Managing land

springgrass

springgrass

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I was wondering how people think the best way to manage 8 acres of good grazing with 4 horses (15.2hh-16.2hh)?
Plan out at night, in during day whilst hot and fly infested...then out during day, in at night. Unlikely 24/7 turn out. Prob 8-9hrs a day/night.

We move into our new yard tomorrow (eeeeeeekkkk!!!) and I just want to make sure I get the best out of the land.

It's already split into 4 even-ish paddocks. My thoughts are to rotate every four weeks over three of them, leave the other alone for a second cut late august, then maybe sacrifice it for winter where they can also be fed hay when the grass inevitably disappears.
Does this sound like a good plan?
I'm not sure I want to strip graze...

Will obviously be poo picking like a woman possessed!!

Thanks in advance :-)
 
springgrass said:
I was wondering how people think the best way to manage 8 acres of good grazing with 4 horses (15.2hh-16.2hh)?
Plan out at night, in during day whilst hot and fly infested...then out during day, in at night. Unlikely 24/7 turn out. Prob 8-9hrs a day/night.

We move into our new yard tomorrow (eeeeeeekkkk!!!) and I just want to make sure I get the best out of the land.

It's already split into 4 even-ish paddocks. My thoughts are to rotate every four weeks over three of them, leave the other alone for a second cut late august, then maybe sacrifice it for winter where they can also be fed hay when the grass inevitably disappears.
Does this sound like a good plan?
I'm not sure I want to strip graze...

Will obviously be poo picking like a woman possessed!!

Thanks in advance :-)
Click to expand...

Just to add....in people experience, how long does a winter sacrifice paddock take to come right again? Would I be making a mistake to do it this way?! :-/
 
I think your plan sounds sensible. We do roughly the same with just under five acres and 2 horses + two Shetlands (who only graze by day and go home elsewhere at night). the field (in our case a difficult E-shape and hilly\0 is divided into three

Don't know if this is relevant, but if your stables are in/attached to your land as mine are we have found it is worth having access to the stable yard from all electric-fenced paddocks. So in a way for us it is like a fan. The stables are at the base of the fan, and the subdivisions are like segments, narrowing at the stable end but which all give access. The difference is that we don't take a cut for hay. Our main problem is that we have therefore have rather too much grass. We rotate on approx. a ten-day basis in summer.

In our case, come October, we take down all the electric fencing for the winter and they have the whole caboodle, as we've found they actually trash the ground less that way. Again they have 24-hour access to the stable yard and its hard standing, and though never shut in or out, the big horses tend to spend all night in the big open bedded down box where they can have their hay under shelter.

Really you will know far more this time next year! For now, it's suck it and see. You can always change your plans next year, but your current plan sounds eminently sensible. Good luck with it.
 
Thank you :) I'd love our grazing to be directly off our yard but unfortunately it isn't. Your set up sounds ideal!
It's so difficult trying to think of the best way to do things. I've only ever been on livery so this will be the first time I've been responsible for all of these decisions!
 
Do you know if all the fields drain as well as each other, and do they have the same amount of shelter? Those make your decisions quite easily! It depends on the type of grass tbh. We have gone from 3 to 5 horses on 12 acres currently 3 horses are fenced on about 2-3 acres 24/7 as they are fat. The two new ponies have under an acre to themselves.

During winter oct-dec two come in at night, the rest will be out. At this time of year we give them the full 12 acres to play on. It's hilly and the only poached areas are around the gate, I think they love roaming. Ours are out 24/7 from March- November most years. Then we just move them between our two 6 acre fields. I'm poo picking ATM as they're in small paddocks, but most of the year we don't the fields just get harrowed 1-2 times a year. They have toilet areas, but the rest stays pretty clean.

We have sheep on ATM to eat the grass, it's good to have different grading beasties for the land. We have them on for a month and get straw for winter in return.
 
I SACRIFICE A PADDOCK FOR WINTER AND IT IS REALLY TRASHED,JUST MUD BUT THEN LEAVE IT WITHOUT HORSES ALL SUMMER TO RECOVER AND HAVE A REALLY GOOD COVER BEFORE THEY RETURN nOV/dEC.... RECOVERS REALLY WELL.
 
Just to add, if you are haying in the field, a nice harrow and roll in spring gets all the lovely hayseeds and helps with recovery of the grass imho
 
I have three on eight acres (used to have four horses) and it is split with permanent fencing into a five acre field (the bast draining land) and two small paddocks (approx 1 1/2 acres each).

I use the small paddocks in the summer and will make an extra small paddock in the big field with electric tape when required. They are in the five acres for winter.

Having options for the summer is good, as I can spray one area and then keep them off it for 6 weeks. I have sprayed the field this year and last year the paddocks were done. Next year I'll spray the paddocks if the buttercups are getting bad again. I top weeds (and ungrazed 'roughs') with a tractor and topper and harrow when needed.

I make sure that the field is well rested before the winter. I have found that letting the grass grow to foggage (long - I have heard it called standing hay) works really well here.

Mine are out 24/7 most of the time.
 
Thanks for all of your informative replies.
The paddocks are very well draining as on a gentle slope. I quite like the idea of them having the run of the 8 acres in the winter but not sure I'm brave enough!
We will be harrowing and rolling each spring. I'd fully expect to have to reseed the winter paddock...
 
I have 7 acres split permanently into 5 acre field with good shelter and an old stone barn ponies can use, plus two smaller paddocks. I am lucky our stables are in one of the paddocks. In the winter I put the hay inside with doors open in really bad weather otherwise it goes outside on some hard standing to save the ground.

