Who still has grass?

DragonSlayer

DragonSlayer

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We moved the troops into their winter paddocks this morning, just got home.....

As it is a scorcher, decided to do it before it got too unbearable!

We are extremely lucky to still have loads of grass in the paddocks they have gone into, and won't even have to THINK about hay for a good couple of weeks yet, and compared to some people I know who have been feeding hay most of the summer, I am very, very thankful....!

We have 5 horses on just under 10 acres, OH takes great care in the rotation, and has it down to an art now, the bottom ones are never good in winter as they get too boggy, and the grass is good stuff because it's the old ridge and furrow way of farming, so the pasture is 100's of years old...

Half-term will see a flurry of activity to get hedges finished with the cut, new posts put in, and we need to replace alot of the electric rope.....

I never moan about not having fancy facilities, because of the turn-out we have, there's a stable for emergencies, and the TB has the man-made shelter, everyone else has big trees and massive hedges, all live out 24/7 in all weather, if one has to go into the stable for any reason, the door gets a bloody good kicking, they hate going in!

Sure, we get mud in winter, BUT they stand on the ridges and are quite happy and out of the boggy stuff which always accumulates near the gates...the soil is also a perfect mix of sand and a little clay, obviously deemed good for growing stuff back in the medieval period, and it doesn't hold it's shape, like the nasty clay soil at the livery yard we used to be at, risking strains and sprains...

Winter preparations will continue during half-term.

:D
 
sounds a lot like my place :)
Ive plenty of grass yet too, should last a good while yet before I need to supplement it with hay
 
We still have about an acre of lush grass at the top only because we strip graze my two fatties and that Sophie is very prone to lami, shes never had it but shes 20 so I worry.
 
Got lots on my winter paddocks which I only let them on once they come in at night usually November but Summer paddocks which are usually very lush are very bare now and am actually feeding hay instead.
I like the winter paddocks longer as if they are short then they get poached too quickly.
This year has been the worse we have had as the grass just hasn't seemed to grow even though we rotate paddocks but luckily we have got plenty of hay so not so bad.
 
Over in Lincs we are apparently in an official drought, and I haven't cut my lawn since June, so I think that shows how the climate is affecting us at the moment! A friend never really stopped feeding hay afterlast winter, and she had a nightmare trying to track hay down....last years hay has been extremely scarce!
 
I have more grass than I know what to do with. I have a very fat Arab who lives on nothing, consequently she is on a smallish bit of the field with the rest growing like mad. I was away in Yorkshire this last week and saw a farmer there doing a late cut of hay; he was taking advantage of the hot dry weather to turn it! Whoever heard of cutting hay at the very end of September!
 
Faithkat said:
I have more grass than I know what to do with. I have a very fat Arab who lives on nothing, consequently she is on a smallish bit of the field with the rest growing like mad. I was away in Yorkshire this last week and saw a farmer there doing a late cut of hay; he was taking advantage of the hot dry weather to turn it! Whoever heard of cutting hay at the very end of September!
Click to expand...

At least your arab will have lots to much on over the winter...:D

...as for the hay, not seen it turned this late on before...!
 
We still have plenty too. The boys are on a couple of acres of decent grazing atm and welsh mare is in her 'fatty paddock'. Winter field is about 5 acres and the grass is almost a foot long in there. They'll probably go onto it at the end of oct/beginning nov.
 
we have 5 on around 10/11 acres so we still have plenty. They live out 24/7 so keeping most of it for the winter, they are all a bit porky at the moment exept our old boy who could do with a bit more weight on him.
 
There are some people still cutting hay down here in sunny cornwall , we still have about an acre of good stuff to give the little 'uns although they already roam over about 2 acres and are a picture of health , the two biggies are also on about 2 acres atm but will open up the rest probably at the end of Oct a shooting season starts then and i like them to have plenty of space to ' get away and put a bit of space between them selves and the gun men - in the woods opposite the field!! I love to see them with plenty of space over the winter , we have 7 acres altogether and they don't half do the walking if you stay long enough to watch them - they are out 24/7 with a shelter and haybars which i wont fill hopefully until the really cold weather comes.
 
It's terrible here and even despite field rotation and more than doubling our acreage this year, I have still had to feed hay to 8 horses on 18 acres! It is just so dry as soon as the horses eat the grass, it doesn't grow back. Our buildings have started to crack due to the parched clay and the trees sucking up the moisture.
 
Our grass has come back, the horses aren't wanting their hay at the moment, but I wish the weather would warm up and we could get used to the cooler temps more gradually, it is 10am here and 2C FGS!!!:mad:
 
loads of grass here in somerset - strip grazing summer paddock and they still have 3/4 left of that 2 acres and some of it is knees length. winter paddock grown soo much had to top front half and rake the bloody stuff up and cart it away - soo hot it dried and smelt like gorgeous chaff (not enough to be worth doing hay though).
 
Its been the worst here for grass growth that we have seen. I rested half of bottom field from late spring and there is NO difference to the half thats been grazed!! Luckily my reseeded field has just become usable so the twosome are out on the new 2 acres whilst the old timer and injured pone are stabled or out on restricted. It has been really bad we are on good soil & yet 4 horses on 14 acres with one permanently on restricted is just right to have enough grazing with no hay substitute this yr! Madness! :(
 
Mine are all good doers and I've been strip grazing and resting areas and I have lots of grass left!! not feeding hay at all yet just some oat straw for the fatty, long may this weather continue!!
 
They have been carting fresh cut hay the last couple of days, from June cut fields. We have had a steady growth for the last month so I slung on some more fertilizer and so its been growing well and the seed has germinated.
 
Grass looks wonderful here (W Kent)! Saw farmer turning hay yesterday (29 degrees) and Hugo was so interested in the grass today, he turned up his nose at a CARROT!! (Back garden lawn looks like a jungle!)
 
Mine are still in the summer field and being supplemented on a bit of hay a day, trying not to use the winter fields untill colder weather arrives or they will just get too fat to quick. Once they move on to the winter fields the hay will stop being fed due to the amount of grass in there, will hopefully only feed hay when it snows heavy or they actually run out of grass, which is not likely as we have huge fields with loads of grass.
 
the odd one or two farmers turning hay here too,
grass still growing here, my boy been out 24/7 in same field for about 5 months and doing rather well on it, have stuck some hay out just incase it looked better than it actually was, but he didnt even look at it.
 
We have tonnes of grass, way too much for some of the ponies on the yard. This past fortnight, with heavy dews and being boiling hot, the grass has really, really grown.
With Markie being a good doer cob, he came in for part of the day during the summer and always ate his haynet. At the moment, he's not interested in hay at all, he comes in and falls asleep instead!
The only hay being fed on the whole yard is to a TB, a recent arrival, and in quite poor condition. The reason he's being hayed is because his owner wants all of hers together and the field isn't really big enough to support full, 24/7 grazing for 3 horses, none of which are good doers. It's her choice to have that field, the bigger ones to have sole use of are quite a long way from the yard.
 
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