The joys of strip grazing on soggy ground

Tiddlypom

Tiddlypom

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Late spring onwards my 3 are on a c1 acre equicentral track which serves them well, but from now on I’m strip grazing them into the foggage. I’ve got to conserve hay as best I can this year as supplies are very limited. We couldn't get any made this year because of the rubbish weather.

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The poo count has now gone right back up into the healthy range after getting a bit low, but look at the cut up ground and mud 🙈. I can’t just drop the electric fence down and let them have the run of the foggage because of rabbit holes.

The good thing is that there’s lots of foggage which *fingers firmly crossed* will help eek my precious hay out if I manage it carefully.

Winter and horses, eh.
 
Glad I'm not the only one TP. Mine looks just like yours but possibly worse on the grazed part as we're on clay and I've got two large horses on a smallish space. One horse is always a bit podgy and the other has ems and cushings so can only have limited grass. I've also only got a couple of acres but tons of grass even though it was hayed in June as well. It would be nice to just let them free range over all of it but think it's just wishful thinking. Fiddling with electric posts every day in the wind and rain is not my idea of fun !!!!
 
Can I just ask at what point do you consider foggage safe for good doers?
It’s my plan this year. I’ve just started on a bit that I feel is still too much but have the ponies muzzled.
 
Madd1 said:
Glad I'm not the only one TP. Mine looks just like yours but possibly worse on the grazed part as we're on clay and I've got two large horses on a smallish space. One horse is always a bit podgy and the other has ems and cushings so can only have limited grass. I've also only got a couple of acres but tons of grass even though it was hayed in June as well. It would be nice to just let them free range over all of it but think it's just wishful thinking. Fiddling with electric posts every day in the wind and rain is not my idea of fun !!!!
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Agree!
 
I don't think I ever consider the foggage safe to let both girls on free range which is why I stick to the dreaded strip grazing. Some of that may be due to my paranoia about the EMS one and her weight as she did have mild laminitis and I feel I need to be on it at all times -
It feels like a constant stress though - it would be nice to have normal horses (if such a thing exists lol) x
 
You're (one is) better stip grazing with foggage anyway, as they tend to stamp, trash and then refuse to eat big areas of it if given free range.

I'd say your fields are looking pretty decent TP given the rain, so your management must be working.

There's actually a fair amount of hay around here this year because everyone managed to get it cut in that week of sun in September and the yield was very good. On the weekend in that week I drove out to Sapey horse trials in the morning with no obvious signs of hay on route, and by the time I drove home again in the evening every conceivable hay field that I passed had been cut. Hay farmers might like a moan, but boy can they pull it out the bag when they need to.
 
I have a set up very similar, TP, what I do is change the sides they are grazing and pull the fence right back to give the wetter/muddy parts a bit of a rest. It is hard work but keeps the field as good as possible all winter. Once the foggage is gone then they have the whole lot to nibble on, that is usually after christmas, or as late as possible.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Late spring onwards my 3 are on a c1 acre equicentral track which serves them well, but from now on I’m strip grazing them into the foggage. I’ve got to conserve hay as best I can this year as supplies are very limited. We couldn't get any made this year because of the rubbish weather.

The poo count has now gone right back up into the healthy range after getting a bit low, but look at the cut up ground and mud 🙈. I can’t just drop the electric fence down and let them have the run of the foggage because of rabbit holes.

The good thing is that there’s lots of foggage which *fingers firmly crossed* will help eek my precious hay out if I manage it carefully.

Winter and horses, eh.
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Snap! This is *exactly* how my paddock looks after all the recent rain, only slightly worse. Given the recent weather I don't think you're doing badly at all. It'll bounce back come spring - as you say, this is just winter with horses.

I'm also moving the track boundaries to graze into the foggage. It's a pain but worth doing.
 
Part of my field has recently been dug up (had to replace the septic tank) so it looks a LOT worse than this! It's rained a lot since then and the dug-up area is so very slippery that neither of mine want to go on it, so it hasn't got too churned up yet.
I have started opening up bits of long grass for mine but also doing it in strips. You can get an app to tell you how sugary the grass is on any given day if that might help you.
 
This is also how my field is looking like and I'll make muddy strips across until until January 😒 I hate it but it does seem to recover well each year thankfully.

Eta, there was no hay made anywhere around us this year either. Or rather the only hay I know was made was rained on every day for 10 days, everywhere else gave up in August and did haylage.
 
