Improving Pasture - Health & Supplements - Health & Supplements - Horse Community, Horse Pictures, Horse Forum and Information

Posted : 8/5/2009 2:38:13 PM

Hi! I'm new here, and have a question about our pastures.
We have Hope, and 18 year-old Thoroughbred, and Wakiya, a 6 year-old appendix Quarter Horse. Just in case anyone is keeping tabs.
Our property is 5 acres, and about 3 1/2 of those are fenced into 3 large pastures and 2 small. The grass was originally lawn grass; I added pasture seed to the large pastures last spring and also two falls ago. When I have done this in the past, (in my uneducated way!) I used a cow pasture mix, adding in some deer patch seed for the goats. We have had goats (as many as

and cows (a cow and a steer right now) living here; also some sheep, but they are in the freezer now. Hope and Wakiya arrived this year; all but 2 of the goats and the cows are leaving by the end of this year. I imagine we'll buy another steer in the future.
I want to confine the horses to a dry lot for the winter, and seed the pastures. Does anyone know of a good source for information on seeding? Or have any general suggestions for doing this? I realize we'll have to buy hay, and some grain, especially for Hope, but we do pasture them during the warm months, and I want to improve the grass.
Thanks for any help you can give. My writing may not be very clear, but please understand that I do want to do our best for these horses.

Melody in NE IL

TanyaC97

Posted : 8/5/2009 2:50:44 PM

Here is what I did, maybe it will help.

In the fall I mowed where they did not eat and raked up what I mowed (yes raked by hand) it was a lot of work, but worth it. I than dragged the pasture to distribute all the poo that I had missed ( I try to pick up weekly). I went to my local feed/supply store and asked what they thought would work best for the pasture and my horses and they had a type of pasture mix with a good amount of clover in it. We spread that and it worked great. I have been told that fall is the best time to plant grass as it gets a good chance to root.

Hope this helps.

Melody50

Posted : 8/5/2009 3:54:39 PM

Yes, I've heard fall is the best time. But, wouldncha know it, our local feed/seed stores don't carry pasture grass seed until March.

2manyhorses

Posted : 8/6/2009 5:03:59 AM

Start at the beginning.

Go out in your pastures with a bucket and shovel and take soil samples (20 ish) from different areas. Let the soil dry for a day, break up the clods and fill a ziplock bag with it. Take it to your extension office to have it tested. This will tell you salinity, alkalinity, organic matter amongst other things. This will give you an idea of what grasses your soil can support. With that information select a blend of grasses that compliment your needs. Has to be: tolerant of grazing, winter hardy, warm and cool grasses (so your pastures produce longer or seed one larger pasture cool and the other one warm grasses and graze it during the growth season) and of course is suited for your area. How much irrigation water is available (dryland grasses vs irrigated) Identify what grasses are out there. Do you want them to get choked out or do they have a place in the new pasture? You can also add an annual like rye grass or stallion oats to the mix that will give you some grazing the first year while the grasses get established.

Find a neighbor that can drill the seed in. You will have better results, use less seed, birds will eat less. Don't buy the seed from the "feed store". They only sell blends that won't fill all your needs. Find a local seed company that only sells what produces in your area. The quality will be better, less weed seeds and the advice and expertise they will provide is priceless