Safe to turn horses out in harvested wheat fields?

[chr1ssy3]

My horses live out happily all year round and a local farmer has offered me his harvested wheat field to turn them out in for the worst couple of months of the winter. As it has been very wet, this would be great as their current field would not get trashed. I would have a bale of haylage out at all times for them to eat. No new crop has been planted - it is still a "stubble field" - but there are some early shoots coming through following last year's crop (winter wheat). Do others have experience of having turned horses out on harvested wheat fields? Should I be worried about the horses potentially eating the fresh winter wheat shoots? I've so far been given conflicting advice on this so a definitive answer from someone knowledgeable on this subject would be wonderful!

 

[poiuytrewq]

Interesting! I always look at the over winter stubble here and think what a waste!

 

[MotherOfChickens]

happens a lot up here although more often barley-I've done it myself, had three on 40 acres with decent headlands and bankings of footage to graze on. can be deep though as its been ploughed fairly recently. did me a turn one year. wasn't a whole lot of barley coming through but there was some-and a lot of weeds-mine did have enough actual grass though.

 

[chr1ssy3]

Thanks that's good to know! Mine would have some grass around the edges, so hopefully it would be ok...I think as long as they have a constant supply of fresh haylage they shouldn't eat too much of the wheat shoots, or they may not like the taste of them anyway.

 

[ROMANY 1959]

Years ago, we had a friendly farmer who would let us winter out 12 horses on his stubble with bales of hay in feeders.. it was surprising how much grass they did find around the edged, and there was a fresh water spring running on one edge of field for water... YO used to pay farmer to put bales in feeders, made Dec and Jan more manageable they were wheat and barley fields

 

[Polos Mum]

As well as food I'd have a good think about the conditions underfoot and how yours behave. Stubble can be very deep, if they race around will they pull shoes, strain tendons, get bad mud fever if it's really deep and wet etc.

If they are sensible types and will spend the time sedately picking at verges sounds like a good option.

 

[pixie]

My fatty is turned out in one of our small barley stubble fields every winter. We also chuck the other horses onto it when its too wet for them to go on the grass. Never had foot or limb problems.