Currently I have two young cobs, plus 7 sheep and geese using the whole area as the grass is well down now.

I also find that the ponies benefit from having a larger area over winter, even last winter when it was so wet the field and paddocks came through really well. We harrow in spring and autumn and have to top reeds in August as we have moorland grass.

Enjoy your own land, and learning the best way to manage it to suit you and your horses.
 
I don't know why you would need a 'sacrifice paddock' with that acreage and number of horses? Personally I would try and rest 2 to 4 acres between now and Autumn (take hay of it if there is sufficient enough growth to do so) then open it up to give the horses the run of the 8 acres for the winter. That, or rotate half and half - so graze them on 4 acres for a period (till munched down), then swap them to the other half, giving each paddock a few weeks rest at a time throughout the winter (try and save them a decent bite of grass for the colder winter months, thus reducing the need for hay in the fields). Then early spring (march ish time) put them in the smallest area possible without trashing the land, shut half off to rest for hay growth and then rotate the horses between the other two paddocks left...

My experience of sacrifice paddocks is that the land gets totally trashed, it encourages weed growth and is not particularly healthy for the horse...
 
CBFan said:
I don't know why you would need a 'sacrifice paddock' with that acreage and number of horses? Personally I would try and rest 2 to 4 acres between now and Autumn (take hay of it if there is sufficient enough growth to do so) then open it up to give the horses the run of the 8 acres for the winter. That, or rotate half and half - so graze them on 4 acres for a period (till munched down), then swap them to the other half, giving each paddock a few weeks rest at a time throughout the winter (try and save them a decent bite of grass for the colder winter months, thus reducing the need for hay in the fields). Then early spring (march ish time) put them in the smallest area possible without trashing the land, shut half off to rest for hay growth and then rotate the horses between the other two paddocks left...

My experience of sacrifice paddocks is that the land gets totally trashed, it encourages weed growth and is not particularly healthy for the horse...
Click to expand...

This also makes perfect sense.
I realise we have enough land for the amount of horses and yes, I'm not sure how much I'd appreciate the muddy mess of a sacrifice area with hay on it.
Gosh, I didn't realise how bad I was at making decisions until having land to manage!

To top it off my horse came in hopping lame yesterday with wounds to his hind leg...suspected fracture but X-ray today only showed a slight 'something' (I couldn't even see it) so he's in for at least ten days now when they will scan and X-ray again...what a start to our exciting new venture, and so typical of my boy. Just thankful the vet gave us the go ahead to box him the 3 mins to new place as obviously riding or walking in hand out of the question.
Very stressful two days of moving, vets and even squeezed a night shift in!! :)
 
I have four horses on twelve acres and use sacrifice pasture in winter .
My land is spilt into five paddocks plus Fattys track .
One paddock about an acre is never grazed it mown and looked after as a working area for lunging jumping and flat work during the summer .
Another five acres is the sacrifice pasture it's trashed at the end of winter it gets rolled harrowed and topped as necessary and gets from mid April / may until mid to end September to recover .
The rest is three paddocks of about equal size one is lightly used if necessary in winter ( poorly horses and that sort of thing ) it gets a light application of fertiliser in spring if it looks sad .
The three summer paddocks are grazed in rotation and topped as necessary .
It's taken me time to suss how to manage the land for the best .
I never break the sacrifice pasture rule no matter how wet and muddy it is they stay in that field I have learnt no matter how tempting it is you pay for it if you let the summer paddocks get trashed .
This year for the first time I put hay in the sacrifice field in mid march as we have four sensible horse friends ATM it gave the first of the summer fields an extra three weeks rest in spring it's been well worth it .
I grew up with awful shared grazing I am very precious about my fields and work very hard on them .p
You do have to invest time and a some money on pasture management all my paddocks look good my sacrifice pasture does have more buttercups than my other fields but it's not as bad as lots of other horse pastures I see , all other weeds respond well to control by well timed topping which I do my self using a large garden tractor with a heavy duty mulching deck . I also have a roller and harrows but I get a contractor with Cambridge rollers to do all the fields once in spring .
Since I went over to doing WGC I not needed to worm a horse excepting new one and doing for tape worms ,I don't poo pick except in fattys track system it serves no useful purpose for me .
I turn out everyday in winter it's important to me that the horses always have access to grazing and they have nice paddocks to enjoy the summer , the paddocks look nice .
You will learn how to manage your paddocks in a way that suits them best it took me a few years to suss it out .
 
I think the absolute bonus with grass is that some years you get it wrong, and some years the weather is that appalling you just have to do your best, but whatever happens, it will grow back!

The field ours aren't in ATM (but sheep have run of 12 acres) is really long and meadowy still, long grasses (Yorkshire fog, meadow grasses, crested dogs tail, cocksfoot from a quick survey today), some thistles not in large swathes, just part of the flora, birds foot trefoil, self heal, some clovers etc. it's not rich, but it's interesting I think. Unfortnately it has ragwort, but as I discovered the other day I think the sheep (well something at least) have demolished the ragwort! Letting them have the whole lot in winter means the can move around and get the most out of it without trashing it, the field stays great, apart from the trashed area near the gate. We shut half off in jan/February to save for march time ish, whenever the ground is drying then move them and let the trashed bit survive. The trashed gateway/field shelter area never recovers to nice grass unfortunately (mainly knotgrass and pineapple weed) but it's also their toilet area so it doesn't stand a chance! One year I will seed it properly!
 
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