Smart Horse Keeping

Sacrifice Areas for Your Horses

Alayne — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:57:00 GMT

A sacrifice area is a small enclosure often called a corral, run, pen, turnout or winter paddock. It is meant to be your horse's outdoor living quarters. We call it a sacrifice area because you are giving up the use of that small portion of land as a grassy area to the benefit the rest of your pasture. Your horse(s) should be confined to the sacrifice area during the winter and early spring when pasture plants are dormant and/or soils are super wet. During summer months utilize your sacrifice area so pastures don’t become overgrazed. A sacrifice area is also useful for separating or confining animals, for controlling the amount of grass or feed your horse consumes on a daily basis and for caring for sick or injured individuals.

A sacrifice area is a small enclosure, such as a corral, run, pen, turnout, or winter paddock meant to be your horse's outdoor living quarters.

In this week’s blog I’ll talk about what a sacrifice area is and when to use it. In future blogs I’ll cover important considerations for designing and setting up a sacrifice area, as well as how to incorporate it into your rotational grazing system.

Confine your horse in a sacrifice area to:

• Keep pastures from becoming overgrazed below 3 to 4 inches. During the summer months, practice good pasture management by keeping the golden rule of pasture management in mind: graze pastures no shorter than 3 inches. This ensures that the grass plants have enough reserves left after grazing to permit rapid regrowth and healthy plants. Vigorous plants will out compete weeds, grow new leaves (called tillers) making pastures thicker, utilize nutrients more effectively and will prevent soil erosion and mud come next winter. Put horses back on pastures when grasses have regrown to about 6 to 8 inches.

Sacrifice areas protect grass and pastures from the constant stress of horse traffic.

• Keep winter pastures from becoming mucky or compacted when soils are soggy and pasture plants are dormant. In the winter keeping horses off saturated and rain soaked soils and dormant or frozen pasture plants is critical if you want to maintain a healthy pasture the following summer. Soggy soils or dormant plants simply cannot survive continuous grazing and trampling in winter months. Horses are particularly hard on pastures -- the pounding of their hooves compacts the soil which suffocates plant roots. In addition, when the soils are wet horse hooves act like plungers by loosening fine particles of topsoil that are washed away by the rain.

• Keep horses from becoming overweight. Most horses can’t tolerate 24/7 grazing. Talk with your veterinarian, but a body score of 4 to 6 is healthiest. If you can’t feel or see your horse’s ribs then time-out in a sacrifice area (and perhaps more exercise) is in order.

• Confine manure and urine to an area where you can more easily manage it. Surround this area by a grassy buffer such as lawn or pasture to act as a filter for contaminated runoff. Using a footing in this area such as coarse washed sand or crushed rock will help cut down on mud problems in the winter months and will make it easier for you to care for.

Next up: considerations for designing your sacrifice area.

Alayne

Alternatives to Buying New Farm Equipment

Alayne — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:19:00 GMT

The list of equipment needed to manage a horse property is long, and sometimes overwhelming, especially for those just starting out. Not only is new equipment expensive, it is time-consuming to maintain and do upkeep on it plus you need room to store it. Here are some alternatives to buying new equipment and ways to save money, and time, in the process.

For some tools you may decide that for the few times a year you use it, it might make more sense to find a cheaper way to acquire it. Your first option is to buy used. Check out the ag and farming side of life in your neck of the woods—ask around with larger farming operations or keep an eye on Craigslist or the regional ag related newspaper. Equipment classified sections in these kinds of publications are always interesting. Get into the habit of periodically scanning these sources with your equipment shopping list in mind. Check for equipment auctions held at local livestock auction yards. Ask your horse friends or local farmers for the names and location of these places. Also, talk with horse friends and neighbors about the equipment you want -- they may know of a friend-of-a-friend who is getting out of horses or is moving and has farm implements to sell. Keep an eye on the newspaper for listings on estate sales or farm sales.

Farm equipment is often a major investment for a small-property owner.

Renting equipment is another option which can save you the headache of maintenance and storage. Many equipment rental facilities have all sorts of farm implements for rent -- or if they don’t they may be interested in acquiring what you’re interested in, especially if you can make a case for them on usefulness.

Borrowing from friends, neighbors or family is another option. If you don’t like the something for nothing idea, consider a trade or barter approach. Trade something you have in exchange for something you need. For example, trade some of your firewood for the use of a pasture harrow. If you have extra pasture, trade grazing privileges with a neighbor short on pasture for use of their posthole digger and fencing equipment. Or trade a day of your labor for use of the neighbor’s riding mower.

Another option is cooperative purchases. This could be between horsey neighbors or perhaps within a horse club or organization. Issues like maintenance, storage and liability should be worked out and agreed upon beforehand. Examples of cooperative purchases could be a manure spreader or fencing equipment.

If you have a horse club or farming organization you work with perhaps there is an equipment company that would like to make an equipment donation? Or perhaps your club would purchase a piece of equipment then loan it out to members?

