Just Browsing - fall 2006

By David Jessee

What can you do in the fall months to preserve and utilize pasture? Even under cool soil temperatures, cool season grasses can produce shoots and new sprouts from the mother plants. Undergrazing can be a problem since horses prefer lush new growth to stemmy, older plants. They also avoid their own manure. Spot grazing occurs even when there is plenty of forage, so you get tall stems and weeds alongside low, lush grass growth. Overgrazed spots are where the weeds encroach after the grass is stressed and where summer weeds die out to leave mud when it rains.

The objective is to force your animal to browse more uniformly. How is this accomplished?

• Use fencing to reduce paddock size to force more even grazing. Other areas can be temporarily fenced and stockpiled (fall fertilizer helps here) for winter grazing and reduced compaction. If possible, include cattle, goats or other species to increase grazing pressure. Other species will also tend to graze another animal’s manure spots.

• For large areas, clip tall stems with a mower, then drag the manure. This encourages new growth to attract grazing. Now the horses will not graze around manure spots and old growth. A bonus is that manure now becomes fertilizer, uniformly distributed.

• Weeds are unsightly and unproductive. In addition, this year’s seeds become next year’s weeds. By controlling paddock size, clipping and then spreading manure, some weeds will be eaten or tromped down. A fall “weed and feed” fertilizer and weed control application will enhance your grass and suppress broadleaf weeds.

Any or all of these steps will allow more productive use of your land and provide you a more visually pleasing and healthy exercise area for your horse. Your Southern States Representative can help you with all your pasture care needs.

David Jessee is an Agronomist for Southern States.