Maintaining Healthy Horse Pastures

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Maintaining Healthy Horse Pastures

• Chris Teutsch
• Southern Piedmont AREC
• Blackstone, VA

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Introduction

• Horses co-evolved with grasslands
• natural grazing animal
• able to digest plant fiber
• extract energy from low quality feed source
• Modern Pastures
• high quality feed source
• inexpensive feed source
• hay can cost 4 to 6 times
• safe exercise area

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Introduction

• Little agronomic training
• Poor pasture management
• loss of groundcover
• loss of desirable species
• increase in weed species
• limited value as a feed
• unsafe exercise area
• environmental problem

Overstocked Pasture
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Erosion Damage

• Ag Stewardship Act
• 18 equine in 2005
• Soil loss
• Nutrients offsite
• Manure is washed into waterways
• Erosion is prevented by maintaining groundcover

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Pasture Management Topics

• Plant Growth
• relation to management
• Pasture Species
• species selection
• Controlling Grazing
• layout of paddocks
• pasture size
• rotational grazing basics

Strong relationship between horse and owner
impacts decision making
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Forage Plant Growth
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Defoliation Event

• What is needed for regrowth?
• ENERGY
• Where does this energy come from?
• leaf area remaining
• stored carbohydrates

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Location of Carbohydrate Reserves
Species Primary Storage Organ Storage Form
Alfalfa, Red Clover, Birdsfoot Trefoil, Sweetclover tap root starch
White Clover stolons, tap root starch
Tall Fescue, Timothy, Orchardgrass, Ryegrass, Small Grain stem base fructosans
Kentucky Bluegrass stem base, rhizome fructosans
Bermudagrass stolons, rhizomes starch
Millets, Sorghums, Sudangrass stem base starch
Switchgrass, Gammagrass stem base, short rhizome starch
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Alfalfa

• 100 dependent on stored CHOs
• Decrease until 6-8
• Return to precut level by early bloom
• Allow 30-35 d rest
• Cut at 2 inches
• All forages have similar cycle

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Grass Regrowth
Collar is present no more growth
Do we graze this leaf off?
STOP!
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Morphology and Physiology in Relation to Grazing
Management
High Leaf Area High CHOs Higher Yields
Faster Recovery
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Forage Species for Horse Pastures
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Forages in Virginia

• Transition Zone
• not in north and south
• cool-season species-grow in spring fall
• warm-season species-grow in summer
• no single forage well adapted over entire grazing
  season
• Problem or opportunity?
• many species seasonally adapted

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Growth Curves for Common Forages
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Forage Species for Virginia

• Characteristics of forages species
• regionally adapted
• adapted to your soils
• high yielding
• high nutritive value
• drought and heat tolerant
• tolerant of close and frequent grazing
• persistent
• What are the options?

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Kentucky Bluegrass

• Cool-season perennial
• Best adapted west of Blueridge Mountains
• Forms dense sod
• Tolerates close and frequent grazing
• Lower yielding
• Does not tolerate heat and drought

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Orchardgrass

• High nutritive value
• Palatable
• Hay or Pasture
• Bunchgrass-forms open sod
• Does not tolerate close and frequent defoliation
• Limited summer growth
• Limited persistence
• Insect problems

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Tall Fescue

• Most important grass species in transition zone
• Tolerates close and frequent grazing
• Drought and heat tolerant
• Easy to establish
• Tough sod

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Tall Fescue Toxicosis

• Infected with an endophyte
• drought and grazing tolerance
• production of toxins
• Toxic effects on broodmares
• abortions, prolonged gestation, birthing
  problems, retained placentas, agalactia
• Management
• remove mares 60-90 days before foaling
• replace infected stands
• new technologies

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Novel or Friendly Endophyte

• Gives persistence and stress tolerance
• No production of toxins
• Initial research showed no reproductive problems
• Field must be fescue free before seeding
• Must be properly managed
• No long-term persistence data in horse pastures

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Bermudagrass
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Seeded Bermudagrass

