struggling with grazing

V

vandypip

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 April 2009
Messages
166
Visit site
Today I am moving my mare and her 10 week old foal to better grazing. My poor mare is practically starving!! and if I wasn't shovelling feed into her I actually think she would be classified as such!!! What gets me is I have consistently been told I can have more grazing where I am. Instead my horses have been plonked on a couple of acres that has been grazed continuously for the last 3 years, and is covered in ragwort to boot!! and I'm paying for this!!! whats worse is I've remained loyal to this person whilst everybody else has got out for this very reason!!! how is everybody else getting by with their grazing?
 
Have none! I have 2 ponies on 1.5 acres split into three paddocks which are rotated weekly ...and I'm now feeding hay + hard feed twice a day. Never had to do that this early in the season before, but the grass just isn't growing fast enough to keep up with demand
 
Come to Wales where it rains every other day and the grass is as high as an elephant's eye (as the song goes). We've got the exact opposite problem at my yard - too much grass!!!!! With three exceptionally good doers, it's a real problem. At least there'll be grass throughout the winter!

Quite seriously hun, you need to get your neds off the ragwort asap and never put them back on it. Ragwort is a cumulative poison so can cause devastating problems further down the line - often years and years further. And beware, a starving mare will eat ragwort if there's nothing else to eat. And foals copy what mum eats. Some horses can also develop an addiction to the bitter taste and will seek out ragwort. I've had extensive personal experience of ragwort poisoning in a mare with a foal at foot and it's horrific.
 
Me too! Mine looks like a dust bowl. Feeding haynets twice in the day and bringing in at night to more. The little rain we are having today is too late I will have to seed the paddocks I think and totally rest them..
 
Ours has greened up slightly but it's still awful. Have two horses out 24/7 on roughly 2.5 acres and am having to give a small feed in the evening and a little hay. Ponies who are on restricted grazing have practically nothing in their bit and are having 2 hard feeds a day and soaked hay twice a day.
 
My lad is on an area of about three quarters of an acre that he will be on for most of the year round...he is a good doer and lives off nothing. We have had bits of rain recently so everything has recovered a bit but I have more than enough grass. My lad comes off the grass every night in order to give him a break from it and has hay all year round at night.
Whilst the bit he is on is pretty much eaten to the soil, there is more than enough for him to pick on each day and is maintaining his weight fine.
The recent rain has helped, although fields that were cut early June and not grown back a huge amount.
 
Have no grazing either - still feeding copious amounts of haylage (to a very good doer who I have had to struggle to keep the weight off every other summer).
 
We have none - haven't had to muzzle my good-doer this year, and feeding hay twice a day.

I actually prefer it though, he is looking fab at the moment.
 
None! Ponies are being fed hay twice a day, they are out 24/7/365, and we lost out summer field, so they are still on the one they wintered on, so there is nothing left. The annoying thing is the summer field next door that we usually have is green and lush, and even had to be topped! The YO usually gets the field for free in exchange for maintenence of grazing and fencing, but the owners have changed, and are trying to rent it for some ridiculous amount of money seeing as there are no stables etc, and the only off-road access is from our yard, and the ony water also from ours. Ggrrrrrrrrrrr.
 
Its real bad heh? moved the mare and foal this afternoon to 5 acres of good organic grazing! nobody to share it with but a few sheep!! this mare is a really good doer but this summer she was starting to look shockingly light, foal looks good, however think even he'll really bloom now. Problem is this particular yard is notorious for lack of grazing all year round and I hate to think what the winter would be like.
 
I have plenty now, the warm temperatures and plenty rain have made it shoot up. Hopefully will have more than enough for most of the Winter unless we get buried with snow for months again and it gets ruined.
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
Come to Wales where it rains every other day and the grass is as high as an elephant's eye (as the song goes). We've got the exact opposite problem at my yard - too much grass!!!!! With three exceptionally good doers, it's a real problem. At least there'll be grass throughout the winter!

Quite seriously hun, you need to get your neds off the ragwort asap and never put them back on it. Ragwort is a cumulative poison so can cause devastating problems further down the line - often years and years further. And beware, a starving mare will eat ragwort if there's nothing else to eat. And foals copy what mum eats. Some horses can also develop an addiction to the bitter taste and will seek out ragwort. I've had extensive personal experience of ragwort poisoning in a mare with a foal at foot and it's horrific.
Click to expand...

Im in Wales too and the field I rent was almost like a bare carpet BUT now its nice and green,neally 4 acres for cob and section A. Will all the rain the grass is finally growing!!!
 
My horses still have grass to pick at, enough for them to turn their noses up at hay but they are getting 2 feeds a day of chaff and high fibre cubes. Both are looking well.
 
Too much grass here- I have a 2 acre paddock at home and my boys are on 2 thirds of an acre of it, although we move it out by a foot every other day, so by November we should have half an acre still untouched that they can use for a month while the rest is rested till Jan and then they will get let loose on the whole 2 acres till spring next year. Ours has even had to have the neighbours cattle come and tops it doen it was so tall!
 
mines good at the mo but only because my boy is in a field on his own, but the grass is slowley going, worried it wont be able to grow enough for winter :confused:
my friends mares field is bare :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top