Winter Paddock Maintenance

[qaz]

I don't have enough daylight hours to poo pick. Is it wise to harrow paddocks when they're frosty to spread the droppings or am I going to do damage? I really don't want to leave the paddocks dirty and don't have enough acreage to rotate & rest through the winter.

 

[ISHmad]

Can you poo pick at weekends? I wouldn't harrow the paddocks at the moment in these conditions. And anyway it will make the paddocks dirtier. By leaving the poo piles at least they are not getting spread everywhere.

 

[pottamus]

I poo pick throughout the winter in the dark with a head torch with no trouble at all...I am even finding some to pick each night through the 3 foot of snow in the field!

 

[domane]

If it makes you feel any better, worms are not active during the winter and poo WILL break down after a while. Just do what you can for the next few weeks and soon the nights will start to get longer again

 

[Tnavas]

If it makes you feel any better, worms are not active during the winter and poo WILL break down after a while. Just do what you can for the next few weeks and soon the nights will start to get longer again

This has been proved to not be the case. They may not be as active but some do move around and re infect the horse.

 

[Toffee44]

Learnt the hard way. Left the paddock over winter and horrowed when ground was better in March. Wormcounts were 250 in May which for me is high normal <50.

Poo picking unless you have something crazy like 3 horses on 20 acres. I just blitz my fields at the weekend now.

 

[custard]

I don't poo pick through the winter, it's just impossible to get a barrow across the field. Come spring, as soon as a tractor can get on the field I pick up everything that's visible to the eye and hasn't been mushed into the ground. I then get the whole lot harrowed and rolled fencing the dirtiest end off for at least a few months. I poo pick from about March to October, get worm counts done and they always come back very low, that said there's only my two on the land and nothing else coming on/off.