Sour grass - how long to recover?

[rescuearacehorse]

Does anyone know how long it takes for sour grass clumps to become edible again? If I graze them off with sheep will they come back fresh or still sour?

I’m trying to manage my rotation system and areas that haven’t been grazed for a few months look great but I’m wondering if the sour clumps would have gone by now.

Sorry another question- how long would it take for a field to be worn free too? Assuming sheep follow the horses, are we talking months or years??

Thanks, I have Googled but can’t seem to find the answers!

 

[LEC]

I normally top it as it doesn’t

 

[GrassChop]

I'd like to know this too as I have loads of long grass in certain areas but they don't like it!

 

[Polos Mum]

Some horses seem less fussy over sour grass than others - so a little I think depends on how greedy your horse is and what options they have. Mine are cruelly starved (in their view!) so leaving grass is a concept they don't comprehend (I poo pick and rotate so no poo patches)
If it is the smell of ammonia that puts them off then a good top with machine or sheep should help.

Sheep do a great job of breaking the worm cycle - the worm eggs sit on the grass, then instead of being eaten by their preferred host (horse) they are eaten by a sheep and die because they aren't designed to cope with digestive system of a sheep. If your sheep eat every last blade of grass then they will break the cycle quickly, if it's a couple of pet sheep on 10 acres - they will probably never catch up.

My winter fields that I don't poo pick - I use quite a heavy stocking density of sheep for 6-8 weeks - 4 weeks after the horses come off. then I rest for 3-4 months before horses back on. So at least 6 months no horses and hopefully most of the worm eggs gone through sheep consumption anyway.

Use worm counts to see if your particular strategy is working for your particular fields and horses - I suspect there is no one size fits all answer.

Worm eggs are killed by frost bursting them and sun drying them out - if we have a mild ish winter and a wet summer (as we have recently) then the worm eggs will last longer sadly.

 

[rescuearacehorse]

Gh

Some horses seem less fussy over sour grass than others - so a little I think depends on how greedy your horse is and what options they have. Mine are cruelly starved (in their view!) so leaving grass is a concept they don't comprehend (I poo pick and rotate so no poo patches)
If it is the smell of ammonia that puts them off then a good top with machine or sheep should help.

Sheep do a great job of breaking the worm cycle - the worm eggs sit on the grass, then instead of being eaten by their preferred host (horse) they are eaten by a sheep and die because they aren't designed to cope with digestive system of a sheep. If your sheep eat every last blade of grass then they will break the cycle quickly, if it's a couple of pet sheep on 10 acres - they will probably never catch up.

My winter fields that I don't poo pick - I use quite a heavy stocking density of sheep for 6-8 weeks - 4 weeks after the horses come off. then I rest for 3-4 months before horses back on. So at least 6 months no horses and hopefully most of the worm eggs gone through sheep consumption anyway.

Use worm counts to see if your particular strategy is working for your particular fields and horses - I suspect there is no one size fits all answer.

Worm eggs are killed by frost bursting them and sun drying them out - if we have a mild ish winter and a wet summer (as we have recently) then the worm eggs will last longer sadly.

thanks so much for that!

 

[Burnttoast]

It's probably the grass species rather than its condition. If it's a tall clump-forming grass with a branching seed head it's probably false oat grass, which isn't palatable when mature. A lot of horses will eat the regrowth after topping, though, so regular cutting will render it palatable and eventually weaken/remove it - it thrives on an extensive management regime and doesn't like being grazed/topped.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

Mine have bits they don't eat in the summer but it gets eaten in winter eventually

 

[SantaVera]

I strip graze so they have to eat everything.

 

[Barton Bounty]

Was just going to say top the field