Poo picking.. why?

[lula]

Moved to a new yard recently where strangely, poo picking our own individual fields is not insisted upon by YO. As a result, hardly anyone does and Im almost laughed at as i am out there daily doing mine. When i ask people why they dont they just say droppings will break up, turn white and eventually blow away so there's no point. Have to disagree on that one since the field my horse moved into when i arrived had 5 horses on it previously who's owner never bothered and the amount of soiled long grass in there my horse just wont touch to graze on is enormous.


Do you poo pick regularly or take a more relaxed attitude that the magic horse **** fairy will turn up sometime and do the job for you.. or maybe you harrow once a year or so?

I do see the point that if you own more than 2-3 horses harrowing is the only practical way of doing it or you'd spend more time poo picking than you would doing anything else.

Thoughts?

 

[scats]

I poo pick religiously every day, I have 2 horses on one large field (did have 3 horses and poo picking that was quite tiring). I can't stand turning horses out in unpicked fields, but that's just a personal thing. Mine have sour 'toilet areas' that they use so I just quickly whizz round with the wheelie to those areas every evening.

 

[BSL]

We have four on ten acres. My daughter and I clear the field every day. We are lucky we have the time, its a great way to stay fit, and just because we like a clean field.

 

[mandyroberts]

Poo pick regularly - keeps grass in much better condition and will reduce hay bills. If you don't grass will become 'sour' and the horses won't eat it

 

[be positive]

They will find there is less and less palatable grass and more weeds growing, if the paddocks are small in time they will not have enough to support their horses needs, I have several smaller fields and insist that they are kept relatively clear, including one where mine live, the one bigger, 7 acre, field is not cleared as it is too big to keep on top of and with only 3 horses on it there is no issue with lack of grass, all the fields get harrowed/ rolled and topped.

 

[Peter7917]

I would poo pick if the horses were in a small area, strip grazed or whatever.

But they're not so we just harrow a couple of times each year. It's only three acres or so but I'm still not feeding hay and don't expect to until perhaps early December, they are all well covered.

 

[xgemmax]

I poo pick the field once or twice a week so that it's clear, we have 2 horses on about 2-3 acres

 

[JillA]

Poo picking is the ideal for me - avoids the possibility of horses being infested by internal parasites from the eggs contaminating the grazing, and keeps the sward evenly growing, instead of the "lawns and roughs" created by soiled latrine areas and clean grazed areas.
That said I do have concerns about soil fertility if all the manure is removed so mix and match works for me (time wise too). Small paddocks are picked clean daily and larger winter fields harrowed - but then, my grazing is as worm free as possible, as witness several years of FECs with no eggs seen. In your place I would worry about worm burdens in the horses that were there before

 

[Sealine]

I'm on a large DIY livery yard and we don't poo pick. Grazing is in five single sex herds of approx 8 horses per herd. We move fields regularly - approximately every eight weeks sometime less. Each time we move the fields we come out of are harrowed. My horses worm count result is always 'no eggs seen'.

 

[Whizza]

I have 2 horses on about an acre and a half (not ideal I know) I poo pick every day, sometimes twice a day. Both horses have very low worm counts which is ideal. One of my horses has a lot of seeds in with her feed and the birds create a right mess going through her poo, they scatter it all over the place! And as I don't have a massive field I need the horses to graze as much of it as they can!

 

[milliepops]

2 horses in small paddocks -if I didn't poo pick they would have nowhere to graze. I find if you pick up the poo daily you don't end up with big roughs as it isn't sitting on the grass long enough to taint it.

My YO is insistent upon it anyway. Keeps on top of the worm burden too.

 

[Amye]

It seems like that at my yard - I barely ever see anyone poo picking. This summer, I started poo picking when mine went out (i've only had him a year so wasn't aware of routine etc), I discussed with the 2 other owners I share the field with (3 other horses + my 1) and they said they would start too as it was a bit of a mess.

Then YM said that the fields would be getting topped this week so no need to poo pick and start a proper routine after that. Our fields had not been topped for a while. So we waited for it to be topped - never happened. So then the field was pretty messy. I try to poo pick but no one else does and the field is now a mess. I want to clean it up but no one seems to care *sigh*. It would take me ages to poo pick it all myself so just do my little bit...

 

[ihatework]

I'm not a poo picking Nazi, it's one chore I can quite happily live without.
My preference would always be to have sufficient acreage to allow rotation and harrowing.

That said life is not perfect and if you are in a situation with small paddocks and little rotation (which I've been in, and will be again soon) - then pop picking is a necessary evil unfortunately!

