Ideas to manage summer grazing

clare123

clare123

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2004
1,239
30
48
at the yard
Visit site
Galaxy is moving to his summer paddock on Saturday.

It is about am acre and needs to last just the one horse until about October.

We are allowed to split it with electric fence if we want to.

Horses can live out on the summer paddocks, or carry on coming in at night. Galaxy will do either but I would prefer him to be more out than in for the summer.

I am on part livery, YO can still bring in for me etc.

How would you manage the grazing?

:confused:
 
I have about an acre and a half of summer grazing and i need it to last 2 horses from May until end of October/beginning of November. I`m splitting it into 4 equal sized paddocks and grazing it that way on a rotational basis. My 2 will live out all summer apart from in any heavy rain we may have.
 
Perhaps a track around the whole paddock, you can then move the fence in and out of the centre to allow more grass and give it a chance to recover.
Often allows horse easy access to any available shade.

You need quite a few posts for this though.
 
My summer side is probably just under 1.5 acres. I run a track round 3 sides and adjust the grazing as needed as my 2 are fatties and natives. The hardest time to manage my grazing is sep/ Oct when the ground is wet but the grass is growing like crazy. I like to keep them as restricted as possible to keep the weight off but it's a balancing act with the ground as we are on clay.

Our latest livery has 2 natives and did the 4 paddock rotation system. I mentioned to be careful as the grass is rich ex cattle grazing. After a summer of that hers are knocking on for a 5 on the condition scale and didn't lose it over winter. Nightmare.
 
Galaxy is not a fatty really, gets a grass belly and puts on a bit in summer, I would call him am average doer! Welsh x TB.

Just conscious not to ruin the grass by overgrazing, but want him to live out, and don't want to run out of grass completely as we are not allowed to hay fields.

Grass we are going onto was cut for hay last summer but not been grazed since summer before so been rested a year.

It's hard isn't it? :eek:
 
However remember being out is not only about grazing. It is important the horse can also move around and play..could you get together with someone else and amalgamate fields so they can socialise.

With only 1 acre I would rather have the horse in daytime in summer and out on all of it at night. However I would not be choosing a livery that expected my horse to live on the same acre all summer,that is just bad land management or greed.

I keep horse in small herds, one is four retired horses out 24/7 on 6 acres, one three horses/five ponies on 9 acres, in for supplementary feeding when working, four working horses share 4 acres, two out in the day, two out at night, we also have two 2 acre paddocks for visitors/short term use. All the horses do a lot of moving, from gallops to wanders, I cannot see how they could enjoy a tiny paddock to split 1 acre.
 
Good point on the moving around eml. He does like a blast up the field.

Livery will allow horses to share, by mutual agreement, however Galaxys owner is not keen in case of injury (bad past experience). I have him on loan/share where I am mainly in charge of things but this is not negotiable and I understand that.

Erring towards two paddocks again...
 
Exactly. That's why I like the track system. My 2 get a cracking race round. You can adapt the same principles for a rotational grazing system if you can't change what your summer paddock area is each year as I can in my 4 acres. I'm not a postage stamp paddock fan.
 
JC I need an idiots guide to the track system, I can't invisage it...how do you let more grass out? Like a widening race track? How wide should it start off?

Yard uses some paddocks for winter some for summer so they all get a rest for 6 months a year, bonus this year that my new paddock has been rested a whole year.
 
Depends very much on your land. My track varies even when in different places in the same field as my grazing varies. My 2 are good together and don't fight so a track works as they can happily pass each other.

I can give extra grass by moving posts in. I can also do a strip grazing type affair by gradually extending down a forth leg of the outside track and resting the equivalent at the start. If it rains I know I'll get a flush of fresh grass and restrict again appropriately.

I guess it's all down to feel for your land and I like to count poos every day too to signpost when I need to adjust the grazing which I literally consider on a daily basis. You might want to search my previous posts for my sad habits on that one!

My little older companion pony needs more than Joy does so when I take her out to ride I can either move some posts to allow extra grazing which should be mostly gone by the time she goes back or he can go on the middle long bit. He looks forward to his time without her!
 
Joyscarer said:
Exactly. That's why I like the track system. My 2 get a cracking race round. You can adapt the same principles for a rotational grazing system if you can't change what your summer paddock area is each year as I can in my 4 acres. I'm not a postage stamp paddock fan.
Click to expand...

Agree with JC. Although it will mean an initial investment in posts and tape, it is a good way to keep your horses moving around instead of being restricted to small areas and helps to eke out the grazing through the season.
 
Mine is roughly the same size.
I split it about 20 foot from the top fence so they have a big drive way all along the top of the field then strip it into paddocks but I move the fence daily to give them a bit of grass and then when one strip has been worked down I shut it and move to the next. the beauty of this is its nice long grass and not been grazed down and regrown and by the time I get to the end (I supplement hay too as have natives and one lammi prone) its time to move to the winter field.
I'll be moving them in the next few weeks once I get round to the fencing.
 
clashnoir said:
Mine is roughly the same size.
I split it about 20 foot from the top fence so they have a big drive way all along the top of the field then strip it into paddocks but I move the fence daily to give them a bit of grass and then when one strip has been worked down I shut it and move to the next. the beauty of this is its nice long grass and not been grazed down and regrown and by the time I get to the end (I supplement hay too as have natives and one lammi prone) its time to move to the winter field.
I'll be moving them in the next few weeks once I get round to the fencing.
Click to expand...

We work very similar to this, 3 natives (2 lami prone) - finished our fencing last weekend and have 2 working small paddocks now and one will go in as soon as they move down one.
 
At the moment i have 3 ponies on approx 2 acres, i will be splitting my fields up shortly when Mouse returns home and i am back down to 2 ponies. I wil have 4 1/2acre paddocks that i will rotate weekly. This will help the original paddock recover over a 3 week period and still allows room for the boys to play and have a run around.
 
I think I need a diagram...really am not sure anything less than half the paddock so half an acre will be enough....I can't believe how stressful it is working it out.

I think it makes it worse that we have been told no option to move until October even if very dry again, last summer we did end up moving as so dry and grass was not growing.
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back