Consider building your own. Some implements can be made simply, such as a harrow which can be made from chain link fencing or old bed spring.

Don’t forget the old-fashioned work party idea. Invite your horsey buddies over for a fence-building or pasture renovation project. You supply the food perhaps and they supply different pieces of equipment and labor.

When all else fails, consider hiring. When you consider how much it costs to purchase, maintain and store equipment it might turn out to be cost effective just to hire out. A farmer or other experienced person who has the equipment and expertise to do the work can do so quickly and efficiently. Examples include building fences, mowing pastures and spreading compost. Check with neighbors and horse friends for recommendations and look for ads in your local papers.

Remember, the more useful and easy-to-use your equipment is the more likely you are to accomplish your chores and projects. To expedite the process further plan to keep tools and equipment stored in an area central to your farm and projects.

Spring Pasture Management Tips

Alayne — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:32:00 GMT

It’s that time of year when the grass gets greener and grows fast! But is it time to let your horses begin grazing on the pastures you’ve carefully fenced off all winter? Putting horses out too soon can reduce the productivity of your pastures this coming summer and letting your horses graze too much can be dangerous to horse health. Here are some considerations to keep in mind before you open up the gates to the pasture.

By dividing a pasture area into smaller fields and rotating horses through them, you can encourage horses to graze more evenly, keep pasture grasses from becoming overgrazed, and guarantee fresh grass for a longer period of time during the growing season.

Don’t let your horses have too much grass too quickly! Once horses begin grazing again limit turn-out time—too much grass can cause very serious digestive issues in the spring when a horse’s gut is not used to the change in diet. Start with about an hour at a time, and work up to several hours over a period of several weeks. For any questions on how much grazing time is safe for your horse, consult your veterinarian for their recommendations.
For healthy grass plants, keep horses off of pastures until soils are no longer soggy. One of the most important aspects of pasture management is the time you keep horses off the pasture. Saturated soils and dormant plants cannot survive continuous grazing and trampling. When soils are still wet they are easily compacted, suffocating the roots of grass plants. A simple test for sogginess is to walk out in your fields and see if you leave a footprint—if you do, you know it’s too wet and that the weight of a horse will be sure to compact the soil.
Do a Soil Test. Fertilizer is almost always overused and may not be needed at all—just because it’s spring doesn’t mean it’s time to fertilize. If you apply fertilizer and your pasture grass doesn’t need it, you’ve just wasted your time and money plus the excess fertilizer will most likely be washed into nearby streams and lakes. Besides being damaging to the environment, the cost of purchasing fertilizer year after year can really add up and the time you spend spreading it could be better spent on other activities around your horse farm. The best way to find out if your pastures actually need to be fertilized is to do a soil test. By finding out what your soil needs you will be able choose a fertilizer with the right amount of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Many fertilizers are high in nitrogen and that may not be what your grass plants need. Nitrogen promotes plant growth but in the spring most plants are going to grow vigorously on their own. Soil testing is relatively inexpensive and you can get a list of soil testing labs from your local Conservation District or Extension office, as well as advice on the best way to take a soil sample. If you do find that you need to fertilize, fertilizing in mid-spring and/or late fall should be plenty.
Apply a Green Band-Aid. Another thing you can do to encourage a thick, healthy stand of grass is to spread grass seed in areas that have bare spots or where grass isn’t growing as thick as you’d like. Remember: bare spots provide a haven for weeds in summer and mud in the winter! For most parts of North America a mix of seed containing Orchard grass, Perennial Rye grass, Timothy and Tall Fescue work best.
Keep pastures healthy by rotating grazing areas. By dividing a pasture area into smaller fields and rotating horses through them, you can encourage horses to graze more evenly, keep pasture grasses from becoming overgrazed and guarantee fresh grass for a longer period of time during the growing season. Remember the golden rule of grazing: never allow grass to be grazed shorter than three inches. This ensures that the grass will have enough reserves left after grazing to permit rapid regrowth. Consider the bottom three inches of the grass plant is an energy collector that needs to be left for the plant. Once horses have grazed the majority of the grass in a pasture down to three or four inches, rotate them on to the next pasture. You can put horses back on pastures when the grass has re-grown to about six to eight inches.
Types of fencing for rotational grazing. When using a rotational grazing system, you can separate grazing paddocks with permanent or temporary (usually electric) fencing. It’s generally easiest to establish as many permanent grazing paddocks as you think you’ll need—you can always hook up temporary electric wire or tape if you need to subdivide further. However, if you want to keep fencing costs down you can also move temporary fencing with the horses as you switch them from one grazing area to another. As a first step towards a rotational grazing system, you may want to first try dividing an existing large pasture in half and alternate grazing between the two halves. After gaining some experience with rotational grazing try further subdividing. Portable electric fencing is lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to move for pasture rotation. High tensile electric fence or New Zealand style fencing is also inexpensive and requires little maintenance.
Are some sections of your pasture still soggy while others are already dry? Try fencing pastures according to how wet they are. That way, in the spring you can let horses onto the higher, dry areas first. Save the wet areas until later in the spring or summer when they dry out.
Final details. Make sure that pasture areas are large enough for horses to run and that gates are placed so that horses can easily be led from stall to pasture and back. Remember to have a water source for each grazing area. You can have separate water sources for each grazing area or a single water source that is accessible from more than one area. Also try to divide pastures in such a way that horses can have access to shade or shelter especially if later in the summer they will be in these areas for more than a few hours.