 

[Hannahgb]

Try to every day- although life sometimes gets in the way and it is put off for a day.

 

[Merlod]

I don't we have two enourmous hill fields, horses go out as a herd and rotate between the fields, poos get broken up by the harrows so we never pick them. I can understand doing it if all you get is a postage stamp to graze on.

 

[Lexi_]

Every day for us as we don't have the option of huge fields or changing them often and harrowing. We've got one, split into smaller sections, so it's really important we keep on top of the poo picking. I find it quite satisfying to do really - all part of the usual round of checking waters, moving the fence line if necessary, stomping in any massive divots when they've been skidding around like idiots.

 

[MissTyc]

We rotate and harrow ... When I first took over the management it was just harrowing 30 horses on 40 acres - the grass was bad and the weeds were bad. Split it into 3 sections and downsized to 22 horses (oldies won't be replaced), try to use 1-2 sections at a time but always give one section 7-8 months off, rotate and harrow ... hardly any weeds, no hay required. Need to keep an eye on worm burdens though esp as we are overstocked (although when I say "horses" we don't have many over 14hh and most are under 13hh)

 

[PeterNatt]

My fields are poo picked each day because:
I want to reduce the worm burden to a minimum.
Keep the grass fresh. Poos on the ground kills the grass under them and then weeds take over.
Reduce the risk of Grass Sickness. Research has demonstrated that Grass Sickness is linked to Botulism and that daily poo picking reduces the risk of Grass Sickness.
If one harrows a field with poos in it then it just spreads the worms over the pasture.

 

[3OldPonies]

They don't poo pick - what kind of yard are you on? Sorry to sound so incredulous, but have these people never heard of internal parasites and horse sour pasture? Perhaps they haven't, either way OP you stick to your guns and carry on poop scooping! I'm honestly shocked that in this day and age with all the media at our disposal to learn and find out about parasites, testing and anthelmintics (might have spelt that wrong) that those people can think it OK to just leave the poo on the ground like that. If the fields were huge, rotated and harrowed it would be OK, but not on that sort of set up. I hope your horse doesn't pick up too much of a burden from the 5 that have gone before him if they were managed in the same way as everyone else's seems to be.

I have two 14.2 ish on three acres and I poo pick everytime I am there while they're eating their feeds; I've divided the field in three so that there are always two bits having a rest for as long as I can give them. I also harrow in spring, ground permitting (we're close to a stream and flood so it's not always possible). Only in winter does the poo picking drop off a bit, and that is only because I can't find it at night!

 

[Tyssandi]

Moved to a new yard recently where strangely, poo picking our own individual fields is not insisted upon by YO. As a result, hardly anyone does and Im almost laughed at as i am out there daily doing mine. When i ask people why they dont they just say droppings will break up, turn white and eventually blow away so there's no point. Have to disagree on that one since the field my horse moved into when i arrived had 5 horses on it previously who's owner never bothered and the amount of soiled long grass in there my horse just wont touch to graze on is enormous.


Do you poo pick regularly or take a more relaxed attitude that the magic horse **** fairy will turn up sometime and do the job for you.. or maybe you harrow once a year or so?

I do see the point that if you own more than 2-3 horses harrowing is the only practical way of doing it or you'd spend more time poo picking than you would doing anything else.

Thoughts?

we poo pick every day and would not have it any other way

If I had a bigger land than our 10 acres then I would invest in a auto poop picker I would never ever harrow



Reasons for Poo Picking from you fields Pros and Cons
PROS
There is always for and against this topic here are some plus for clearing the fields:

Reducing the risk of Grass Sickness

because It can be embarrassing if you show new liveries around and the fields are covered with ****, makes it look like you don't care for your land

keeps the worm burden down

stops the grazing having sour patches

you muck out your stable so why not muck out the field

gives the horses nice clean area where they don't have to spend time trying to eat round all there droppings.

You people spending fancy time making sure the bed it mucked out yet they leave their play area a mess!!!

good time to dee ragwort at the same time

also to spot any broken fencing or rubbish discarded in the field

also to spot rabbit holes

find any lost shoes which could penetrate soles

If you also drive the ponies in the field when the horses in and you do not want the trap covered in **** either

If you jump in the fields and droppings all over the place can make a horse slip when jumping

visitors walking in the fields don't want to walk in it in their good shoes

cons

Can be hard work raking and pushing the barrow then empty and start again
Tedious

Chain Harrow your manure

PROS

Can cover a large area in fast time

Harrow your pasture in the summer – it takes temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit to kill parasite larvae

Do not drag your pasture in the spring or fall. This practice only aides in spreading the larvae which can over winter and be infective the following spring.


