened in the 14 hours a day the horses weren't grazing - did they have ad lib soaked hay, buckets of hard feed and haylage or were they starved? That would have more bearing on the results than anything imho....

However, speaking as a farmer, it is a known fact that the feed value of grass decreases when it goes to head hence why we top the grass to remove the seed heads and encourage fresh growth of higher digestibility so the cattle and sheep will gain more weight. If you want your lami ponies to gain weight then top away!! Another point is that short grass is easier to graze than long grass when muzzled so the muzzle will be more effective on long grass.
 
I think I have seen this or similar before. But the conclusion I came to was that calories matter. Hence mine are still on very short grass.
 
amandaco2 said:
older grass is more stemmy...but the sheer amount a horse can eat will increase their sugar intake.
short with hay works best for my lot....
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Exactly. I think it's more about how much they can eat than the length of it. If I watch mine, on very short grass, they have to search for a blade here and there, which if you collected all those blades, would be significantly less than how much long, stalky grass they could eat in the same period.

Mine live out all year, on a small track in the summer and the middle strip grazed in the winter. They'd never have unlimited grass of any length.
 
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