Poo picking.. why?

Answering the EGS question above, I can only find evidence that relates to mechanical poo pickers increasing risk. Leaving the poo and hand picking don.t differ. The belief is that machines disturb the soil and EGS is a soil problem.

I can though, see how leaving droppings so that the area of edible grass is so small that it is grazed so close that the horses are licking soil would increase risk.

If anyone is more up to date can you correct this please?
 
Poo pick daily, in summer my fields look like bowling greens. It is the only condition of use for the rental of the land that it is poo picked preferable daily but he isnt too worried about it being left a day if we are out. I hate dirty fields. dont ride anyway, is part of my daily exercise and I quite enjoy it to be honest even in the rain. There is a sense of satisfaction about seeing a clean field
 
My 2 have been in a diet paddock so I was poo picking that daily until I did my back in - now I pay one of the kids to do it a couple of times a week for me. Its small and they produce a lot of poo.

The farmer whose land we rent hates poo picking. He says it ruins the fertility of the fields. I have mentioned that we end up with wormy horses if we don't poo pick (there's really no paddock rotation or resting), but he's not interested. They harrow on the odd occasion.
 
Yes in summer, no in winter. Getting a heavy barrow of poo out of ankle deep mud is not happening! So i rest and rotate in winter. Besides, the days are so short in winter; i'd rather not spend hours picking poo.
 
I do it as a when I feel like it. Mine go in their toilet areas (they have a couple) and no matter how often it's cleared or how long it's rested, that's still the toilet as far as they are concerned. There are socks there now though so I tend to strim them then rake it all up and put on the dungheap. In winter they spend most of the time in the yard area where the hay is and that gets cleared daily, along with the stables.
 
My lad shares a field with my friend's horse and we've worked out a routine between us to clear the field daily. We're strip grazing a fairly small area at the moment and it would be a poo infested mess if we left it. YO insists on daily picking anyway and worked into a daily care routine only takes around 10 minutes to do. The boys are still out over night at the moment (changing to days this weekend) so I hope the quantity of picking that needs to be done - and the time it takes - will reduce then.

Personally, I wouldn't want to be on a yard that didn't poo pick.
 
SEL said:
The farmer whose land we rent hates poo picking. He says it ruins the fertility of the fields. I have mentioned that we end up with wormy horses if we don't poo pick (there's really no paddock rotation or resting), but he's not interested. They harrow on the odd occasion.
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well he's right really, you can't keep taking out of the soil and put nothing back in. I spent years on livery yard with poo picked, non-treated fields full of clover because it was able to out compete the overgrazed/overstocked grass.
 
ycbm said:
Answering the EGS question above, I can only find evidence that relates to mechanical poo pickers increasing risk. Leaving the poo and hand picking don.t differ. The belief is that machines disturb the soil and EGS is a soil problem.

I can though, see how leaving droppings so that the area of edible grass is so small that it is grazed so close that the horses are licking soil would increase risk.

If anyone is more up to date can you correct this please?
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In the absence of scientific studies (and sometimes in spite of them!), I try to apply logic.

Most animals avoid their own dung, though I admit to copraphagia though that can be explained. (Topping up with benign gut fauna and flora?). So I'd assume eating our own poo is not a good thing and, over time, those that did have not survived to reproduce!

For that reason, I'd prefer to remove the poo by some means -- or remove the horses to fresher pastures.

The sweeper type of paddock cleaners have apparently been linked to grass sickness and it makes sense to me that the way they operate would tend to smear wet poo onto the grazing. Is there a correlation? I don't know, but I am not going to force my ponies to eat contaminated grass in the hope that it does them no harm. I have heard of (several) ponies being killed by being grazed on pasture that had been fertilised with chicken muck -- and it wasn't due to Laminitis. Isn't that similar contamination?