CONS

If you haven't got a good deworming protocol in place the manure will have an egg load and the eggs are often quite tough, and you'll have spread them all around in a thin enough layer that the usual habit of not eating around the piles won't be true. So you'll be happily reinfecting your horses.
Breaking up manure piles in the heat of the summer so that the sun can kill the parasite eggs is a good idea, but using a harrow can spread parasite eggs more widely over the entire field. Bottom line: if you must harrow your field, don't do it in the spring or fall or when you have horses on it.
if its too wet to harrow you will end up ripping the field up
If you leave it, or birds spread it - the eggs have got onto the grass and then you've lost the control benefit.

 

[cally23]

The yard I am on does not poo pick, I have once on my own and also asked others but no one bothers and it is impossible for me to do on my own. Too big an area and to many horses.
It is such a shame as there is a lot of horse sick areas, and scrub which expands every year.
Even sadder our worm programme can have great results with a low count then at the next worm count it has gone back up to the thousands.

 

[MuddyMonster]

No, I don't currently poo picked.

Horses at my yard are split into mares and geldings split group and all are out on huge field and the fields are rotated regularly and then harrowed.

In other yards where there has been less acreage, I poo picked every day (at a push, every other day).

 

[MotherOfChickens]

no I don't. I have two equines on 5 and 7 acres that are cross grazed with sheep and cattle with fields rested from horses for ~ 6 months per year. No horses grazed on it prior, no other horses on it but mine. I do my own WECs (and yes, I am qualified to do so).

I loathe poo picking having spent years on yards where people were poo picking fascists and would rather do that than actually ride.

 

[lula]

They don't poo pick - what kind of yard are you on? Sorry to sound so incredulous, but have these people never heard of internal parasites and horse sour pasture? Perhaps they haven't, either way OP you stick to your guns and carry on poop scooping!

Oh I intend to! Its ingrained in me. Just beginning to get paranoid about the comments and grins and being called OCD im getting from the other liveries. Thank god im not alone here!

 

[DanceswithCows]

Wouldn't dream of poopicking. I manage grass and parasites through rotation, the idea of the same species on the same postage stamp year round is just an anathema to me.

 

[PorkChop]

I do, every day, three horses on restricted grazing for all but the depths of winter.

I do cross graze, rest, and harrow as well.

Its got to help with keeping the worm burden down and it also makes my fields look nice

 

[Achinghips]

Yes, always poo pick. In winter, it falls off a bit, owning a horse has to be pleasurable and I refuse to poo pick in rain, but I still pick quite a lot up. I always have the big poo removal off the winter acreage and Harrow in spring with tines, as there's no poo left this is to remove thatch from feeding additional hay at end of the season. Neds then change back to summer grazing while winter field is rested for six months. I have heavy horses.

 

[Dry Rot]

No poo picking here. I use a vacuum machine for small paddocks but harrow and rest anything over a couple of acres.

I regularly inspect my paddocks and if I see any larger fragments pf poo after harrowing, I'll wait until the weather has washed them into the soil before putting the ponies back on. I was congratulating myself how well the fields looked only yesterday, spreading the poo does help the grass! Frankly, I'd have a conscience if I saw ponies grazing near poo, also if they are grazing contaminated grass, which makes grazing management a problem! Strip grazing is the only answer.

Isn't it sunlight and alternate wetting and drying that's meant to kill worm eggs? Just need to break up the piles so the eggs are exposed and let Nature and time do the rest.

 

[ycbm]

Two horse on twelve acres, plus two minis, and my own personal poo fairy. The poo fairy comes in the form of high winds and driving rain straight into my hillside and an almost guarantee of heavy frost a few days, courtesy of living high on a hill like a lonely goatherd (layeeodelayeeodelayeeohh!).

I don't split the field, they have it all, and the toilet patches rotate over time.

When I was a livery I would not have stayed anywhere which made me poo pick, I did not have enough spare time to do it.

A person above has linked poo picking with grass sickness. Is there any evidence that this is linked, I have never heard the suggestion before?

Next year the minis will be penned. I will poo pick that, of course

 

[fabbydo]

Mine is poo picked daily. YO Mon-Fri and I do the weekends. Fatty on smallish paddocks. Appart from worms and sour grass reasons, I don't want to stand near my own poo and I don't expect my horse too. I've always thought the same, whether they were at home or on livery. However, I do know people who have never done it and their horses seem to survive!