Managing grazing in winter!!

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pinkypug1

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Hiya, i have 5 acres of grazing which is laid out in a 1.5 acre paddock, 1 acre paddock & 3.5 acres. If all gates are opened horses have the run of it all which i did do in the summer (4/5 horse grazing it) since November i have 2 horse & foal in the 1.5 acre paddock grass is very bare so they get ad lib haylage in the form of round bales. The paddock i have them in is the once with auto drinker & shelter but it is very wet & now muddy in one half.

i decided to split them off as want to save 3.5 acres for summer grazing, but am worried about how badly trashed the paddock they are in is getting & winter hasnt even set in yet. in the same situation would you trash one area to save other areas or let them have it all & have little grass at start of spring/summer?? also how do i go about salvaging the poor field in spring? horses are out 24/7 no option to bring in
 
Farmer next door advised me early on better to trash one field than all of them(especially if u are suppleme
ting with haylage). That way,u can move them off it after winter&set about seeding,fertilizing,rolling etc as appropriate. Is cheaper to have to do this to 1 trashed field than all. It's inevitable it will get muddy-horses+rain=mud but fields do 'come back' with the right maintenance. It helps if you don't have loons that bomb around and churn it up too,which a few of ours do;)
 
3.5 + 1.5 + 1 = 6 acres, not 5 so are you certain how many acres you actually have? The golden rule is 1.5 acres (some say 2) for the 1st horse and 1 acre thereafter for every additional horse. So 5 acres is barely enough for 4 horses and a tiny pony. Not sure from your post how many horses you have all year round but I'd say your 1 acre paddock isn't really big enough as a sacrifice field for 4/5 horses. You could get injuries and bullying or stress problems and some horses not getting near the hay. How many hours are the horses out? You could use the 1.5 and the 1 acre fields for sacrifice and then split the 3.5 into 2 fields and rotate through the summer. If you bring the horses in off the 3.5 acre field for a few hours every day during the summer, the field will last longer. Ditto if you poo pick.
Re the sacrifice fields, you'd be amazed how fields can recover if left ungrazed from say April to October. Obviously what grows back wouldn't be wonderful grass but seeding is hardly worth it as it would just be trashed again the next winter.
 
On my old yard we had 3 horses on 3 acres grazing. We hardcored the front of the big field (2.5 acres) and the front of the "trash paddock", the horses were then in the fenced off area of the big field with the hard core and then moved into the trash paddock when the weather really hit in. In the summer they got the run of the big field and the trash was re-seeded and rested until the following winter - so about 8/9 months. We never harrowed or rolled and the paddock grew back well. We put hay out twice daily as we couldn't feed ad lib or one of the horses would gorge herself and colic.
 
I save all the hay seed from my meadow hay and sprinkle it around the bald patches in the spring - saves buying seed, normally chain harrow it when it is freezing to knock all the bits about and sometimes use an old victorian roller to roll the seed in by hand.
 
Sorry i ment to put 2.5 not 3.5 acres!

I myself have one horse & her foal but i currently have another mare grazing with them so i have the 2 + foal out on 1.5 acres. I have no option to bring them in so they are out 24/7.

In the summer i had 3 horses & a pony grazing 24/7 then the foal came & soon after that other horses moved on so the max ive ever had grazing it has been the 4 & the 5 acres coped very well.

As for poo picking ive been trying hard but where they seem to poo most is a mess and i can hardly get the wheelbarrow over the ground as its sooo wet i do try as much as i can but since the round bales have gone in they poo near it where the ground is harder so its easier to lift.

I suppose i just feel bad seeing them in a wet field when i have 2 lovely grassy fields but they have losts to eat & they seem happy!
 
We have four on 2.5 acres for most of the year, three large ponies and a smaller one.

Its easier to just sacrifice a small part then you can just concentrate on sorting it out come the summer. We just shut the ponies off it, chain harrow it level, sprinkle a bit of grass seed and the seeds from the hay (which we save through the winter) and it always comes back OK. I do poo pick twice a day but when its really wet its gets a bit more difficult so I just do what i can.

An area of hardstanding has been a god-send for us. It gives us somewhere to get the ponies off the field when things to too bad and gives them a break from the mud if they choose.
 
pinkypug1 said:
Hiya, i have 5 acres of grazing which is laid out in a 1.5 acre paddock, 1 acre paddock & 3.5 acres. If all gates are opened horses have the run of it all which i did do in the summer (4/5 horse grazing it) since November i have 2 horse & foal in the 1.5 acre paddock grass is very bare so they get ad lib haylage in the form of round bales. The paddock i have them in is the once with auto drinker & shelter but it is very wet & now muddy in one half.


:) I'll attempt to explain, bit by bit:D I wouldn't be letting the horses have the run of all 5 acres in the summer. I fence off the paddock for the winter in about June.


i decided to split them off as want to save 3.5 acres for summer grazing, but am worried about how badly trashed the paddock they are in is getting &
winter hasnt even set in yet. in the same situation would you trash one area to save other areas or let them have it all & have little grass at start of spring/summer?? also how do i go about salvaging the poor field in spring? horses are out 24/7 no option to bring in
Click to expand...

The smaller the paddock, the quicker it will get trashed. I use a smaller paddock in the spring/summer when there is a plentiful supply of grass and keep the larger paddock for the wetter winter months. I also divide the larger winter paddock into two and alternate them every few weeks, thus giving the ground a rest. Poo picking twice daily, grass mats at gateways, feeding hay in different spots and raking any surplus away should help. If possible move water buckets regularly to different spots aswell.:)
 
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