Equine Pasture Management

1
Equine Pasture Management

• Options for horse owners

2
Forage Requirements of Horse Owners

• Nutrition
• Reduce feed costs
• Quality
• Lots of leaves
• Toxic plant control
• Weeds
• Johnsongrass
• Tall Fescue
• Exercise
• High traffic
• High stocking rate
• weeds
• Aesthetics
• Pleasant riding
• Neighbors (?)

3
Species Selection

• Determine
• Your production needs?
• Quantity
• Quality
• When
• What do you have?
• soils
• plants
• What do you want? (qualitative)
• What can you afford? (economic)
• Plant what fits your site
• Rule of thumb
• Select species that are found no more than 50
  miles west and 100 miles north, south and east
  (lots of exceptions)

4
Rainfall

• Precipitation
• 35-40
• West Driest
• NE wettest
• Similar Pattern
• Typically wet springs
• Dry to very dry late July through August.
• Rains in late September - November

5
Species Selection

• Annual vs. Perennial
• Cool vs. Warm season
• Bunch vs Sod (grasses)
• Growth habit
• Tall - short
• prostrate

6
Defenses to Defoliation

• Morphology
• structures
• palatability
• Grazing line
• lower apical meristem
• Nutrient Storage
• tillers
• roots
• rhizomes
• stolons

7
Establishment Considerations

• Soil Fertility
• CHOPKNS CaFe Mg B Mn CuZn MoCl
• Level varies with soil type
• Incorporation into the soil is best and done
  during seed bed preparation
• Inoculation
• Symbiotic relationship between Rhizobium bacteria
  and legumes which provides plant with nitrogen

8
Soils

• First determinate of species or variety selection
• Roots grow shoots!
• Physical
• Texture
• Clay, loam, silt, sand
• Water movement storage
• Rooting Barriers
• Chemical
• Soil Test
• pH
• P K
• Nitrate (?)

9
Soil Fertility and Fertilization

• Rules of thumb
• Soil Test, Dont Guess
• Grasses need nitrogen soon after germination and
  there after
• Avoid nitrogen with legumes
• Legumes respond to phosphorus
• Species response variation huge
• Both need K and other nutrients

10
Recommended Species

• Grasses
• Legumes

11
Primary Forage System

• Bermudagrass
• Perennial Warm Season
• Types Common (seeded), Hybrid (sprigged)
• Ryegrass
• Annual Cool Season
• High quality and production
• Multiple varieties

12
Bermudagrass/ryegrass

• Advantages
• Abuse tolerant
• Best match of quality/quantity to date
• Disadvantages
• Nitrogen Hawg
• 240 lbs.. N/ac/yr.
• Abuse tolerance leads to mismanagement
• Weed Invasions
• Reduced forage production

13
Seeded Bermudagrasstons/acre
14
Warm season grassesHigh - Moderate Defoliation
tolerance

• Bermudagrass
• Hybrid
• Coastal, T-44, T-85, Jiggs, many others
• Common
• Giant, Cheyenne, others
• Paspalums
• Bahiagrass
• Tifton-9
• Dallasgrass common
• Johnsongrass, Kleingrass
• AVOID with HORSES!!!
• health other issues
• lower defoliation tolerance

15
Bunch Type GrassesLimited defoliation tolerance

• Slick seed
• dormancy period
• Switchgrass (Alamo/Caddo)
• Eastern Gamagrass (Pete)
• Fluffy seed
• hard to plant
• Indiangrass
• Bluestems
• Little Big
• Old World
• WW-Bdahl
• other bunchgrasses being developed

16
Cool Season Grasses

• Annuals
• Ryegrass backbone,
• spring growth
• Small Grains winter yield
• Rye cold tolerance, high yield
• Wheat low yield, cheap seed
• Oats cold tol. High palatability
• Triticale low palatability, yield
• Perennial
• Tall Fescue
• AVOID WITH SPRINGING MARES!!!
• endophyte
• GA-5
• Jose Wheatgrass
• Cold disease tolerance ?

17
Cloversacidic soils
18
Cloversalkaline soils
19
Other Factors Limiting Forage Quality and
Production

• Grazing management
• Stocking Rate
• Stocking method
• Plant maturity
• Weed Control
• Competition with crop
• Light
• Water
• Other nutrients
• Soils
• Water Storage
• Fertility

20
Stocking Rate

• Gain per animal
• Individual
• Decreases with SR
• Pizza model
• Gain per acre
• Unit area
• Increases, then decreases with SR
• Proper SR is between 1 2
• 2-6 ac/au

21
Rotational Stocking

• Does
• Enhance Flexibility
• Growth allowance
• Stock placement
• Stock sorting separation
• Forage manipulation
• Hay harvest
• Planting
• replanting
• winter pasture
• Enhance forage management
• Does not
• Control weeds
• Control parasites
• Replace common sense
• you have to manage your grass

22
Why control weeds?
23
Weed Identification

• Plant type
• Web veins
• Broadleaf
• Parallel veins
• Grass
• Fiberous roots
• Grasslike
• Showy flower
• Bulbous root
• Life Cycle
• annual
• biennial
• perennial

24
Weed Invasion Requirements

• Stratification
• cool period after seed fall
• plant specific
• Moisture
• seed swell
• Sunlight
• Open sod

25
Plant Establishmentand Persistence

• Seed germination requirements
• Stratification
• Moisture
• seed/soil contact
• Infrared light
• Nutrient Reserve is key to persistence
• The older the plant is and the more storage
  (reproductive) organs the plant has the greater
  the nutrient reserve and the harder it is to
  control.