So I think I'll stick with what my logic tells me is sensible. On the other hand, vets sell wormers and I do not subscribe to the paranoia that sarrounds worming. I just do what I think makes sense.
 
ycbm said:
Answering the EGS question above, I can only find evidence that relates to mechanical poo pickers increasing risk. Leaving the poo and hand picking don.t differ. The belief is that machines disturb the soil and EGS is a soil problem.

I can though, see how leaving droppings so that the area of edible grass is so small that it is grazed so close that the horses are licking soil would increase risk.

If anyone is more up to date can you correct this please?
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if you remind me tomorrow I will pm you about EGS. I've had a bit too much rioja to do it justice atm!
 
I've just moved to a new yard where poo picking is not compulsory. Individual or pair grazing and paddocks get harrowed. I share a paddock with my daughter and we do poo pick at least every other day. Some liveries poo pick, some don't!
 
At my previous yard horse was in a herd, regularly rested and rotated/harrowed.

Where I am now I am lucky that thd YO gives me a lot of freedom in managing my own paddock as I have a fatty. Currently have a "rolling" strip system when I move the front and back fence a metre a day. As the paddock is fairly small I have to keep on top.of my poo picking and I mostly do it every other day.
 
Poo-picking is compulsory at our yard, and I'm glad for it. It reduces the worm burden, stops the grass from souring, and makes the paddocks look nicer :D however we are on fairly restricted grazing, if we had miles of paddock, I can see why you wouldn't.

My field-mate and I do it at least every other day. In winter this might slip to every third day, but it's easier and quicker to do it more regularly. I've heard that if you don't pick the poo up within 48 hours it doesn't help with the worm burden anyway, although haven't researched whether this statement is fact or not.
 
I always poo picked fully when I was on livery yards, usually daily although sometimes in winter we would leave it till the weekend. When I first got my own place I carried on as before, much to the bemusement of my neighbours, but over the first year (and after conversations with my neighbours and OH) I stopped. I do still poo pick if I have them on a bare patch part of the day for weight control, but otherwise none. I use worm counts and the saliva test for tapeworm so I know this has had no obvious negative impact on my horses worm burden.

I stopped because:

1. I have 8 acres for 2 ponies permanently separated into 9 paddocks (some do join up together). I can easily rest pasture for over 6 months between the horses grazing it.
2. We have a really healthy and active population of dung beetles (the poo actually is taken away by the horse poo fairys :) ). I preserve this by being really careful with worming and all poo after worming is removed. We also have a very active bird population which peck poo apart within days.
3. We have a tractor with harrow and topper so can do maintenance whenever needed.
4. Rested fields are cut for hay and sometimes grazed with sheep and cows. About a third of the fields are underwater all winter, along with my neighbours adjoining fields which aren't poo picked (they have horses and donkeys).
5. We have real problems with poo storage once removed, there are very strict rules around here for muck heaps due to our proximity to a turlough that drains to the lake where all the water comes from, poo in the fields where it fell is fine but if you put it in a pile you may be prosecuted. So I would have to move it right away via tractor each week rather than just piling it near the field.
 
I don't, but the winter field is 9 acres and grazed by sheep, and rested for 6 months. Likewise the summer field, although it's 3.5 acres. When I had to strip graze the PPID horses I always did though.
 
No poo picking where I graze! Paddocks are harrowed - harrowing actually does the grass and ground good, the fibre in the poo goes back into the soil improving its structure and the harrows clear dead grass out. We have grass year round.
 
I don't poo pick but only because I have three horses and three minis on about 13 or so acres, probably a bit more. If in the summer I have to restrict them to a small small section then I do poo pick.
 
As a rule I don't poo pick. I have 4 on 12 acres. It's split into 4 fields of varying sizes. Each field is only grazed once a year, then harrowed & rested. I also add very well rotted muck before harrowing to the winter fields. Any long areas of grass are topped regularly.
The only places I do Poo pick is the strip grazed area my 2 fatties are on in spring & my woodchip turn out in winter.

All worm counts are zero & my grazing is fantastic.

