Planting, fertilizing new pasture

[mydaddysjag]

I've never been one to have any pasture for my minis, everything was disked into drylots when we built the barn and pastures, as I was showing all of my horses, and terribly worried about founder and hay bellies. This summer grass started coming up in the drylots, and other that spraying with some sort of spray, nothing was killing it (despite the neighbors hay field 100 feet away thats burnt to a crisp and hasnt grown since he took first cutting). Actually, my pastures are about the only place growing grass at all, even our yard isnt growing, its only been mowed once in the last month.

Its going to be a bad year for hay in my area, I never buy first cut because its extremely coarse and weedy here, almost as coarse as straw. I found out a few weeks ago that second cut might not happen, and despite searching, I honestly can't find anything but low quality first cut. I know some might not agree with this, but none of my horses are sensitive to grass, so we started feeding grain in the am, and turning out on pasture, its just normal field grass that grows, not planted, fertilized etc. I do still feed hay with their evening grain when they come in and stay in overnight. Now, they arent show fit, but they are at good weight, shiny coats, etc. so I think it will be fine. I know Ill have to start feeding hay twice a day in fall again, but for now they are doing ok, and its saving me 3 bales of hay a week that I can put back for winter since there is a shortage. I figure in winter I can supplement with soaked hay cubes if I cant find any second cut hay at all.

It got me thinking, I would like to do the same next season as well, keep my small drylot as a drylot, but let the big one as a pasture. Since they would be on pasture and I would be using it as a substancial food source, I would like to try to get rid of some of the weeds, fertilize, and plant something like orchardgrass/alfalfa, etc so it has decent nutrients and protein. Im trying to look up what kinds of grasses and legumes grow better in different climates and soil conditions etc, but its all so confusing and leaves my head spinning, and our county extension office doesnt have any insight. I was wondering if anyone here had a real managed pasture that had weed control, fertilized, planted, etc. If Im going to do it, I want to do it right the first time. From what Ive read, I really should be spraying for weeds in the fall, fertilizing not long after, then planting in early spring, but im not sure because PA has late and long winters.

Any insight would be helpful, even good places to get pasture seed mix, and how much you need per acre or square foot

 

[dutchhollow]

I think if you call your county extenstion office, they will let you know what to and how to plant. I don't think you want to graze on alfalfa, but not sure on that. We us 24d, kills broadlfeaf weeds, but not grasses, for weed control.

 

[mydaddysjag]

I contacted our extension office but was told they dont do anything like that anymore. Im looking for somewhere to do soil testing so I know what and how much fertilizer to use, adn what to plant when

 

[countrymini]

this is a littl bi off topic but just a question about your dry lots. Since horses are grazing animals apart from hay in the morning lunch and dinner do they have a hay net which they can go back and graze on or what do they do for the hours inbetween if they're just on dirt?

 

[dutchhollow]

Wow, what do they do then???

Try you local farmers co op, they sell to all the farmers and can probably give you some good advice.

 

[Bess Kelly]

Try OutsidePride.com...........a seed company with a lot of info & contacts. May help clear your jumble a little about what kind.

Try Agricultural depts of local/regional colleges/universities. Sometimes local equine vets have literature for you.

Often fertilizer depends of not only soil sample but, type of grass, when to do, etc.

I use " 2, 4D" for weeds.....generally in Spring, soon as they begin to grow. Again, if new field and you need to disc at all, timing can be an issue. While this "2, 4D" doesn't "kill grass" it can if the grass is too new & tender.

Pasture is good but, a lot of work also. Just know that if it is TOO rich, you will need to limit time out there. This is a case where often more is not better -- in the sense of extreme quality. This is why many of use look to wild grasses, the bermudas, timothy, etc, as they can be left little to not fertilized and thus not produce so much sugars. Then, use forage balancers for topping out the horses basic needs.

 

[AnnaC]

Like Bess says, grass for horses needs to be what I call 'low key' - a mix of what would naturally grow in your area, plus various herbs etc. Farmers require a different sort of grass - milk production, fattening etc, so you might not get the correct answers for horse grass from farming advisors! In my opinion you should avoid fertilizers for horse grazed paddocks.

So a basic mix of grass so that your minis can spend plenty of time happily grazing, plus a balancer if needed to provide essential 'top up'.

 

[mydaddysjag]

I'll try to respond to everyone, hope I dont forget anything.

When showing, I kept everyone drylotted, I have one smaller lot connected to my barn its tiny and will always be a dry lot, its 24x66 and honestly, I use it as a catch pen or for new horses who arent introduced to the herd yet, or in winter if ice is bad and snow is too deep, I hand shovel the snow out and put salt on the ice to melt it for a safe area outside of the stalls. I have a shed row barn, all of my stalls can open into this small pen.

My "bigger" turnout is 160x66 and I keep three horses in it, a 34" 11 year old gelding, a 36" 5 year old gelding, and a 36" yearling stallion. This is the area Id like to seed. Right now they dont have it eaten down to the nubbs, so I think with proper management, I would be able to keep enough grass in it to replace their morning hay spring-fall. They are normally on this lot the majority of the day, and locked in stalls in the evening for dinner, until after breakfast. The yearling and the 11 year old are hard keepers, the five year old is average. Normally they get second or third cut timothy/alfalfa mix hay twice daily, along with grain for each, even when not working and being conditioned, they need it to maintain weight. Ive tried ration balancers in the past, and none have worked for me. About 50% of the "big" lot is grass, about 5" long, and since everyone was doing ok on it and I wasnt showing, I didnt bother to disk it back into a dry lot. As a drylot, I would get small patches of grass here and there, but not enough to worry about. When turned out my horses would pick at the small amount of grass popping up, run around with the colt, or play with their big horse ball. Its like a yoga ball, but made for horses. I also have busy snacker hay nets, I would put 1/3-1/2 a flake in each and hang a few out around mid day for them. My horses gradually got used to the grass, as it came up slowly from a drylot and we did limit time out, checked feet, and monitored their weight closely. Until two years ago, about 50% of my pasture area was a vegetable garden, and had been for atleast 20 years, and was never fertilized, only ever had some compost mixed over it in the spring (leaves, vegetable peels, etc). The area where the garden was all those years is actually the area now that the grass is very sparse to non existant. I assume that the grass isnt growing there because all those years of the vegetable garden leached the nutrients out of the soil. I know that you shouldnt plant a garden in the same spot every year without using fertilizer, but that was prior to me owning it, it was previously my grandparents property.

Im not worried about having to lock them up part of the day if it becomes too rich, since its a smaller area, and I could stall them a bit more and keep them on dry lots. I may even make one more dry lot in the fall, thats still up in the air, and it would just be a small run too, big enough for 1 or 2 horses to hang out.