Poo picking.. why?

[JanetGeorge]

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.

lol, you're not wrong. A couple of years ago I instructed a contractor to muck spread on an 8 acre field - which was the worst I had. He stopped after a couple of hours and said: 'where now'. I said: 'hell, I can still see grass - keep going'. He told me I would kill the grass - but 5 months of winter later it was the best field on the place.

I harrow each field 3-4 times a year - but I also spread a LOT of well rotted muck (I have up to 27 horses stabled on straw so there's a LOT to spread!) It works a treat on heavy clay (or any other sort of soil.)

 

[Sparemare]

We poo pick every day. It takes no time as long as I don't miss a day - just as long as it takes to fill water buckets. I do wonder about a local yard where there is one communal turnout field for all the horses. The yard owner dumps all the manure heap (from the stables) into a corner of the field and some of the horses eat from this. It seems pretty rank to me.

 

[Tyssandi]

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
Fields too large to poo pick, the winter field shelter is picked out once a week but both fields harrowed and topped regularly

wow 5 acres to big I have 8 on 4 acres and poo pick daily by hand and tractor. They are in at night and fields get rested 3 months on 3 months off. Ours take around 40 mins to do so I think that is justifiable time A livery helps some days and gets ££ off her rent

 

[only_me]

wow 5 acres to big I have 8 on 4 acres and poo pick daily by hand and tractor. They are in at night and fields get rested 3 months on 3 months off. Ours take around 40 mins to do so I think that is justifiable time A livery helps some days and gets ££ off her rent

I don't have 40mins spare everyday to poo pick. Plus our field is flat - steep downhill - flat, so steep that the tractor cant top part of the hill. Makes much more sense to harrow and top as needed!!
My lot live 24/7 out from march to start of November on the summer field & currently there's still plenty of grass to eat atm. Field only gets rested over winter - otherwise we'd have obese horses and laminitic donkeys.

The winter field is kept for hay over summer - we still have so much Haylage from 2 years ago that we let it to farmer who got 3 cuts of silage. I think our field management is grand, no need to poo pick!

 

[Natch]

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.

My ideal would be muck spread with a different species' poo.

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.

Jeez that sounds ideal!

Folks do remember from a worm burden perspective that harrowing only works if the broken up poo gets a good deal of heat onto it - I can't remember specifics but basically rare to reach sufficient heat in the uk. Most species' eggs will wither and die if the paddock is rested but ascarids can last 2+ years dormant on the ground.

 

[Tnavas]

I have a very busy friend who gives everyone a handful of oats every day as the birds then peck apart the droppings, the rain then washes them into the soil.

I harrow and have 0 worm counts. Too little time to poo pick.

 

[Annagain]

We don't poo pick. The horses are in big fields which get rotated, harrowed and rested regularly. In summer there are 13 of them on 20 acres. The rest of the year they're split into smaller herds of 6/7. They spend about 6 weeks in Spring and Autumn on smallish fields of about 4 acres each, as long as it's dry. They move onto winter grazing as soon as the rain sets in and don't go onto those fields until they've dried up in late Spring. Winter fields are about 7 acres each. As soon as they're in there (late Nov, usually) they come in overnight. Worm counts are nearly always 0, or very low at worst.

 

[RunToEarth]

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.

I agree, I think poo picking is only really necessary when you are not managing the land or you are over grazing a very small area. I wouldn't want to do either.