I'm always amazed at my friend who busts her gut keeping her fields completely poo picked....& then pays to have them fertilised 😂
 
This is something I'm slightly stressed about atm! My ponies have moved to a lovely new yard and honestly the only downside is that the fields aren't poo picked, even in summer. I would just start doing it anyway, but the summer fields are down a very long, steep track and it would take me at least 20 minutes to get a full barrow to and from the muck heap, and almost certainly wreck my back. However, the amount of sour grass in the field that my horses won't touch is quite remarkable! I am about to do a worm count on them both so will see what that says when it comes back (they are normally "no eggs seen"). I am a bit anxious about it though :/
 
MotherOfChickens said:
well he's right really, you can't keep taking out of the soil and put nothing back in. I spent years on livery yard with poo picked, non-treated fields full of clover because it was able to out compete the overgrazed/overstocked grass.
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These fields are full of clover & sour grass anyway. I think if they harrowed and then rested it wouldn't be a problem - but there's no management & just over grazing. I look after my little bit because otherwise we'd be knee high in poo by now!
 
This last 4 years I have wintered (Jan-April) the herd of 10 into my 4 acres of nasty rough paddock up at the house, and harrowed afterwards. The paddock is transformed, and now looks great, so I can confirm the fertilising effect of lots of lovely horse poo (who knew?)

Right now, I have Buster the one-balled stallion on it, in rehab. He conveniently saves me the bother of picking by placing each poo carefully over the one before in one little area. Bet you'd never get a mare to do that. :)
 
I poo pick daily, have to admit that it's getting really hard! 5 horses and 5 acres of fairly long (long enough to hide poo) grass it's impossible to get it all daily.
When it was fenced off over summer with less grass it was cleared completely daily.
I do it because I like a clean field and I like my clear worm counts!
 
Yes I do but HATE it! We have 2 ponies and 2 horses on 6 acres, split into winter and summer fields and a paddock that is used all year mostly to keep the ponies off any new grass. I would love to not do it but feel it is the best way to keep the land in good order for the reasons already stated. One of the horses is a livery and she poo picks too so that helps, little and often is the best way but sometimes life gets in the way and I spend hours and get blisters on my hand! If I had the money I would pay someone else to do it.
 
Never poo pick our fields. However both summer and winter fields are approx 5 acres, with 3 alpacas, 2 donkeys and 1 horse on the field :p
Fields too large to poo pick, the winter field shelter is picked out once a week but both fields harrowed and topped regularly :)
 
I have stopped recently- we moved to somewhere with more grazing and got it paddocked. I now graze, harrow and rotate two horses on 8/9 acres - I have fields untouched for a year so everything gets rested. We also have a farmer put sheep on to clear fields and are about to have a very small herd of sheep of our own to mix graze. I used to poo pick religiously but I was spending more time doing It than with my horses - it wa getting silly given I had other good options.
 
The field here is poo picked daily. Once a year as the horses come out some well rotted farm yard manure - horse and sheep - is spread and allowed to disappear before the horses go back in. The hay fields also get a plastering.
 
I stopped about two weeks ago. I'll be moving the horses onto the winter paddocks soon so I'm leaving the poo in the summer paddocks that I'll harrow when the horses are moved and let them rest for six months.
 
The field my horse is in is 20 acres so no I don't poo pick it. It's a pretty impossible task really. With I think 12 horses in it you would never finish picking up poo if you started lol.
 
pennyturner said:
This last 4 years I have wintered (Jan-April) the herd of 10 into my 4 acres of nasty rough paddock up at the house, and harrowed afterwards. The paddock is transformed, and now looks great, so I can confirm the fertilising effect of lots of lovely horse poo (who knew?)

Right now, I have Buster the one-balled stallion on it, in rehab. He conveniently saves me the bother of picking by placing each poo carefully over the one before in one little area. Bet you'd never get a mare to do that. :)
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My friend's stallion also conveniently poos in one great big territorial heap.
 
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