How are people‘s fields doing now? I’ve never known mine as wet as this in November. It‘s loam and normally drains pretty well, but the rain has been relentless this year.

Three weeks on from my first pic, and I’m now moving the strip grazing twice a day. The horses seem happy enough, at least. The foggage is rather green, but luckily it hasn’t upset anybody’s guts 🤞. I’ve been able to cut their daily hay ration right down, which will help to eke out my limited supplies.

An underground spring is making the ground in the foreground especially muddy.

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ETA For balance, they do not have to stand in mud all of the time. They also have access to this, which is more normal, plus two field shelters with rubber mats over concrete, and my gateways are good with hardcore. It’s the strip grazing which is poaching up the ground, due to the concentrated footfall. Hay is in short supply, so needs must.

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Yours looks better than the part of mine where they tend to come for extra natural shelter, it is like a mud bath but I dare not close it as the top bit is fairly dry and my two donkeys love snuggling under the hedges when it is torrential storm like weather.

We could not get hay taken this year either, so very, very low on supplies and can only strip graze the foggage with caution as it still looks extremely rich. Definitely not Ok for the donks but I think Dolly would be grand on it but she gets quite stressed if seperated eve by just one line of electric from her favourite old donkey Bertie. :rolleyes: So my son just moves a very mean strip for them all every other day. I want the rain to stop and the frost to knock the acres of foggage on the head. We are never happy are we.😊
 
I couldn't tolerate that, sorry, and my husband would go mad! Mine are on a 3 acre field ATM (old wildflower meadow) and apart from a patch where they dig & roll and one of the gateways and a couple of big puddles, it's fine. We've got more grass this year than I've ever seen at this time of year in the five years I've been there. I won't move them onto the other field at least until Christmas which also has plenty of grass so will hopefully help out with the fact that we don't have as much good hay this year.
 
Never had it so wet, i feel your pain!
Soon the 2 herds will meet with one fence between them! Then the 'fat club' will moved to another field and the donkeys will have all of this to roam over winter.
Had to restrict grazing for both groups as grass was very rich, have only started moving fence in the month. Muddy in gateways but not too bad far end of field.


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marmalade76 said:
I couldn't tolerate that, sorry, and my husband would go mad!
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PeterNatt said:
We installed drainage - the best thing we ever did.
Fill rabbitt holes with crushed rubble.
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Um, we’ve been keeping here horses for 36 years and as I said, this is unprecedented. All the local farmland hereabouts is at least as bad and most of it is worse, with significant lying water.

We do have land drains, they are overwhelmed ☹️ .

After the usual very dry spring, it has rained pretty much non stop here.
 
Ours are the worst theyve ever been . The fields not used yet all have surface water , and that’s with land drains .
Had a farmer come and help move my hay feeders yesterday as the mud around them was terrible and he said they are having a nightmare getting the maize in . Trailers and tractors getting stuck .
I dread to think what the fields will be like at the end of winter .
 
Asha said:
Ours are the worst theyve ever been . The fields not used yet all have surface water , and that’s with land drains .
Had a farmer come and help move my hay feeders yesterday as the mud around them was terrible and he said they are having a nightmare getting the maize in . Trailers and tractors getting stuck .
I dread to think what the fields will be like at the end of winter .
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It’s really bad, isn’t it.

I can’t think that the maize will be anything but mush when harvested in these conditions ☹️. The state of the fields where they’ve been in harvesting 😳.
 
Back fence is a second electric fence which you move to protect the poached area, it gets rested and the horses are always on a fresh bit.
 
My fields are so wet already for November I put mine on the foggage at Christmas normally but there is loads of grass so might split it initially as its just a smallish paddock really.
 
Mine have already moved paddocks three times. There’s still quite a bit of grass in their other ones but I’ve moved them early to avoid them eating them to nothing and then will hopefully move them back into the ones they started in, after giving them about a month’s rest. My mare’s field is very wet and she is on a hill but I’m resting her normal paddock as it is grazed to nothing all summer as she is a very good doer and so I’ve let it recover. I will move her back once where she is now can’t stand up to the wet any more.

I’ve considered bringing mine in every night from January to allow the fields chance to recover for the spring. This will also save me having to cart hay to the field when the grass is low as field is a little walk across the land from the stables.
 
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