Managing own land

[HappyDayz]

An opportunity has come up to have my own yard. We have been looking for a long time but nothing suitable has turned up, until now.

I have 2 horses & 1 pony. The yard has got 4 stables and 15 acres, far more than I had been looking for. The horses all live out 24/7 all year unless there is a problem.

What would be the best way to mange this amount of grazing? I would have separate summer & winter fields but there would still be land left over. Hay? I know nothing about making my own hay.

Nothing is for definite yet as the sheer amount of land has thrown me a little as I have never managed that amount before.

All suggestions welcome 🙈

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Can you split it so you can have 2 completely seperate access gates?
You could then rent out half the grazing with a water tight contract (even starting max amount of equines allowed).
I have 3 on 4.5 acres, this holds them all year round as a, it's on sandy ground and B, I leave a third as winter foggage, there is still far too much through spring and summer tho.

 

[paddy555]

making hay brings problems. Good idea in theory and you have sufficient land but not always easy with small areas. Is the climate suitable for hay? eg is it upland with a high rainfall or much lower and an easier climate. What are the local farmers like as they will be the ones doing much of the hay making. With small areas you are often on the end of the contractors hay making schedule. Everyone wants grass cut or hay baled on the same day because it's going to rain. If you are at the end of the queue you could lose yours.
If you don't make hay you need to keep the grass down. Do you want say sheep or cattle of your own? You could come to an arrangement with a local farmer they have the grass in return for either hay making or field maintenance. You could let the farmer have land in exchange for letting you have some of their own hay.
For 15 acres are you looking at getting your own tractor? if so you could get a turner and at least turn your hay.
You could buy it and sell some of the land or you could rent it out for horses.
Endless possibilities, it just depends if you want other horses, other animals eg sheep on your land. They would help the grass and how you get on with the local farmer. What is the land currently used for?

 

[Peter7917]

Easy. Buy more horses.

 

[Jellymoon]

Oh wow, 15 acres, awesome. You will never have to muck out again, Horses can live out all yr round, lucky thing! Lots of space for schooling and jumping, you can get a little XC course set out.
I find it quite easy to get hay cut. It’s standard practise round me that the farmer cuts the hay and takes 50% by way of payment and I get the rest. This yr we did haylage.
I wouldn’t rent it out, I don’t like sharing, and I’d want to manage it my way.
Only advice would be use electric fencing to start off with until you know how the land works best for you.

 

[HashRouge]

I'd love that amount of land! I'd have the whole lot open to them over winter - you've so much room there should be a lot of grass coverage, so they shouldn't poach the ground. You also shouldn't need to feed any hay, which is always the dream for me (I might manage it this year, though I've a lot less land than you!). Then you can section off with electric fencing in summer (you'll probably only need a few acres if yours are anything like mine) and, as Jellymoon suggests, see if you can get a cut of hay taken off the remainder over summer. My YO has also found it fairly easy to arrange for a farmer to cut hay in return for being able to take and sell 50% of the bales. I wouldn't do anything else - I certainly wouldn't rent any of it out! But that is because I am an anti-social cow and I am very precious about being able to manage my own grazing!

 

[HappyDayz]

If we were to go for the yard I wouldn’t be renting any of it out. I do like the idea of some sheep but at present it’s post and rail perimeter so that would need to be sorted for sheep. There’s a friendly farmer up the road who I have spoken to, he would be happy to do the rolling & harrowing plus any fencing as and when needed. I didn’t think to ask him about doing a cut of hay though.

With that much grazing I’d hope to not need to feed hay at all during the winter. It’s more how I would split the grazing up that is playing on my mind.

 

[HashRouge]

If we were to go for the yard I wouldn’t be renting any of it out. I do like the idea of some sheep but at present it’s post and rail perimeter so that would need to be sorted for sheep. There’s a friendly farmer up the road who I have spoken to, he would be happy to do the rolling & harrowing plus any fencing as and when needed. I didn’t think to ask him about doing a cut of hay though.

With that much grazing I’d hope to not need to feed hay at all during the winter. It’s more how I would split the grazing up that is playing on my mind.

How big is the field? If it's long and narrow, you can just use electric tape to create a summer paddock at one end, then move the tape out and strip graze. If it's square you might want to bang in a few "corner" posts in the middle of the field to make your summer paddock a bit smaller, but I'd still use electric fencing. That way you can try out different things and see what works.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I would definitely want to cross-graze that amount of land, because I wouldn't want o have to manage it by weed-killing. topping etc. Offer the extra grazing to a local sheep farmer, or start a small flock yourself. The only thing is that you would need the sheep to have access to all the land over the course of the year, in order to avoid weeds growing on the horse pasture.

 

[Nicnac]

Track system and lots of sheep!

 

[Shoei]

I have 11 acres for 4. I split it and rotate in the summer and then let them have free range over winter to reduce ground damage.

I wouldn't bother with hay. We make our own from a different field and it really isn't as easy as people think. There is a lot of monitoring, spraying, fertilising and then you often have a very small window to get it made and in and if you haven't got your own kit, most farmers are busy making their own so not available to do small amounts.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

As others have said, track system with electric fencing and sheep. This is how we manage our 23 acres. It is split into 3 permanent fields, 14 acres, 6 and 3. This enables us to manage the sheep properly. Theoretically we could make hay but have been there and done that in the past. Very hard work, stressful and if it is a dry year the grass might not grow back enough to give good winter ground cover. Prefer to feed foggage than hay, much easier. Does mean the fields look a bit of a wilderness at times.
We do have most of our own kit, however what we lack is man power. Carting and stacking hay is hard work and we are getting too old.