Happy grazing!

Alayne

We Be Jam’n on Horse Stall Door Jams

Alayne — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:00:00 GMT

A board placed at ground level at the entrance of the stall, between the inside stall and outside paddock, reduces dirt from getting tracked in and helps keep stalls a little cleaner.

Horse life at home is all about chore efficiency, and sometimes the simplest solutions are best.

One small thing we did recently at Sweet Pepper Ranch, our horse motel and guest ranch in southwestern Idaho, has made our rainy season horse chores just a little bit easier. Our horses have 24/7 accesses to their outside paddocks, so we were getting a lot of dirt and sand tracked in. We installed a simple stall guard (or door threshold), which I refer to as a stall door jam. This is a board (preferably treated wood so it’ll last) placed at ground level at the entrance of the stall, between the inside and outside.

The purpose of this “door jam” is to stop or reduce dirt from getting tracked in and help keep stalls a little cleaner and easier to care for. If you use bedding it’ll help hold that bedding in and not allow as much to get tracked out.

Steps to install your stall door jam:

To begin construction, rake footing away from in front of the stall door in order to clear a good working area.

1. Rake away footing from in front of the stall door in order to clear a good working area.
2. Take one or two pieces of 2 x 4 or 4 x 4 treated wood, which is longer than the door width.
3. Measure the size of your space where you want the board (keep in mind the old adage “measure twice – cut once!”)
4. Cut the board to fit snugly into the space.
5. Secure the board into the door frame with either screws or by toe-nailing it in.

Good luck and happy jam’n!

Alayne

Pasture Equipment Basics for Horse Properties

Alayne — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:18:00 GMT

In my last post we covered some of the more basic of manure management equipment. This week I’ll cover pasture equipment. Down the road I’ve got some good tips for alternatives to buying new equipment. So if you’re a newbie horse keeper/pasture manager, here’s your starter’s guide.

Pasture Equipment

Harrows are used for spreading manure piles in pastures. A spring-tooth harrow can be purchased from a farm and tractor supply store. For some extra weight add on a couple of old tires.

Below are some pieces of equipment that will help you manage your pastures. Keep in mind that the equipment you need will vary according to the size of your place and number of horses.

Harrows are used for spreading manure piles in pastures. Spreading helps break up manure so plants can utilize the nutrients. If you have an arena, harrows can also be used to smooth arena surfaces. A wide variety of harrows can be purchased from farm and tractor supply stores. A basic harrow can even be made fairly simply with a piece of chain-link fence fastened between two boards. You can get creative by using an old metal bedspring or metal gate. For any of these homemade options you may need some extra weight--a couple old tires tied down will work quite well.

A homemade harrow can even be made with a piece of chain-link fence fastened to a board with a chain attached.
A harrow can be pulled with a tractor, a riding lawn mower, an ATV, or any type of four-wheel drive vehicles such as a small pick-up truck or SUV. (A large pick-up might work fine except that it’s very heavy and can compact the soil. Plus it might be hard to negotiate around tight corners.) If you only have a few acres you may even be able to harrow by hand; head out into your pastures with a manure fork and spread manure as evenly as possibly simply by tossing it around.
Mowing several times a year is an important part of good pasture management and will promote the growth of the grass you want and rids pastures of the weeds you don’t want. If you only have a couple acres of pasture (about two acres or less) you may be able to get by with a regular lawn mower on foot. You’ll obviously want a mulching mower since you don’t want to collect all those grass clippings. Be sure to set your mower as high as it will go.

Utilize pasture maintenance equipment, such as harrows and law tractors, by fencing pastures into several smaller portions using temporary fencing. Step-in plastic or fiberglass posts with electric tape work well for this.
If you have more than a couple of acres, a riding lawn mower (or garden tractor) can be a handy piece of equipment to have. They are much more maneuverable than a large tractor and if you get one that is 16 to 18 horsepower you can use it to pull other farm equipment, such as a harrow or a ground-driven manure spreader. Look for a sturdy riding mower with a mulching mower deck that can be adjusted to a six inches high.

To harrow, mow, or drag your grazing areas, start by fencing pastures into several smaller portions using temporary fencing (step-in plastic or fiberglass posts with electric tape work well for this). Then use your horses as lawn mowers to intensively graze the first section. Once horses have grazed the grass down to about three to four inches, move them on to the next section. Then mow and harrow the area the horses just grazed.

Alayne