Polos Mum
Well-Known Member
Hi,
I've been reading this forum for ages but now have a problem I haven't seen an answer to and was wondering if anyone had any good ideas.
I keep my two boys at home they are perfect (for me). This spring I helped out a friend of a friend and lent her one of my hay paddocks to graze her ponies as she was desporate - long story short it was a disaster and lesson learned never do a big favour for someone you don't know that well
One issue was lack of poo picking (something I do 2/3 times a week) so I ended up with a 2.5 acre field that had been home to 5 ponies for 5 weeks and not poo picked (I could have cried!) - impossible to catch up that much by hand so we harrowed it - left it for a month then (after all visable poo gone) put my boys back on to graze.
Now my question (sorry if this is too long). They are acting starving (standing by gate, escaping, the pony even slighly dropped weight etc.). But they have eaten about 1/3 right down as if it was a starvation paddock, leaving the rest (now about a foot high in bright green nice looking grass). Clearly it is still sour from all the poo.
What actually makes the grass sour? Is there anything I can do/ put on it to help it recover? Should I top the long bits or will it eventually 'wash off'? How long will it stay inedible? Has anyone taken over a poo infested field and got any good tips to suggest? At the moment I'm putting hay out (which they are clearing a bale of all of overnight) in a field that looks like you could have a good go at taking a hay cut in places !!
Thanks
I've been reading this forum for ages but now have a problem I haven't seen an answer to and was wondering if anyone had any good ideas.
I keep my two boys at home they are perfect (for me). This spring I helped out a friend of a friend and lent her one of my hay paddocks to graze her ponies as she was desporate - long story short it was a disaster and lesson learned never do a big favour for someone you don't know that well
One issue was lack of poo picking (something I do 2/3 times a week) so I ended up with a 2.5 acre field that had been home to 5 ponies for 5 weeks and not poo picked (I could have cried!) - impossible to catch up that much by hand so we harrowed it - left it for a month then (after all visable poo gone) put my boys back on to graze.
Now my question (sorry if this is too long). They are acting starving (standing by gate, escaping, the pony even slighly dropped weight etc.). But they have eaten about 1/3 right down as if it was a starvation paddock, leaving the rest (now about a foot high in bright green nice looking grass). Clearly it is still sour from all the poo.
What actually makes the grass sour? Is there anything I can do/ put on it to help it recover? Should I top the long bits or will it eventually 'wash off'? How long will it stay inedible? Has anyone taken over a poo infested field and got any good tips to suggest? At the moment I'm putting hay out (which they are clearing a bale of all of overnight) in a field that looks like you could have a good go at taking a hay cut in places !!
Thanks