26
Battle Plan

• Annuals
• annual seed production required
• kill flower, prevent seed formation
• Early (pre-emergent) control is best
• Perennials
• Kill root, kills plant
• Nutrient Reserve Depletion required
• Control timing critical and weed specific

27
Weed Control Methods

• Mechanical
• mowing
• cultivation
• Biological
• mulch
• grazing
• Crop Rotation
• Fire
• Crop Competition
• Chemical

28
Basic Principles of Chemical Weed Control

• Know your crop
• Identify your weeds
• Choose the right herbicide
• Calibrate your sprayer
• Spray at the proper time

29
Labeled Herbicidesfor bermudagrass pastures

• Broadleaf
• 2,4-D annual
• Banvel
• Weedmaster
• Picloram
• Grazon PD
• Sulfanyl Urea
• Ally, Amber
• specific weed tolerance and susceptibility
• Rave Amber Banvel

• Grasses
• Roundup
• Gramoxone
• Amber
• some annual grass
• Ally
• bahiagrass
• Velpar
• smutgrass

30
Liebergs Law of Limits

• Crop yield
• barrel water
• Yield limitations
• shortest stave
• 2000 water
• fertilize to match water limitations
• over fertilize lost
• under fertilize lost yield
• proper fertilizer matches water limitation

31
Water Storage

• Soil
• Seasonal storage
• Texture
• loamy best
• Infiltration
• Ground cover
• Water travel zones
• Rooting Zone
• Traffic pan
• Subsoil acidity
• Fertility stratification

32
Traffic Pans

• Compression of fine soil particles into the pore
  space between large particles.
• Limits water infiltration and root growth
• Occurs on wet soils
• Equipment movement
• Livestock Treading

33
Equipment Pans

• Location
• varies
• change in soil texture
• not all soils are susceptible
• Thickness
• usually thin
• Time
• short term
• thin pans
• long term
• Structure destruction

34
Treading

• Location
• usually in upper 4
• change in soil texture
• most visible in clay soils
• all soils susceptible
• Site exposure to animals
• short term
• Thin pans
• long term
• Rough field
• Structure destruction
• Long Term Solution
• protect susceptible sites
• manage for dense sods

35
Soil Pans

• Point in Time event
• Combination
• soil
• water
• traffic
• Problem Determination
• metal wire
• shovel
• Treatments
• varied

36
Treatments

• Prevention
• protect susceptible sites
• competitive sward
• Soil Regeneration
• soil type
• rooting activity
• fauna activity
• mid to long term solution
• Mechanical
• depth determinant
• short term solution

37
Mechanical

• Break the traffic pan
• Reforms under moist conditions and traffic
• Shattering vs. slicing
• Dry soil shatters
• Slice through wet soil
• Root damage
• Timing is critical
• Proper moisture
• Late Winter/early spring

38
Depth Treatments

• Dormant sod
• Dec.- early March
• Shallow
• 0-3
• Disk Harrow
• Moderate
• 3-6
• Spike type aerator
• Deep
• gt6
• Chisel

39
Deep chiseling

• Horsepower hog
• 35-50 hp/shank
• Drier soils get better breakage but require
  greater horsepower
• Options
• bigger tractor
• smaller chisel
• Cost
• Paratill 8000
• used single shank??

40
Subsoil Acidity/Fertility Stratification

• Root growth limited by soil chemistry
• Acidity
• hostile pH (lt5.5)
• plant specific
• nutrient uptake efficiency
• solution
• soluble Ca source
• Stratification
• subsoil mining
• limited nutrient movement
• solution
• soluble nutrients
• soil mixing

41
Coastal yield, CP and water use as affected by
Nitrogen Rate
42
Nutrient removed (lbs./ac) by grazing and hay.
43
Influence of Nitrogen and Potassium on Coastal
Bermudagrass Survival
44
Summary

• Base Program
• Bermuda/ryegrass
• Legumes
• Quality
• Nitrogen
• Management
• Other options
• site dependent
• limited information

• Producer Options
• know what you got
• know what you want
• know what you need
• know when you need it
• know what you can afford
• Make your plans

45
Summary

• When it comes to forage management, the only
  thing set in stone is your Epitaph.
• Stay Flexible!!!