• Bermudagrass is adapted to Virginia
• Relatively little planted
• Sprigs and sprigging
• do not have equipment and sprig sources
• Seeded bermudagrass
• establish like any small seeded forage
• Cultivar
• single pure variety
• Blend
• mixture of several varieties, AZ common, giant
• same trade name, but different mixture

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2002 DM Yield 1st Production Yr
Variety Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Total
---------------------lb DM/A------------------------ ---------------------lb DM/A------------------------ ---------------------lb DM/A------------------------ ---------------------lb DM/A------------------------ ---------------------lb DM/A------------------------ ---------------------lb DM/A------------------------
Pasto Rico 6213 4404 3771 2958 2227 19572
Cheyenne 5827 3795 3974 3266 2283 19144
KF-194 4449 2647 3726 2565 2074 15461
Cd90160 3277 3420 3729 2498 2394 15318
SunGrazer 4408 2061 3640 2455 2427 14991
Mohawk 3626 2757 3756 2569 2045 14752
Wrangler 4203 2112 3411 1996 1922 13643
LSD (0.05) 1880 740 ns 320 361 2098
Rainfall was more than 8 inches below normal
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Persistence Cold Tolerance
Million dollar question!!!
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Spring Green Up-5/9/2003
SunGrazer
Cheyenne
Pasto Rico
Wrangler
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Selecting a Variety

• Yield is important
• Cold tolerance is more important
• Do not use varieties that include Giant and/or
  Arizona Common
• Disease resistance??????

Extreme cold will kill all varieties!!!
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Red Clover

• Most important pasture legume
• Short-lived perennial
• Good drought tolerance
• Excellent seedling vigor
• Easily established
• frost seeding
• Red Clover Slobbers

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White Clover

• Important in pastures
• Three types
• small, medium, large
• Ladino or large type produces 3-5X
• Stolons
• well adapted to grazing
• Poor drought tolerance
• persists via reseeding
• Very high in quality

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Getting in Control
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Pasture Fertility

• Soil Test
• sample depth should be 2-4
• adjust pH to 6.2-6.5
• adjust P and K to high level
• maintain nutrient level
• Nitrogen Management
• cool-season grasses
• 40-60 lb/A in spring
• 40-60 lb/A in late summer or early fall
• Animals recycle 90-95 of nutrients
• redistribution of nutrients
• drag pastures to distribute dung
• soil test and adjust P and K every 2-3 years

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Controlling Grazing

• Residual Leaf Area
• rotate horses when shortest grass is at proper
  stubble height
• leave plenty of leaf area
• Carbohydrate Reserves
• rest period allows for replenishment of
  carbohydrates after regrowth
• Maintain Botanical Composition
• 30 legumes no N needed

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Pasture Layout

• One large pasture or several smaller pastures?
• One large pasture
• continuous grazing weakens sod
• selective grazing
• redistribution of nutrients
• Several smaller paddocks
• rotational grazing strengthens sod
• reduces selective
• better distribution of manure

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Paddock Number and Size

• One horse requires 2-3 acres
• REQUIREMENT-NOT AN OPTION
• Paddock Number
• 4 to 6 paddocks
• Paddock Size
• depend on horse number and rotation interval
• rotation interval should be lt 5 days
• Designate a Sacrifice Paddock
• well drained
• low erosion potential
• surrounded by a grass buffer

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Paddock Layout
-close to square -avoid irregular shapes
-access to shade
Barn
House
-fresh water source
-uniform soil, forage, slope, aspect, production
potential
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The Real World

• Not everyone has 2-3 acres per horse
• We cant control the weather
• We can control grazing!!!!!!!!
• What do you do?
• subdivide and rotate
• do not graze pastures that have not regrown
• Use a sacrifice paddock
• feed horses hay in when grass is not growing
• exercise during wet conditions
• accept that you can not maintain grass

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Example Paddock Layout
Warm-Season Grass
Warm-Season Grass
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Questions?